Sacramento Guitar Society History – the 60's
By Bill Anderson
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Some history of the Classic Guitar Society of Sacramento during 1967 and 1968 extracted from Society newsletters.
La Guitarra en Sacramento
Synopsis of Issue No. 2 January, 1967
There have been a number of people locally who are passing themselves off as classical guitar teachers. I think they are undermining the work of the Society. We will be issuing display cards to our qualified teachers to indicate that they have the necessary background and experience to qualify as teachers of the classical guitar.
Earl Jacobson opened a guitar studio in Davis. Response was so good that he added another teacher, Lloyd Walker. The number of students continues to rise and a third teacher, Suzy Walker, has been added. Great guitar things are happening in Davis!
This is a reminder that we do have a library of sheet music for loan to our membership. Please contact Bob Ruston if you are interested in borrowing some of the music.
John Williams will be here on February 7, 1967, to present a concert in the Luther Burbank auditorium. He is sponsored by the P. M. Series.
George Gilmore, who brought the real guitar to Sacramento back in 1959, visited us during his recent trip. George is now teaching in Hawaii and he has started a guitar society in Honolulu. It already has over ninety members. He will be returning here in late May at which time he will present a concert on lute and guitar, conduct a players' workshop, and help with a guitar-playing contest.
The first session of the Classic Guitar Class being offered at the Fremont School for Adults has met with great success. The second session, which started shortly after the previous edition of our newsletter, was to be limited to 30 students - 150 applicants appeared on registration night! We were able to increase the number we could teach to 40. Another class in chord-style playing has been started to accommodate the overflow. Those who completed the first session are now in the Advanced Class. And yet another class has been started at the Hiram Johnson Adult Education School where Tony Yniguez is the teacher. The classes have been so successful that the San Juan District has started two more.
There is an article about guitars in the January issue of Readers Digest. It includes history of the instrument, styles of guitars, and names of practitioners. The article ends with a quote about the classical guitar from Vladimir Bobri from the New York Society: "The guitar is easiest of all instruments to play badly -- and the most difficult to play well."
Carlos Montoya, one of the world's greatest virtuosos on the flamenco guitar, performed recently at the Sacramento City College auditorium where he played as excellently as his acclaiming fame tells. His wife told me that his guitar was made by the famous Marcello Barbero in 1953, only a short time before his death in 1954. Among the pieces he played were the traditional Bulerias and the not-so-familiar Media Graniana.
Miss Ako Ito played for us on December 3 at the Unitarian Auditorium. She started her program with the difficult piece, Cancion del Emperador, by Narvaez. Judging by the audience preferences, her best pieces included the Grand Solo by Fernando Sor, and Suite Castellans by F. Moreno Torroba. The audience demanded two encores, one of which was transcribed from a piece for the koto.
Players at the November meeting included our featured soloist Michael Huffman who played many delightful pieces. Other players included Dr. Kossner, Laura Moreno, and the Ruston and Anderson duo. Our speakers of the evening were David Henderson who expounded on the many important principles of rhythm and Dr. Herbert Kossner who discussed the correct enunciation and pronunciation of musical terms as well as the names of composers and music.
At the January meeting "everything was just George" - George Nichols was the speaker and George Sakellariou the player. Nichols spoke about the guitar in art works of the master painters. He illustrated this with works by Vermeer, Bruegel, Watteau, Goya, Manet, Renoir, Sargent and others. Sakelariou, who is perhaps one of the guitar's new masters, tried out some of his new concert pieces including Prelude #3 by Villa-Lobos, Fantasia by Vinas, and two minuettes by F. M. Torroba.
The newsletter concluded with a discussion of meter.
Goya Guitars 1966 Catalogue
HISTORY
George Nichols accompanying dancer
in undated photos. Credit Bill Anderson.
