The Solo Guitar Competition sponsored by the Guitar Foundation of America is one of the top events of its kind worldwide. For more than fifteen years the competition has given winning performers a head start in their careers via the prestigious concert tour of America awarded to the winner. Fránco Platino won the Naxos prize in 1997, an accolade to add to his triumph in the Stotsenberg International Competition. He was also one of the few students to be accepted on the Artist Diploma programme at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, under the guidance of world renowned guitarist Manuel Barrueco.