Angelica Campbell

At ACG, we dream of a world where music is here for everyone, connecting us, inspiring us, and bringing joy and meaning wherever it goes. We share with deep gratitude that it is through the generosity of our community that we have been able to obtain this dream in many ways. Learn more about supporting ACG here. 

Owning your first guitar is an incredibly special moment for an aspiring musician. 

Over the years we have had the opportunity to share this moment with many young musicians in our programs through the generosity of our community. 

This year, we received a very special donation from luthier and guitarist, Michael Fontenot. 

Michael donated one of his very own creations in support of ACG Education and we’re giving it away this Friday at our Student Spotlight concert in The Rosette!

We had the pleasure of connecting with Michael recently about his history and journey into becoming a luthier. 

In the world of music, the journey of an artist is often marked by pivotal moments of inspiration and dedication. For Michael Fontenot, his love affair with music began at a young age, sparked by the timeless melodies of the Beatles and nurtured through years of exploration and dedication to the guitar. Michael shares, 

“I believe I was 10 or 11 years old when I first heard the Beatles song I want to hold your hand. I remember being drawn, not only to the song, but I was also compelled to learn how to play it, and even to write music like that. It was a very consuming experience for me and launched my love for music. Some of the most formative influences for me in my middle school in high school years were James Taylor and Paul Simon. It is from listening to their music and emulating their style of playing that I developed a good portion of my early technique. 

This period of my life was also a crash course in “ear training” and that I didn’t work from sheet music, but rather figured pieces out by listening to them over and over again. I played in a band with my older brother and would figure out chord patterns and parts for the other members of the band.”

It wasn’t until late into his undergraduate studies that he discovered his interest in classical guitar! During Michael’s senior year at the University of Texas, a friend introduced him to the classical style.

“I was amazed and intrigued with the control over different lines of music. I sold my steel string guitar and bought a Ramirez student model guitar, went into the Peace Corps with the Carcassi method, book, and the studies by Fernando Sor, and began practicing several hours a day in West Africa,” Micheal shares. 

After returning to the U.S a year later, Michael began studying classical guitar at the University of North Texas with Tom Johnson. Though he was pursuing a Masters degree ultimately, he needed undergraduate hours in Music in order to do so. During his two years at UNT, he studied in Aspen with Oscar Ghiglia, Eliot Fisk, and Bob Guthrie over the summers. Michael then went on to study with Eliot at Yale University for his Masters.

At the age of 28, Michael went on to Medical school!

“Always interested in composition, I wrote humorous songs about the materials we were studying in medical school (50 ways to lose your liver, the Bipolar Blues.) Over the following 40 years, I continually played music in one form or another, composing songs and recording them,” says Michael. 

Towards the end of 2020, as retirement loomed on the horizon, Michael found himself seeking a new project to fuel his creative spirit. 

“In all honesty, making guitars was not something that anyone would’ve predicted for me five years ago. So to some extent, the whole project was fabricated out of whole cloth. I have obviously always loved the sound of the guitar and truthfully have marveled at its construction and beauty since I can remember. But I had no woodworking skills, and no woodworking tools. I don’t remember the moment that the idea popped in my head but as soon as I thought of building guitars, I was completely drawn in.”

Michael embarked on a journey of self-discovery, turning to online resources and mentors like luthier Pablo Requeña for guidance. 

“I started watching videos on YouTube and ran across a Luthier in Malaga, Spain named Pablo Requeña who is a phenomenal teacher and builds traditional Spanish style guitars. I purchased a course and followed his instructions, and after a year built my first guitar. It took me one year to build that first guitar, largely because I was still working, and I had to build all of the jigs necessary to make a guitar. I built 12 guitars over the next two years and I’m currently working on my 15th. This year I am exploring more modern styles of guitar making including lattice, bracing, and double top construction,” Michael shares. 

As he delves deeper into the intricacies of guitar construction, Michael finds himself captivated by the process of transforming raw materials into instruments that sing with life. 

“For me, what inspires me about building is the process of starting off with several flat pieces of wood and ending up with something that makes such a beautiful sound, and is transformed into a piece of art by talented players. Especially this year, as I dive more deeply into the mechanisms of sound production of the instrument, I am amazed at how small changes in the design of the guitar can result in different sonic pallets.”

