HOME #2: Godai and the Guitar
Our season theme is HOME. We will dive into the natural world, culture, and human connection, and we’re inviting you to participate all along the way! Learn all about Home and the centerpiece concert of our season with Artistic Director, Joe Williams, and Director of Education, Travis Marcum, in our upcoming ACGtalks: Home breakfast on Wednesday Feb. 8 at 9:30am. We hope you'll join us. Learn more here. We would like to thank atsec information security for their generous sponsorship of Marek's residency and our home project.
This season we at ACG are connecting our Artist-in-Residence, Marek, with our community on what Home means to them. Marek is working with more than eighty guitarists of all ages, across Texas, to make a monumental tribute to our planet that we’ll premiere on February 18.
This tribute is inspired by the ancient Japanese philosophy of godai or the “Five Elements,” personal stories, and collaborative ideas between Marek and the guitar orchestra.
Five guitar groups of differentiating ages will prepare a stand-alone movement of the work for the performance in the Spring.
Next week is the beginning of this connection between Marek and these incredible musicians in person! They will begin exploring the philosophical and musical foundation of each of the elements of godai.
To begin this collaborative process, each guitarist has chosen one or more of these elements to explore on the guitar however their intuition feels it and create a video to share this musical idea.
Here are a couple awesome sounds by one of our ACGYO members, Teddy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1hRzyshc2Y
We’d like to invite you to participate as well!
Do you have thoughts or reflections on Home? Might you take a picture of a beautiful place, or share a poem or reflection with us? Send them to home@austinclassicalguitar.org.
We’re so excited about this collaboration and can’t wait to share more about it!
Learn more about the next steps in this process here.
HOME #1: The Heart of our Season with Joe Williams
Our season theme is HOME. We will dive into the natural world, culture, and human connection, and we’re inviting you to participate all along the way! Learn all about Home and the centerpiece concert of our season with Artistic Director, Joe Williams, and Director of Education, Travis Marcum, in our upcoming ACGtalks: Home breakfast on Wednesday Feb. 8 at 9:30am. We hope you’ll join us. Learn more here. We would like to thank atsec information security for their generous sponsorship of Marek’s residency and our home project.
Each season we choose a theme here at Austin Classical Guitar. This year’s theme is Home.
Home can mean the space around you, family and friends, language and traditions, music, or community. Home can mean our world, the plants and animals, the forest, the sea, and the sky.
We’ve asked each of our artists this year to build their concert programs with Home in mind. Marek, our Artist in Residence, is working with more than eighty guitarists of all ages, across Texas, to make a monumental tribute to our planet that we’ll premiere on February 18.
We’d like to invite you to participate as well!
Do you have thoughts or reflections on Home? Might you take a picture of a beautiful place, or share a poem or reflection with us? Send them to home@austinclassicalguitar.org.
ACG Artistic Director, Joe Williams, has just recorded a message for you about Home. It is the first of a series of stories we’ll be sharing on what will be a beautiful journey.
Read the next story in our Home series here.
HOME: A Conversation with Joanna Gutt-Lehr
Our season theme is HOME. We will dive into the natural world, culture, and human connection, and we’ll be inviting you to participate all along the way! We hope you’ll join us for the culmination of this project, when our Artist-in-Residence Marek Pasieczny’s monumental new work based on HOME will premiere on February 18. Learn more here.
This week we had the pleasure of speaking with Joanna Gutt-Lehr, Executive Director of Dotdotdot Connect.
Joanna introduced us to the incredible Polish poster artist, Leszek Zebrowski, whose work will be featured in fall and spring exhibits in our loft space at The Rosette!
In Austin, Joanna has worked to expand awareness of different cultures, illuminate the connections between mathematics, art, and music, and foster deeper appreciation and understanding between artists and the community. Joanna shared,
“I was born and raised in Warsaw, Poland. Our house was full of books, discussions about history, politics, and … math. My parents were WWII survivors. I think it must have been the reason for the unspoken message they conveyed that education and art is what nobody can take away from you. Despite living in Poland while the country was still behind the iron curtain, I look at my life there with nostalgia and love. I lived there during the Solidarity anticommunist rebellion and the martial law but left for the US before the collapse of communism
Austin has been my home since 1990. I have been teaching Mathematics for a good while, currently as part of the math department faculty at the Texas State University in San Marcos.
