Dear Guitar Friends,
Please take note of three news items in this, our belated July missive:
Corvallis Guitar Society Day at the Corvallis Farmer’s Market is set for 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturday, July 23. Do come and play if you have a mind to; we would especially welcome some finger-style players among the classical and flamenco types. And yes, it’s fine to strum chords and sing a tune or two, or play duets with another instrumentalist, guitarist or otherwise. We’re setting up 15-minute slots on the schedule; write to Tom Strini, at [email protected] to arrange a time. As of this writing, only the 10 a.m., 11:45 a.m. and noon slots are filled. Please sign up; but if you just show up unannounced, we’ll still try to work you in. We’ll have microphones, chairs and music stands on site, and a canopy to keep you in the shade.
At the market, we’ll also have a table set up and staffed. Volunteers are welcome for that duty; email Strini. We will gather email addresses to expand our newsletter and talk up the society and its activities to passers-by. We’ll also be selling tickets to the Jaxon Williams program, which brings us to our next item.
CGS will present guitarist Jaxon Williams in an intimate concert at Troubadour Music Center, 521 S. 2nd Street, in Downtown Corvallis, at 8
p.m. Friday, July 29. Tickets are $15 at Grass Roots Books, at our table at the Farmers’ Market on July 23, and online via Brown Paper Tickets. ($16.52 including the Brown Paper handling fee.)
Williams, an Ashland native, won the Oregon high school classical guitar competition in 2005 and 2006, and several more prestigious competitions since then. He holds guitar performance degrees from Brigham Young University (BMus.) and Arizona State University (MMus.). This fall, he will begin his DMA program at the University of Southern California, where he will be graduate teaching assistant under William Kannengiser. On top of all that, Williams has studied both classical and flamenco guitar and concertized extensively in Spain. His Corvallis program will focus on music by Spanish composers.
On August 1, we will resume our normal monthly first-Monday meetings. As usual, we’ll meet at 7 p.m. on the third floor of Gracewinds Music, 137 SW 3rd Street. Enter via the alley way, next door south from the gyros shop. As usual, we invite attendees to add a little free-will cash, in lieu of dues, to the coffee can on the sign-up table.
Since we’re presenting Jaxon Williams on the Friday before the meeting, we won’t have a guest artist at our Monday meeting. On the upside, well expand both our ensemble reading time and our open-mike session. Be sure to download the ensemble selections — and brush up that piece you’ve been wanting to play in this semi-public, friendly, low-pressure setting.