We are so grateful for Michael’s generous donation of one of his beautifully crafted instruments. He goes on to share more about this specific guitar, 

“The guitar I donated to Austin Classical Guitar is my second guitar. It is built with Engelmann Spruce on the top, East Indian Rosewood, on the back and sides, and Spanish cedar for the neck. The Rosette is a classical Spanish style Rosette, which I purchased, and inlaid. I must give credit to Pablo Requena for these early guitars. They are all made with traditional fan bracing in the Hauser style. Pablo had made some modifications to the braces, and I followed his recipe. The guitars are extraordinarily light, especially compared to some modern guitars.” 

Michael goes on to share more about this donation, 

“I was motivated to donate the guitar because of the work that ACG is doing in the community. As I have gone to guitar concerts over the past couple of years and heard the level of performance of students coming out of ACG Education programs, I have been very inspired to somehow be a part of that. 

There is no reason for guitars of this quality to be sitting around not being played. And while it is always wonderful to sell guitars, my personal mission is not to sell guitars, but to make guitars. I suspect that over the next year I will continue to have surplus and hope to continue to give young players in Austin a guitar that is worthy of their dedication.”

We are incredibly grateful to Michael for his generosity and are so excited to aid in the rehoming of this gorgeous instrument this Friday. 

Learn more about Michael Fontenot and Fontenot guitars here.

Last month, we presented a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind, community based collaborative concert called Presence.

The culmination of a yearlong collaboration, Presence featured music by ACG’s 23-24 Artist-in-Residence and Grammy-nominated composer Reena Esmail, and performances by the extraordinary Mexican guitarist Dieter Hennings Yeomans, Austin’s super-creative and genre-bending vocal ensemble VAMP, and critically acclaimed bassoonist and UT Butler School faculty member Kristin Wolfe Jensen. These internationally celebrated artists were joined by a massive guitar orchestra, conducted by ACG Artistic Director Joe Williams on stage at the gorgeous AISD Performing Arts Center. 

Alexina Derkaz was a member of that massive guitar orchestra and we had the pleasure of speaking with her about her experience with Presence.

Growing up with two professional classical guitarists as parents, Alexina Derkaz is no stranger to the instrument. 

“I participated in classical guitar festivals, competitions, and master classes in middle and high school and pursued guitar as my major at Florida State University.” 

However, Alexina ultimately pursued another passion of hers, the study of Latin, in graduate school and as her career. 

“Without a meaningful outlet or community, guitar fell to the wayside for years. Then, I moved to Austin and found ACG. The Chamber Ensemble is perfect for me. I get to play beautiful, interesting music and perform for audiences again!” 

Our 2023-24 season theme and the theme of this past concert is presence. Alexina shared a little bit about what presence means to her, 

“To me, being present means bringing my focus to the moment and environment that I’m in.  When I’m teaching, it means that my awareness of each student is heightened: we’re making eye contact and I’m not watching the clock.  When I’m playing music it means I’m absorbed in the phrases and not thinking about that tricky part coming up. When I’m parenting, it means that I slow down to my baby’s pace, just observing him as he explores a leaf; I have no agenda. Presence means expanding my awareness inward, to the state of my body and spirit, and also outward to the birdsong and feeling of the breeze.”

Presence, the project, was very much a collaborative effort from all parties involved. Every member of the orchestra, including Alexina, got to interact with the composition process and heard their ideas in the final product. Alexina shares, 

“Presence was the opportunity to feel like I was a part of something great.  So many people worked so hard to make the performance magical. 

The intentional collaboration between composer and musicians is what made Presence such a unique experience.  At our first rehearsal for the music, we received a worksheet of sorts from Reena.  There were fragments of melodies and rhythms.  As a warm-up, the ensemble was asked to use the notes to play something that reflected how we were feeling at that very moment. If I had been brave enough to volunteer, I would have played some tense exchange of notes that sounded like the Jaws soundtrack: improvisation and composition are way out of my comfort zone! Before I knew it, I was sent with a group of peers to do that: compose a mini piece to perform using the rhythms and melodies from the worksheet.  Everything we did was recorded in case someone came up with something great.  Reena was going to listen! 

I made it through the collaboration unscathed as the ACG leadership is so kind and reassuring.  That was just the beginning.  Next, we were writing diaristic entries that became lyrics to the pieces, like a patchwork quilt of the ensemble members’ experiences of “presence”.  Then at a mother moment, Joe, Reena, and the ensemble were figuring out the best way for us to make a percussive sound on our guitars in real time during the first rehearsal: Joe was saying “try it like this” to us, Reena  was shaking her head, Joe was saying “how about like this?” We try something new, Reena nods enthusiastically – that’s the sound!”

