Jorge Caballero, a treasured friend and world renowned guitarist, wrote this moving reflection on ACG at 35 Years. We are so grateful to be able to share his words with you today.
December has arrived, which means 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.
On my birthday, I follow a simple, solitary ritual. It takes minimal time, minimal effort, and requires no help from anyone or anything: I take a moment to contemplate the year past, and all those past it—lying in a place and time beyond my grasp—and give thanks to everything that contributed to who I am at present. This ritual came to me in my mid-twenties, unbidden, and has continued ever since. It helps me define my existence on this pale blue dot of a planet from a broad perspective, and recalibrate my sight as I embark on another trip around the Sun.
Today, as ACG is celebrating 35 years of existence, I find myself looking back, gathering my thoughts about it, and the ways in which my experiences with ACG have transformed me. My personal history with ACG carries the weight of 21 years, and even if those years have not yet granted me all the wisdom I wish, they have gifted me a certain level of perspective, and the knowledge that my relationship with ACG has been one of the most–if not the most meaningful in how I have evolved as an artist, and as a human.
It was 2004 when I first flew to Austin to play a recital for the Austin Classical Guitar Society (ACG). My life was quite different then; at 27, I was preparing to leave a music career behind and focus on an entirely different profession. That first performance for ACG changed my perspective on the value of music, reminding my younger self why music matters. Through music, we speak to someone’s soul, communicating without words or the rigid logic we usually use to interpret meaning; instead, we ‘feel’ meaning, collectively. I left Austin that year wondering if quitting music was truly the best decision, so I put those plans on hold. The following year, when Matt Hinsley invited me back for a 2006 recital, I finally abandoned my thoughts of quitting and committed to the career path I follow to this day—one that has brought me profound joy and a richness I couldn’t envision any other way.
Since then, I have had the privilege to play for ACG on numerous occasions—more often, in fact, than anywhere else I have performed. Much of my career’s progress can be traced directly to those concerts. One specific event stands out: In 2011, when I revived Kazuhito Yamashita’s arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition, ACG was one of the first organizations to invite me to play it. They did more than that, however. They organized “Austin Pictures,” one of the largest events centered around a single classical guitar work in history, which premiered at the Moody Theater. Sitting alone with my guitar on the cool stage in front of 1,500 people is a memory I can feel in my body every time I think about it.
I have also been blessed to witness ACG’s growth, from a concert series featuring the world’s finest guitarists and rising talents to the development of a summer series, school guitar programs, and the Juvenile Justice and Music for Healing initiatives. More recently, their operations transferred to The Rosette, a beautifully integrated facility where both performers and audience experience an intimate mode of interaction. Without question, ACG is the largest organization in the United States whose mission is rooted in the classical guitar.
My reflections bring me back to my final performances for ACG in 2023 at The Rosette. There, I premiered Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor, the most ambitious project of my career. I was driven to do this: not just to master a piece as monstrous in the classical repertoire as the Liszt sonata, but specifically to present it at The Rosette for ACG. My motivation was always clear: ACG gave me the crucial incentive to continue with music when I needed it most. Without that encouragement, I wouldn’t be here writing this today.
I have always wanted my most meaningful work to be presented by ACG as a private way of expressing my thanks. Premiering the Liszt Sonata at The Rosette also felt like coming full circle. Its small, intimate setting reminds me of my first time playing for ACG, while its state-of-the-art technology brings to mind how much the organization has evolved—how much it has refined and expanded its horizons to reach the privileged place it holds today.
As I end my reflections, I am left with one word: Gratitude.
I am grateful to ACG for having encouraged me to continue, and for allowing me the opportunity to share music with its beautiful audience. I am grateful that it has continued to excel in its goal to improve the lives of those it has reached through this “little box with six strings.” I am singularly grateful to Matthew Hinsley for his vision, his sharp mind, focus, and personal support of my work, and to everyone—past and present—working at ACG in all capacities. They have taken up the cause of furthering the mission of changing people’s lives through the immaterial power of Music.
My world is better for it. And this pale blue dot is better for it.
Jorge Caballero
Brilliant Moments with Jorge at ACG
Broadcast from the ACL Live Moody Theater
Sonata in B minor, S. 178 by Franz Liszt
Broadcast from The Rosette