Tommy Emmanuel, the man Chet Atkins personally awarded the CGP title, plays Kino SC in Zagreb on November 5, 2026, at 8pm. The tour is called "Living in the Light", and tickets start at 46.50 euros through eventim.hr.

Atkins handed out the CGP title - Certified Guitar Player - to only a handful of guitarists in his lifetime, and Emmanuel is one of them. He got it in Nashville in 1999, three years after the two of them recorded the album "The Day The Finger Pickers Took Over The World" together, which brought him his first Grammy nomination. The second came in 2007, for "Gameshow Rag/Cannonball Rag".

What sets him apart is fingerstyle taken to its limit: melody, bass line and rhythm at the same time, from one man and one acoustic guitar. When he plays, it sounds like a three-piece band, and that effect is exactly why guitarists from all over the world turn up at his workshops. The Australian has played professionally since childhood - his first paid gigs came before he had even started school.

Kino SC is a small room compared to the arenas Emmanuel fills on other tours, and that is the advantage: an acoustic guitar in a space like that sounds the way it should. For context, there is no bigger competing event in Zagreb that same night, which means the hall is unlikely to sit half empty. Emmanuel also plays Osijek two days later, on November 7.