What’s so unique about this method of collaboration in a large group setting is that all that was provided to the ensemble to begin with were a handful of notes. They had a tiny amount to work with so they could have full range in their creative spaces. However, that required a ton of flexibility with everyone involved. Alexina shared more about what this was like,

“If I were to let someone in on a little behind the scenes experience, it would have been the fact that we didn’t just receive our scores to learn all at once (like one usually does in an ensemble).  We were literally getting pages at a time.  One page this week, then as the composers finished a few more measures, the next page would come.  It was hot-off-the-press!  The composers were working so, so hard to write this music in a shorter time span than they were used to. One time, a whole page of the piece we were working on was scrapped and replaced with something new; a chord was being changed in the actual rehearsal the day before the concert… it was evolving up to the performance.  We performers had to be flexible and ready to put in the work to learn the music quickly.”

We asked Alexina to share some of her favorite moments throughout the project with us and this is what she expressed, 

“It was a huge treat to get to hear the singers of VAMP.  I remember the first rehearsal we had with them. As they entered the room there was a palpable excitement.  I was internally squealing “wow wow, real singers, this is so cool!”.  Then I saw my excitement mirrored in their faces and they beheld the 70 or so guitarists facing them.  The first time they sang, I literally had tears well in my eyes. I stopped playing and had to find my place again.  It wasn’t only their ethereal sound, but the song itself – it was just so beautiful.  One piece that a solo member of VAMP sang with one of the youth groups gave me goosebumps every time I heard it. 

While the singers of VAMP inspired tears and goosebumps, our incredible bassoonist and guitarist, Kristen and Dieter, pumped us up with their technically challenging extended solos.  I just had to laugh and shake my head at their brilliance…”is this for real…I get to play with them??”  

Another favorite moment is the feeling of pride I had upon hearing the work the youth ensembles had put into the music.  They really held their own and sounded fantastic. 

Finally, I always look forward to being conducted by Joe.  Conducting is essentially a very difficult form of communication and Joe is a master communicator.  He delivers his directives so clearly, calmly, powerfully, and encouragingly all at the same time!  He always tells us what we did well first and then tells us what to do better.  He wastes no words and will sometimes pause before he says something – because everything he says matters.   Before the big group rehearsals I did have the thought, “Are we going to be able to pull this off??”  But we did because of Joe.”

When show day came around, we needed a space that would fit our massive community orchestra! So, we held the concert at the gorgeous Austin ISD Performing Arts Center. Which is a much bigger stage than what a lot of our performers may have been used to. Alexina shares a bit about what this was like, 

“Playing on the PAC feels grand and important and dramatic and powerful! The musicians really spend the day there, arriving quite early for our sound checks and final dress rehearsal.  We bond backstage, share a few meals and pre-performance tricks (like one member bringing a large box of hand-warmers for us to hold before our turn to play). We excitedly anticipate the size of the audience and recount the performance with one another after it’s over.  While on stage we are trying so hard to be laser focused and communicate everything we worked on. My whole family came and brought me a bouquet of flowers afterward; they knew it was a big moment.”

We are so grateful to Alexina and to every member of Presence for being so flexible and accomplishing something so magnificent. We are grateful to our community for supporting us in projects like these. 

Thank you for your unwavering support of our pursuit of what good can music do in the world today?

Gorgeous photos below by Arlen Nydam.

The culmination of a yearlong collaboration, Presence featured music by ACG’s 23-24 Artist-in-Residence and Grammy-nominated composer Reena Esmail, and performances by the extraordinary Mexican guitarist Dieter Hennings Yeomans, Austin’s super-creative and genre-bending vocal ensemble VAMP, and critically acclaimed bassoonist and UT Butler School faculty member Kristin Wolfe Jensen. These internationally celebrated artists were joined by a massive guitar orchestra, conducted by ACG Artistic Director Joe Williams on stage at the gorgeous AISD Performing Arts Center. 

In the world of music, the journey to becoming a composer is often a winding path, marked by discovery and evolution. 

Reena Esmail, a prominent musician and composer and ACG’s 2023-24 Artist-in-Residence, recently shared her unique story with us, seamlessly weaving between her early encounters with the guitar to her present exploration of composition! 

Reena’s musical odyssey began unexpectedly at the age of five or six when she stumbled upon a guitar hidden in her mother’s linen closet. Intrigued by the enchanting sounds it produced, her curiosity led to guitar lessons and the realization that music would play a significant role in her life. 