In 2018, I spearheaded a series of annual events at Texas State University that highlights interdisciplinary connections of mathematics with other fields geared at the general public – the first event had a theme of Math and Visual Arts when we hosted a wonderful professor of Mathematics and artist from Southwestern University, Dr. Fumiko Futamura. Since then, we have played with Math & Music, Math & Politics, Math & Diseases, and most recently – Math & Ethics.”
Outside of being an inspiring educator, Joanna is the head of an amazing organization, Dotdotdot Connect, whose mission is to provide a meeting place for diverse communities to experience art together and create opportunities for local Austin area artists to connect with artists from around the world. Joanna shared,
“We founded Dot Dot Dot Connect in 2020. There are four of us so far: Anna Zieleniewska, Marcelina Gray, Agnieszka McDowell, and I. The idea was that there are so many connections to explore between creative fields, artists, organizations that see art as means to enrich communities – and often they are in isolation or separated because of the urge to categorize. There are many wonderful groups in ATX – why not connect? Collaboration through art between cultures – like math – is natural and the common language and passion are there.
We have curated a mural in Austin (at The Yard), came up with the idea and co-organized a Bike Tour along murals and mosaics on the streets of Austin, co-organized a music concert in support of children affected by the war in Ukraine. We created an outdoor poster happening in Zilker park in support of the Polish women demonstrating for their rights. On October 21, we are planning the opening of a large music posters exhibit by one of the most acclaimed Polish artists of the genre, Leszek Zebrowski – the show will be on view in Ao5 Gallery in Arboretum at least through November 6. In most of these projects we collaborated with other organizations or connected international artists with Austin artists.”
This season at ACG we are so grateful to collaborate with a phenomenal Polish composer and guitarist, Marek Pasieczny, as our Artist-in-Residence which makes this connection to Polish poster art extra special. Joanna shared a little bit about why this medium is so important:
“Poster art was part of my every day in Poland, you walked by large barrel like posts, especially in the cities, covered with huge size posters advertising theater plays, concerts, films. These were nothing like what we saw (and see) in the West. Not a drop of commercialism. They were designed by amazing artists and became their way to experiment with avant-garde ideas, forms, and approaches liberated from commercial considerations. Most of the posters were executed in a painterly fashion, with handcrafted typography and rich metaphors and symbolism. There is a term Polish School of Posters that describes this phenomenon. In the communist times, posters were an exception that mostly escaped the censorship – a conversation within the society , the type that could not be easily conducted in words. So, I loved them. I even brought a few with me when I moved to the US. Then, years later through 2019, within my work organizing the Austin Polish Film Festival, I curated annual Polish poster art exhibits. There are still fantastic poster artists in Poland – ones of a kind. It is exciting to present some of this amazing work in Austin.
I am in awe of how much ACG does for the community, the quality of people involved and their work, as well as with the caliber of musicians ACG brings to Austin. I reached out to Matt in the summer to explore possible partnerships in building connections between live music and visual art. I am overwhelmed with gratitude to Matt Hinsley and Joe Williams who are generously contributing their time and ideas to make our collaboration result in not one but two poster art installations at the Rosette! Joe suggested showing Polish film posters to celebrate the live music with silent films events and then music posters to accompany the residency and concerts by the Polish guitarist invited by the ACG, Marek Pasieczny. We are beyond excited!”
We are so excited and grateful to explore different mediums, connect deeper with our community, and expand our horizons in our 2022-23 season, Home.
Read a beautiful story about our Music & Healing program here.
Music & Healing: Not/Yet/There
ACG Music & Healing brings human connection, beauty, and expressivity to individuals facing isolation and challenge, through collaboration with a skilled and trained ACG Artist. These services are available to a wide variety of clients through partnerships with more than a dozen social service providers including hospitals, shelters, residential rehabilitation facilities, parental education and family health organizations, and veterans service providers. Learn more about ACG Music & Healing.
