Dear Guitar Friends,
It’s time to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of Corvallis Guitar Society, and what a great two years it has been. Four wonderful concerts, twenty-three Society meetings including seventeen featured artists, but enough statistics, what’s most impressive is the quality of music that has been on show and not just from the professionals. There have been magical moments when our own members have got up at the open stage session to share their music and increasingly at our open group ensemble sessions where we are beginning to sound like something worth applauding J So a BIG Thank You to all our members for supporting our events and for joining in. Participation is a big theme for this guitar society and we want that to continue going forward.
Monthly Meeting Location Change
At the beginning of January we held the first meeting at our new monthly venue – Odd Fellows Hall and what a great venue it has turned out to be. The location is downtown Corvallis:
223 SW 2nd St, Corvallis, OR 97333
The entrance is between New Morning Bakery and Sedlaks Boots and Shoes.
Odd Fellows is the perfect setting with wonderful acoustics for a Guitar Society that is going to further inspire us going forward. And a special mention to Martin Erwig for writing a great piece of music for the ensemble! There is more to come, and I want to encourage everyone out there who has a modicum of music writing ambition to step up and write something for us to play! I am very pleased to announce that local acoustic blues guitarist Adam Scramstad will be our featured artist for our upcoming meeting on February 6th. Adam has played for us before and is a great musician and a great performer. Come along and enjoy a great evening of guitar music.
The agenda for the February 6th Meeting is as follows:
7:00 – 7:05pm Welcome
7:05 – 7:40pm Open Ensemble: bring your guitar, footstool and join in. Music can be downloaded from the website one week ahead of time.
7:40 – 8:10pm Open Stage: please share your music with us – all ages and abilities welcome.
8:10 – 8:20pm BREAK and Refreshments
8:20 – 9:00pm Featured Artist Adam Scramstad
The meeting will take place at the new location – Odd Fellows Hall in downtown Corvallis.
Upcoming Events
As we enter our third year, we have an exciting few months ahead of us:
We have an impressive featured artist line up for our monthly meetings over the coming months including:
Adam Scramstad – February
Yuri Liberzon – March
TBD – April
James Bishop-Edwards – May
Michael Harding – June
Led by our very own Berto Boyd, Flamenco Pacifico will be performing at the Majestic Theater on January 27th and 28th starting at 7:30pm. Check out the trailer on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yjn-8GjdTxg and for more information and tickets are available on the Majestic Theater website: http://bit.ly/2ht7mtM
I am delighted to announce that our headline performer for the Guitar Festival in June will be Chilean virtuoso Carlos Perez. If you have never heard Carlos play, this is a golden opportunity to see one of the world’s best classical guitarists right here in downtown Corvallis. The Guitar Festival is scheduled to take place on Friday 9th and Saturday 10th June 2017. Please mark your calendars and please tell your friends!
Classical guitar duo Neil and Tamara Caulkins are performing at the Willamette Heritage Center Pleasant Grove Church in Salem on the morning of Saturday 28th January at 10:30am. Neil and Tamara share a rich history of guitar and will be playing works from the early 19th century on period instruments. Neil and Tamara are planning to come to Corvallis to perform in May – more details will follow, and Neil is giving a paper on guitar improvisation in the early 19th century: Improvising Preludes in the Early Nineteenth- Century: Guitar Methods as an Uncommon Source for a Common Performance Practice. He’ll be speaking on Friday May 26th at 3pm at the Collier House on the University of Oregon campus.
And on the Teaching Front…
If you are interested in furthering your knowledge and playing of classical guitar in Corvallis by working with a teacher, there has never been a better time. There is a growing number of experienced and well qualified classical/related style guitar teachers in the area and we are all working together to create an environment to meet the needs and goals for all ages and abilities. If your want to know more, check out the guitar resources tab on the Corvallis Guitar Society website: https://corvallisguitarsociety.org/guitar-resources/
Thank you and I hope to see you on February 6th.
Best Regards
Jon Sharp
President, Corvallis Guitar Society