Reena shares, “I was just so fascinated. I thought ‘wow this is making such a beautiful sound.’ I initially would play the guitar with its back on the floor and just press it and poke at it to play it. And eventually, my parents got me guitar lessons. I really remember the very first time I went for a guitar lesson thinking, ‘Oh this is the beginning of something big in my life,’ and even as a kid I knew this was going to go places and it did!”

However, her path took a turn when her guitar teacher moved away. Undeterred, Reena delved into other instruments, eventually becoming a pianist. It was during her exploration of composition at a fine arts high school that she found a way to express herself without the need to perform on stage herself. 

She states, “I realized that I didn’t enjoy performing on stage and I realized that there is a way to be a musician without ever needing to be on the stage by composing. By the time I went to undergrad I had already found that path for myself. But it’s funny, just because you get on that path doesn’t mean that it’s straight, sometimes it can be really circuitous and it was very circuitous for me. One of the circles I kind of took was that I realized that at that point, I was one of very few people in my culture as a South Asian who was doing western classical music and when you’re younger I think that can be really cool like you’re just different but as I grew older it started to feel a bit lonely. So I looked around a lot for students who were South Asian and there were tons of them who weren’t western classical musicians so a lot of my life has been about balancing those two worlds.”

As part of her collaborative composition for Presence, our centerpiece concert of the season, Reena endeavors to bridge the gap between Indian and Western classical music. Exploring the possibilities of incorporating Indian ragas into guitar music.

Reena shares, “It’s really interesting because my knowledge of string instruments now are more orchestral instruments. So right now I’m trying to find ways for guitars to play in raga, and it’s been fascinating because ACG sent me this amazing three quarter sized guitar to practice on and it’s been so fun trying to figure out how I can get those Indian styles on the guitar. This is my first time writing for the guitar on this big of a scale and it’s been interesting to figure out how those two things translate.”

Returning to her original instrument feels like stepping into a musical time machine for Reena. It allows her to recapture the pure love and inspiration she felt as a child. 

Reena explains, “To me, it feels like I get to go back to that time in my life where music was brand new, everything was ahead of me and there was so much inspiration. The process of getting good at music and eventually having a career at it can be a lot, and not that I don’t love every moment of it but there’s also moments that are very tough. It’s almost like I get to step inside a time machine and go back to a time where you remember it was 100% love and to get to bring that back and being able to work with people who are the age that I was when I was doing that makes me feel like I can bypass anything that felt difficult and just have a lot of fun.”

Presence, presents a new challenge for Reena and she revels in the opportunity to compose for such a diverse group, 

“This is the most unusual ensemble I’ve composed for because it’s a huge guitar choir and then there are five singers and a bassoon player along with a professional guitarist. So knowing how to write for it, how to balance, how people of ages and abilities from consummate professional musicians all the way to people who have just started playing, how can they relate to each other in a way that is beneficial to everyone. And that to me is really fun because I think a lot of times people think of my music as being between these two cultures but I think more broadly it’s between groups of people you would never find on the stage together. I’m really excited about it.

It was magical rehearsing for the first time all together because for the first half I was sitting in the back of the ensemble just kind of noodling away at my own piece and it’s fascinating when you can see the piece in that different perspective. Usually as a composer you think of all the parts at the same time but to play in an actual rehearsal where you’re only playing one part of the piece is like if someone was to make an oil painting and then they told you to just focus on the parts that are blue. That would be such a different way of looking at the painting, and so I got to figure that out and actually feel what the piece feels like and get to be surrounded by everyone and get to feel what that feels like which is abnormal. 

During the second half I was up front and I got to hear things kind of in a more objective way. I also felt like the vibe of the rehearsal changed when I was in the front versus when I was in the back. In a way, when I was in the back I thought, I got to see what it was like if I wasn’t there and you never really get that and I noticed how it changed once people felt that I was there.”

Presence has been a year long collaborative project without a preconceived plan, the project unfolds step by step. 

Reena dives into this, “The whole process was very organic, we did not plan more than one step ahead. Even now, I can’t say what this piece is going to be, I’m just getting ideas. 

We started thinking ‘Someone has to start with something.’ So basically, I sent the members of the ensemble these little seeds that were worksheet ideas-types of things and told them to make something out of the materials given to them. And people did all sorts of things like making them into little one minute pieces to just kind of noodling around and changing a few things. I think what I was looking for was a sense of what was the part of those little seeds that felt inspiring? What were the little things that people were grabbing onto and taking with them? 

