The UA School of Music presents the Third Annual Thomas H. Beeston Memorial Guitar Competition Winner's Recital, which features four finalists, each performing a 20-minute program. The recital is 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Holsclaw Hall, 1017 N. Olive Road, in the Music Building on the southeast side of the Fine Arts Complex on East Speedway and North Park Avenue, and it's free. 621-2998.

Age: 54 Brian Dunn was well known for his repair shop in Tucson's Rainbow Guitars, but when he retired four years ago, he returned to his true passion - guitar making. "The repairs paid the bills, but the guitars paid the soul," he said. Dunn has a waiting list with about three-dozen orders on it. His basic handmade guitars start at about $3,500, but future orders are closer to $5,500. Dunn, originally from upstate New York, met well-known guitar maker William Cumpiano in the mid-1970s and spent three years as an apprentice before establishing his own guitar shop. Dunn moved to Tucson in the early '80s to head the repair shop in Rainbow Guitars. The store won several local awards over the years, which often mentioned the repair shop's expertise. While Dunn previously made steel-string guitars, he now concentrates on making classical guitars, thanks to the encouragement of Thomas Patterson, head of the University of Arizona guitar program. "I went back to building guitars largely at Tom Patterson's behest," Dunn said. "Previously, the building had always been steel-string guitars, but here was an invitation to build classical guitars with a built-in market." Patterson started the Thomas H. Beeston Memorial Guitar Competition, now in its third year, to showcase the world-class talent of the university's guitar students. The competition winner receives a guitar handmade by Dunn as part of nearly $10,000 in prizes. This year's competition will include UA students from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru and the United States. "Tucson has one of the finest programs in the world for classical music at the university," Dunn said. "These world-class guitarists are coming to Tucson, and people don't know it." Why did you decide to learn how to make guitars? "Back in the mid-'70s, I was playing a guitar one day and wondered for the first time, 'Gee, where do these come from?' I remembered seeing a sign for handmade guitars, so I drove by there and it had moved. However, a couple weeks later I ended up meeting my future teacher at an Octoberfest in Massachusetts, and he was offering a class in instrument building. My girlfriend at the time said, 'I'll pay for the class if I can have the instrument.' I was an apprentice with him for three years." Do you also perform? "No. Not at all. Well, I shouldn't say not at all. I play a little bit of steel-string guitar, a few first-position chords to support singing, but I wouldn't call myself a singer either. It's more well meant than well done. I'm a woodworker really, not a musician." How many guitars have you made? "I had great hopes of building maybe 12, 15 or 20 in a year's time, but in four years I've built about 25. Almost all are commissions. Occasionally, I'll build something on my own that's more experimental, so I don't subject my clientele to my science projects." What type of guitar does the winner of the Thomas H. Beeston Memorial Guitar Competition receive? "It's not just a generic guitar. I will build a guitar to the winner's specifications. The winner gets to order a guitar according to the scale length they want and the wood they want, because two different guitars can be very different. Different people have different-size hands, so the neck is carved differently. There are lots of little variations that go into building an instrument." Why do you offer a free guitar to the winner? "There is a soft place in my heart for these young, aspiring students, and I want to support them." The UA School of Music presents the Third Annual Thomas H. Beeston Memorial Guitar Competition Winner's Recital, which features four finalists, each performing a 20-minute program. The recital is 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Holsclaw Hall, 1017 N. Olive Road, in the Music Building on the southeast side of the Fine Arts Complex on East Speedway and North Park Avenue, and it's free. 621-2998.