Our end-of-year fund-drive has begun. If you have been inspired by our music and service this year, and it’s the right time, we hope you’ll consider making a gift this month. Support ACG.
This week we had the opportunity to reflect on ACG’s impact the last 35 years with a very special young musician who experienced our programs firsthand, Jianna Zamora. We hope you enjoy her words as much as we did.
I first connected with ACG when I was in sixth grade at Gorzycki Middle School. I had just begun taking guitar as my elective choice. I fell in love with the instrument almost immediately.
My teacher, John Montemayor, informed us that we could go to classical guitar concerts at the AISD Performing Arts Center for extra credit, and that ACG would provide tickets. The first concert I attended was Irina Kulikova. Seeing an incredible female guitarist like her perform live sparked a dream in me. A dream to be a great classical guitarist, and to inspire other young people like I had been inspired.
In High School, I participated in All Region guitar where I auditioned to play alongside other qualifying guitar students around Austin. It was there that I first met Tony Mariano, ACG’s Director of Community Education. I deeply admired his attention to detail and his pursuit of beauty, even in the simpler pieces that we played.
Throughout the next few years, I joined the ACG Youth Orchestra. I was lucky enough to be part of that group for 3 years. Through ACGYO, I was given so many incredible opportunities like playing in 80+ person guitar orchestras, opening for artists such as Ana Vidovic, playing in Robert Rodriguez’s Spy Kids guitar orchestra music video, and playing in a quartet alongside Pepe Romero.
There have been so many experiences that helped me blossom into the person I am today.
Toward the end of my freshman year at Bowie High School, our guitar teacher left unexpectedly leaving us without instruction for our UIL contest that year. My classmate and dear friend, Besa Carney, stepped up and conducted our class at UIL, and we were awarded superior ratings for our performance. I was in awe of her leadership and courage, and I was inspired to lead an ensemble of my own one day.
In my senior year, we were again left without a guitar teacher, so I stepped up and became the instructor for the year and led our class to getting superior ratings once again at UIL. That experience gave me a new appreciation for passionate teachers and really helped me to gain confidence in myself as a leader and as a musician.
In my sophomore year of high school, I was placed in a quartet with Ace Pearson, Juanito Rodriguez, and Besa Carney. This was my first experience working in a smaller ensemble, and I felt like a very small fish in a very large pond. Together, we opened for a few concerts at the Rosette and we all remain friends to this day.
In the summer of 2024, ACGYO went on tour to Spain. We spent ten days in five different cities performing and exploring this incredibly beautiful place. My favorite city was Granada, but the whole trip was surreal.
Only a few weeks after I returned to Austin and was still reminiscing about the trip, Joe Williams, the director of the ACGYO, called to tell me I had been selected to be one of nine young players chosen to play on stage alongside guitar legend, Pepe Romero. We were coached by Tony Mariano, and for the next 10 months we practiced weekly, performed numerous times, and grew close as musicians, colleagues, and friends. This experience shaped me as a person throughout my college application and audition process, and, when the actual concert with Pepe occurred, it marked the end of a chapter for me.
All of these experiences showed me what life could be like as a musician, and motivated me to apply to music school. I am now pursuing my performance degree at UT Austin with Professor Adam Holzman, following in the footsteps of so many other guitarists at ACG and beyond.
As I’m wrapping up my first semester at UT, I am loving college thus far. I love being surrounded by music students who took the same leap I did because of their passion for music. It feels so validating and rewarding to be in this environment. I reflect a lot on how I got to where I am and how I would not have been able to do this if it weren’t for the ACG community. So thank you.
Jianna Zamora
Things Jianna Mentions
Besa Carney conducts Bowie High School
SPY KIDS Music Video directed by Robert Rodriguez
Jianna + student quartets play with Pepe Romero: Finale, El Vito