By listening to these ideas I’d take whatever I thought was a cool thing to include; and this was true for the musical seeds as well as the written word seeds from poems they shared and there were certain lines that just stood out to me. I just thought I’d take whatever strikes me in the moment. It’s very much go-with-the-flow, which is rare for me in terms of the process of writing a piece but this feels like we’re going on a journey together and just seeing what comes of it.”

In this collaborative journey, Reena embraces uncertainty and allows the process to be organic. She shares more about what this means, 

“During this whole process I’ve really focused on just allowing myself to just experience things. I think that as a composer, a lot of times people think you know the answers and what you to tell them what the right thing is to do and I think normally I try to take that role seriously because people are asking for it, but in this case I’ve tried to ask more questions than I have answers and in a way that can be uncomfortable but also in a way it can be really amazing to not have to know and allow things to be organic. 

I was really looking forward to the first rehearsal to be able to interact with everyone for the first time and to also see how the guitar functions in this environment. I’ve always said guitar is both the easiest and the hardest instrument to play because anyone can just pick it up, play three chords and feel like they have enough musical materials to be able to accompany themselves singing songs so it’s a universal instrument in that way but then it’s also instrument where so few people can be classical guitarists because technically it’s so difficult and demanding and how can that be one instrument? It blows my mind. So it’s interesting to see everyone here have a different relationship with guitar.”

In essence, Reena Esmail’s musical expedition intertwined with the strings of diverse cultures, creating a harmonious blend that transcends boundaries. Through her compositions, she not only connects musical styles but also brings together individuals who, under normal circumstances, might never share a stage. 

Presence has been a journey of rediscovery, collaboration, and the perpetual exploration of the beautiful gifts that music can bring upon us. 

At ACG we often think of special moments as gifts. This holiday season, we’d like to share some of these gifts with you in a series we’re calling Beautiful Gifts.

Beautiful Gift #1

As we look forward to a beautiful concert this weekend, we start to dream of the next semester in our community ensembles and reflect on the magical experiences we’ve had in these programs. 

“The ACG ensemble is literally one of the reasons we moved to Austin.” Chamber Ensemble member Alexina Derkaz told us just yesterday. She and the rest of the group have been working hard toward Sunday’s performance.

“Guitar was a huge part of my childhood up through college, but fell to the wayside until I found ACG. Now I get to play new and exciting music alongside exceptional musicians.  THE ELEMENTS performance last spring was a heart-pounding, grandiose, and joyful experience: the huge audience, how hard we worked, the theatricality of the piece…our preparation for our new piece, PRESENCE, is already filled with anticipation and excitement. Being in the rehearsals just feels soalive.I know that I’ve landed somewhere special.”

We had the opportunity to speak with Director of Community Education, Tony Mariano, about what makes these ensembles so special. 

Tony expresses, “Folks who join our ensembles can look forward to building a close community of amazing people here in Austin, Texas. We meet weekly to learn and rehearse incredible music, preparing for performances throughout our community. Together, we extend our art form to share the pure joy of music making with everyone around us.” 

Ensembles hold space for deep connections between our members and with music itself. It gives a safe space to collaborate, communicate, and trust one another in a significant way as we work towards a common goal of creating something beautiful and powerful to share with others. 

Tony shares, “The connections people make in these ensembles are deep and energizing to see. There is challenge, determination, so much success and celebration, and the relationships that are made under those conditions are wonderful to be a part of.

I enjoy seeing people reach past where they thought they could ever make music. I love seeing people who love music push themselves to be true artists. And more than anything, I love the smiles on everyone’s faces, young and old, when they’ve just finished a performance, once they realize “wow… I did it!”. Those moments will stick with me forever. 

Ensembles are the places where I found the most joy in my music making. I began studying guitar in an ensemble, and every place music has brought me ever since I’ve searched for opportunities to make music with others. To connect with others on a deeply expressive and musical level is energizing in a way that I don’t experience many other places. And I’m so deeply grateful for those opportunities.”

We’re excited to share an opportunity opening up for anyone interested in joining one of these ensembles.

In late January, we will be starting up a South Austin ensemble! If you are interested in interviewing for a spot or would like to learn more about it, just email us at [email protected] 

Let’s create beautiful music together!

Learn more about our Classes & Ensembles here.