Our newest video from ACG Music & Healing is called Not/Yet/There. Each time we work with a participant, we try to work with their story, energy, and individual skills. In this case, we discovered the participant was a dancer!
The participant Sharon Marroquin wrote: "I am a firm believer in the healing power of the arts. As a dancer and dancer maker, and a twelve-year cancer survivor, I know first-hand that movement is a medium for processing, expressing, and transforming pain. I recently faced the possibility of recurrence and found myself tumbling once again into an abyss of fear and uncertainty. This experience is embodied in my collaboration with John: Not/Yet/There.
John and I created this piece over the course of four Zoom meetings, and we met for the first time on the day we shot this video. “Not” is incomplete and uncomfortable, a piece of music that is missing something you can’t quite describe. “Yet” is a presence, but it is limited, hesitant, and unsure of its own existence. “There” represents a cautious re-integration, a mix of joy with ever-present unease. As a three-part piece, Not/Yet/There expresses a deep self-awareness that I am....not yet there."
The piece begins with piano only, then it’s dance only in silence, then the two combine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4wjpktxsa8
Read another Music & Healing story here.
Learn more about our Music & Healing services here.
Red Oak Hope: I Am Strong
We dream of a world where music is here for everyone, connecting us, inspiring us, and bringing joy and meaning wherever it goes. We are having our Fall fund drive here at ACG and it’s because of our community and supporters that we are able to share stories like this. Click here to learn more about supporting ACG.
Since 2019, ACG Music and Healing has partnered with Red Oak Hope, an international organization based out of Austin that brings freedom, hope, and restoration to victims of human trafficking and sexual exploitation. ACG artists meet with the individual women over the course of four to eight weeks to write and record an original song centered around her story. This song "I Am Strong" was written and performed by a young woman at Red Oak Hope this Fall with ACG Artist and Music and Healing Program Manager Claire Puckett.
Listen here:
https://soundcloud.com/austinclassicalguitar/i-am-strong
Spreading Kindness with Jen Bamberg & Consuela Style
We dream of a world where music is here for everyone, connecting us, inspiring us, and bringing joy and meaning wherever it goes. We are having our Fall fund drive here at ACG and it’s because of our community and supporters that we are able to share stories like this. Click here to learn more about supporting ACG.
We are so grateful at ACG to have a team of such incredible, talented, hard working, and beautiful people. We wouldn't be where we are today without the work of our wonderful team.
Last week, ACG Events Director, Jen Bamberg, got nominated by her intern, Reilly, for a Certificate of Awesomeness with Consuela's It's not about the bag!
Here is what Reilly had to say about Jen in her nomination,
"I want to nominate Jen because she is an amazingly strong woman that fights for what she believes in. She cares for all people deeply and takes the time to get to know the guests and volunteers that come to the Austin Classical Guitar concerts and makes sure they have the best experience and get everything they need. I have been Jen's intern since January, and she really has become a work mama to me. She is always there for me whenever I need her, offering help and support in many ways. And she does this for all of her coworkers and friends, as I have seen throughout my time working with her. She is always the first in line to help others, and she works hard to improve her community through engagement with the arts at Austin Classical Guitar. Jen is a real catalyst for positive change, and she always empowers others, which is something I think we need more of these days. I believe Jen is more than deserving of this award for all of these reasons and more. She is an exceptional role model to me, and I want to let her know how much I, along with an immeasurable amount of others, appreciate her hard work, dedication, and love for her job and her community."
We are so grateful for everything Jen does. She is the backbone of our events and a bright light in the office everyday!
Thank you for everything Jen!
Learn more about this award here.
ACG 2022-23 Season: Individual Events On Sale!
We are thrilled to announce that season ticket packages are now available for Austin Classical Guitar’s 2022-23 Season: Home. Our Live at The Rosette series features spectacular artists from Italy, Poland, Spain, France, South Korea, and Peru, all performing in our new Hyde Park concert and creative learning center, The Rosette. Our ACG Originals series includes a silent film with live music, Matt Hinsley & Friends in a show called Gratitude, the culminating project of our Artist in Residence with Austin youth, and a uniquely powerful concert experience called We’ve Always Known built from songs produced by ACG’s Music & Healing program.
