2026 9th KEPMA Cup — Top 100+ Semifinalists Announced

Auditions for the 2026 9th KEPMA Cup Acoustic Guitar Competition closed on August 20. Guitar enthusiasts of different ages and from different places — from 5 to 53 years old, from across China to overseas — each left their own musical mark on this summer. Following evaluation by the competition jury, 53 fingerstyle contestants and 52 singing-and-guitar contestants, 105 in total, have officially advanced to the semifinals.

Fingerstyle category — semifinalists (53 contestants, A–Z, no ranking implied)

Britskiy Artem, CHUN SANGHYEOK, GEUNHA KIM, Hong Min Kwak, Hyungjoo Lee, Jihwan Yoon, Juheon Lee, Koh Takaizumi, SEUNGO LEE, SIWOO LEE, Shinyoung Lee, 顾浩严, 郭祺龙, 韩正泽, 黄镭, 黄源灏, 吉明琰, 焦韵鑫, 柯子林, 李昊, 李康亮, 李嘉卓, 李星墨, 李泽童, 林怀科, 林建, 凌渝钦, 廖鹏宇, 刘智杰, 刘犀灵, 刘润忻, 石敬轩, 申屠正阳, 汤悦阳, 唐诺著, 谭天池, 王家齐, 王逸尘, 王喆凯, 王骏慈, 王子晨, 王志鑫, 谢天承, 易文俊, 杨利峰, 杨一辰, 杨梓轩, 杨智程, 袁楠, 运泽金, 张一豪, 郑睿, 祝浩然.

Singing & Guitar category — semifinalists (52 contestants, A–Z, no ranking implied)

SION KIM, 陈尘, 陈墨轩, 陈棨正, 褚颜菲, 董欣, 董素汎, 董世交, 付梓俊, 高雨薇, 贺骏晔, 洪东亮, 扈苏杭, 李昌军, 廖艺洋, 刘梦怡, 刘易阳, 刘一雄, 刘依朵, 刘佳, 刘禹, 马浩伟, 马腾, 闵子阳, 牛金铠, 彭馨, 尚苇杭, 邵子翀, 陶旻, 田成, 汪猛, 王博思, 王弘哲, 王铭, 王诗瑶, 韦万鹏, 翁梦乔, 吴韦敬, 徐舒萌, 徐泽霖, 许安言, 杨林, 张博喧, 张闯, 张奕龙, 张帅, 张恬心, 张意卿, 张杰, 赵子鉴, 朱家熙, 朱晴奕.

Congratulations to all 105 contestants. With the auditions behind us, a new journey has begun.

Semifinal period

The semifinals run from September 1 to October 15, 2026.

Semifinal entry requirements

Entries must be recorded with the official competition guitar, which can be obtained either by joining the competition guitar relay or by visiting a designated offline registration point. The semifinal piece must not be the same as the audition piece. Videos must be shot in landscape, present the work complete and unedited, with no pitch correction and no competition template. Entries are published on Douyin with the designated hashtags: #卡马A1-DAS, #卡马吉他 and #DOUBLE拾音器.

How to take part in the semifinals

Online contestants in China: verify your identity, join the semifinal group, complete the registration form, take part in the competition guitar relay, record your performance, then publish and submit the link.

Offline contestants in China: verify your identity, join the semifinal group, complete the registration form, go to a designated registration point, record your performance, then publish and submit the link.

Overseas contestants: check the semifinal qualification email, reply to confirm your place, and send your recording to the designated email address.

Contact the organizing committee

Semifinalists in China should add the official support account kepma20 and send the message “I am a semifinalist + name + phone number”. After identity verification the committee will invite contestants into the dedicated semifinal group, where all further competition information is published. Overseas contestants confirm their place through the committee’s email.

Special semifinal activity: A1 DAS beta guitar relay

The new KEPMA A1 DAS is the next-generation upgrade of Kepma’s all-solid A1 series and the first Kepma guitar equipped with the DAS Dynamic Action System: turn the adjustment knob to change the neck angle at any time and fine-tune the playing feel. Every semifinalist can take part in the competition guitar relay and become one of the first beta testers; posting a video or photo-and-text review on Xiaohongshu with the hashtags #卡马吉他 and #卡马A1-DAS enters the prize draw. All semifinalists also receive a 2026 KEPMA Cup semifinal certificate and one set of REBOUND guitar strings.

Semifinal scoring criteria

The base score is 90 points: technique 40, musical expression 30 and performance completeness 20. An original work adds 0–10 bonus points; a substantial arrangement adds 0–6; cover performances receive no bonus. The final score combines the base score with the bonus and cannot exceed 100 points.

Semifinal judges

The semifinals are reviewed jointly by a five-member KEPMA competition jury of professional fingerstyle and singing-and-guitar judges, together with four guest professional judges, including Casper (Denmark), Eddie (the Netherlands) and the Chinese fingerstyle pioneers 从政 and 杨家胜.

Next stop: Shanghai

After the semifinals the jury will select 15 fingerstyle contestants and 15 singing-and-guitar contestants for the final, to be held on October 28, 2026 in Shanghai, China.