5 minute read
A Community of Strings by Elias Gruber
from The Austin Arpeggio
by LASA Ezine
A picture of a classical guitar’s soundhole
A Community of Strings
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By: Elias Gruber
You have always wanted to learn an instrument and perform music. Finally with the help of Austin Classical Guitar you have been able to do so. You get onto the stage and sit down, everyone watching you in complete silence. You play your song with precision, hitting every note perfectly. The audience breaks the silence with an eruption of applause. You smile, amazed you were able to perfect such a complex piece and learn an instrument so quickly.
The Austin Classical Guitar Society (ACG) is a non-profit organization that helps people learn how to play the guitar and makes music
more available to people. ACG is a place where you can play and learn music with others. In addition to teaching people to play the guitar they also have concerts and help schools in poorer areas have a successful guitar program.
“Austin Classical Guitar is a nonprofit organization that exists to inspire people in our community through deep personal experience. And what that means is that our organization exists to fulfill that mission rather than to make money.” says Matthew Hinsley, the executive director of ACG. He believes that guitar can be more than just a musical instrument and that it can create friendships and a community of people helping each other learn. He says that “The concert is one way we serve people. It’s our organizing principle. It’s the excuse for people to get together. But when they get together, there are other things that happen. We make friends with each other, we smile, when people arrive, we share the celebration of beauty, we maybe perhaps share across cultures, maybe the artist is from another part of the world.”.
ACG has many programs. One of which is the ensembles. An ensemble is a group of people who play music together. At ACG there are two adult ensembles and a youth ensemble. In the ensembles over fall and spring, you learn various pieces which you play at the end of the season in a concert. “Community ensembles are an opportunity for people of all ages to get together and make music as a group, and find friendship
and camaraderie, and a chance to make something beautiful,” says Hinsley.
A lot of thought also goes into picking the songs for the community ensemble to play. Joe Williams, the artistic director and composer in residence(a person who composes music on site), curates the music for ACG’s concert series and youth ensemble, which he conducts. “It’s music that our ensemble can play and develop to be able to play if they can’t play it yet, but they can maybe play soon. And things that they can be expressive with, things that might hopefully move them, that when they play it, they enjoy it. It’s like puzzle pieces, you find all these pieces that kind of fit together in a season that complement each other.” he says.
Another part of ACG is the concerts, they are a chance for people to show what they have learned and also an opportunity to bring in future guitarists to ACG. The concert sets include the ensemble’s concerts, the community engagement concerts where Joseph Palmer, community engagement artist, plays free concerts at schools, nursing homes, and other places to share music and bring people in, and others including independent artists.
A lot more goes into a concert than just a person getting on a stage and playing music. Lots of preparation has to be done before a concert can be performed. “There’s a lot of pre-planning that goes into [a concert]. Generally,
“The concert is one way we serve people. It’s our organizing principle. It’s the excuse for people to get together. But when they get together, there are other things that happen. We make friends with each other, we smile, when people arrive, we share celebration of beauty, we maybe perhaps share across cultures, maybe the artist is from another part of the world.” - Matthew Hinsley
Matthew Hinsley Matthew Hinsley Playing Guitar Playing Guitar
what happens is the artistic director, Joe Williams, has a plan for the season. He’ll say that we have this artist on the stage. And then from there, I ask certain questions about the technical aspects of that concert, such as do we need amplification? What kind of lighting do we want? That type of thing. And then I contract the people that we need to have. And get them scheduled.” says Jess Griggs, director of production. The third section
of ACG is guitar in schools, the way ACG helps schools create successful guitar programs. One part of it is guitarcurriculum.com, a website for teachers and students to help learn and teach guitar. It also includes helping guitar classes by providing instruments, teaching teachers, and much more.
“Guitar in schools kind of comprehends everything that I’ve just described with regard to
our guitarcurriculum. com and our services that make guitar possible in schools. Now, that’s a tricky one, services that make guitar possible in schools, that’s a wide range of things.” says Hinsley,“For example, right now, today, in AISD, there is one school where a longtime teacher left. And now two new teachers who know nothing about guitar, have inherited 100 guitar students. Our job is to make that work.”
In the future ACG is planning on expanding all their programs and reaching out to more people. They are also making a new venue to play all their concerts which is
hopefully going to be complete and in use by December 3.
The Austin Classical Guitar Youth Ensemble