Today’s the day! If you want to make sure and get the best available seats for Grisha, or Andrea González Caballero, or SoloDuo, or our first-ever Music & Healing inspired concert We’ve Always Known, tickets for individual events are now available. We’re bringing artists from Italy, Spain, Poland, France, Peru and all over the US for transcendent evenings of musical magic all season long.
We’re so excited for our first full season in our new home, The Rosette. With just eighty-five seats, we’re told every spot in the house is fabulous, but here’s your chance to choose just the perfect one you for you for that special event.
Are you a streaming fan? If so, stay tuned! All major events at the Rosette will be streamed this year. Tickets will be available in September.
It’s also not too late to save money, and secure your seats for the whole season, with our ticket packages! We recommend jumping on your package purchases soon, though, because individual seat purchases will now affect package seating locations.
We can’t wait to share beautiful and inspiring moments with you soon!
Cálido Guitars: A Generous Gift
We dream of a world where music is here for everyone, connecting us, inspiring us, and bringing joy and meaning wherever it goes. We are having our Dream Big spring fund drive here at ACG and it’s because of our community and supporters that we are able to share stories like this. Click here to learn more about supporting ACG.
Today, we at ACG would like to share our utmost gratitude for Daniel Baugh and Cálido Guitars.
“Dan and Cálido have been partners and supporters of ACG Education for over ten years! Dan has frequently supported our programs with instruments and our teacher summits through sponsorship. Last year when the Dallas County Juvenile Justice System program started, Dan donated the first fifteen guitars we needed, and now, a year later as the program is doubling in size, Dan jumped at the chance to donate fifteen more. Dan’s got a huge heart, and I’m so grateful for his friendship and support.” - Matt Hinsley, Executive Director
ACG Juvenile Justice is a music education program creating a safe space for incarcerated youth in juvenile detention centers. Safe spaces are created through group guitar classes that provide an environment to foster a sense of personal success and accomplishment while providing an outlet for personal expression.
Daniel’s support of this program has and continues to create incredible opportunities, change, and joy in the lives of the young people in these communities. Learn more about our Juvenile Justice programs here.
This week we had the opportunity to speak with Daniel about his own interest in guitar and how he got to a place where he’s able to give back to the community!
Daniel took piano lessons for a few years in his early grade school years but picked up the electric guitar in highschool. He dove into the world of 60’s rock and roll and started up a band! However, life steered him away from the instrument for a while once he began his studies in college and didn’t pick it back up until he began taking classical guitar lessons at age 52. Daniel says,
“Marc Garvin was my teacher in Houston for about 10 years. I love the instrument and was teaching a few students when I began to pursue guitars for my students while overseas. When I realized I could get good guitars for students I found myself importing and selling guitars”
Once Daniel began importing high-quality guitars he connected with the guitar professor at UT Austin, Adam Holzman. Daniel shared,
“It truly was a divine appointment because Adam introduced me to Matt Hinsley. One day Matt asked me if I could supply guitars to schools and I said, “Sure!”. Next thing I know I am providing hundreds of guitars to schools all over the USA. Most of the contacts have come through ACG or by word of mouth from the teachers who come to the Guitar Curriculum training events.”
Daniel is inspired by music education and how it has the power to transform lives,
“There were no opportunities to learn guitar at school when I was growing up. I love helping students with guitars because music changes their lives forever. It is something they can do for the rest of their lives. It is a part of their life that they can share with others. This is a very powerful and positive influence in the lives of young people and I want to be a part of that. Bach famously said that the sole purpose of music is the glory of God. I believe that. And I see it happening when music changes a person’s life. I love helping other people fulfill their needs in finding the guitar for them, and helping students to be involved in music. I never dreamed that I would be doing this at this point in my life, but it is truly a joy.”
The magic that has manifested from the donations of Daniel Baugh and Cálido Guitars in the lives of the young people in our community is truly too massive to measure. We could not be more grateful. Thank you!
Read a story on our Juvenile Justice program here.
Learn more about ACG Education here.
Major Feature Release: Hitchcock’s The Lodger with new score by Joe Williams
We dream of a world where music is here for everyone, connecting us, inspiring us, and bringing joy and meaning wherever it goes. We are having our Dream Big spring fund drive here at ACG and it’s because of our community and supporters that we are able to share stories like this. Click here to learn more about supporting ACG.
We are ecstatic to announce the streaming release, in partnership with Alamo Drafthouse and Criterion, of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent thriller The Lodger with a lush and evocative ACG-commissioned musical score by our Artistic Director Joe Williams.
Watch The Lodger now, through Alamo On-Demand
A gripping tale of a mysterious lodger, a series of murders, and a beautiful show girl. The Lodger is Alfred Hitchcock’s third film. This 1927 silent classic is the first to introduce his distinct artistic vision exploring themes of voyeurism, ambiguity, violence, and sexuality with Hitchcock’s brilliant cinematography and storytelling. The Lodger also includes Hitchcock’s very first trademark cameo. In this release, you’ll experience The Lodger in a whole new way with Joe Williams’ brilliant 2015 musical score for four guitars and cello, commissioned by Austin Classical Guitar in 2017. Superstar cellist Bion Tsang performs with the international award-winning members of Texas Guitar Quartet in this incredibly special new release. Williams’ new score was recorded by Eric Pearson and Todd Waldron, and mastered by Brad Sayles.
Dive deep into The Lodger with Artistic Director and Composer Joe Williams, ACG’s Executive Director Matt Hinsley, and Founder of the Alamo Drafthouse Tim League, in this featurette!
Dream Big: A Beautiful Letter to ACG from Ayame Castel
We dream of a world where music is here for everyone, connecting us, inspiring us, and bringing joy and meaning wherever it goes. We are having our Dream Big spring fund drive here at ACG and it’s because of our community and supporters that we are able to share stories like this. Click here to learn more about supporting ACG.
Below is a beautiful letter from graduating senior and ACG Youth Orchestra member, Ayame Castel.
In addition to being a great young guitarist, Ayame is an extraordinary competitive athlete, and she’ll be attending the highly competitive US Naval Academy this fall. We couldn’t be more excited for her, and thankful for our time together.
Dear Austin Classical Guitar,
I can’t believe that it has been five years since I first joined the ACG Youth Orchestra (ACGYO). I’m grateful to look back on the many thrilling experiences over the years that have truly changed me as a musician and as a person. I can’t thank ACG and ACGYO Director, Joe Williams, enough for the many distinct and fulfilling performances in churches, gardens, concert halls, and even movie theaters.
I think the most incredible experience I’ve had as part of the ACGYO was when we had the privilege to tour San Francisco and play in many different venues with musicians of all ages. Not only did we share our music, we also got to explore the culture and landscape of San Francisco such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Muir Woods! Although the past two years have been a challenge, and that is an understatement for many of us, we were still able to come together and perform virtually until finally in person again.
I wouldn’t have experienced what it’s like composing for a large guitar orchestra if it weren’t for ACG and Clarice Assad coming together and making it possible for us. I am so grateful that we were able to perform our composition with Clarice, Mosaic Variations, in person and then finish the season with performing Austin Pictures by Joe Williams in person as part of a huge guitar orchestra.
I would 100% do it all over again for the experiences, the people, and to flex our guitar skills and music to the world. ACGYO has inspired me to take advantage of new opportunities and to connect and make experiences with many people.
Thank you ACG!
Ayame Castel
We asked ACG Artistic Director, Joe Williams, for his thoughts after reading this wonderful letter form Ayame, and here’s what he had to say.
This letter takes me back to Ayame’s first rehearsal. She was there because her teacher, Stephen Krishnan, encouraged she try out. I am so proud of her and the journey she had with us. Ayame transformed from being unsure about the whole thing to being a rock. She became someone I always knew I could count on to lead or support – whatever the group needed. More than anything, it was fun to see her enjoy making music.
Ayame is starting a new journey now as a young adult and as a student in the U.S. Naval Academy. I believe the music she has made with the ACGYO will serve her for years to come and I’m so grateful she shared her presence with us. – Joe Williams
