Monthly Meeting Recap and News for March 2025

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Greetings guitar fans,

Welcome to this month’s newsletter. Read below for a recap of our last meeting and upcoming guitar-related events.

The Monthly Meeting

Last Thursday we had a very full evening with a packed house and a visit by Australian luthier Adam Richardson, who currently resides in Bend.

PROGRAM

John Swinnerton – Sunset, Paschal Boogie (originals)

DJ Edmonds – Castles in the Air by Don Mclean, Can’t Find My Way Home by Steve Winwood

Steve Bismarck – A Prayer For You by Maria Linneman, Waters of March by Antonio Carlos Jobim

Art Baden – House on Pooh Corner by Kenny Loggins, Make You Feel My Love by Bob Dylan

Francesco Bard – Sleepers Awake by J.S. Bach, Capricho Árabe by Francisco Tárrega

~ Intermission ~

Brian Parris – Dark Eyed Cajun Woman by the Doobie Brothers, Gypsy Soul by Van Morrison, Turn the Page by Bob Seger

Neil and Elizabeth Holland – Moving On, John Prine’s Last Dance (originals)

Mark Turnbull – Veranda, Not So Much, Mademoiselle (originals)

Matt Dorris – Celeste y Blanco by Hector Ayala

Grant Ruiz (playing guitars by Adam Richardson) – Prelude No. 1 by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Soleares (trad. flamenco), Bulerías by Diego del Gastor

Monthly Meeting Recap and News for January 2025

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Greetings guitar fans,

Welcome to the New Year and this month’s newsletter. Read below for a recap of our last meeting and upcoming guitar-related events.


 


The Monthly Meeting

We had a very full evening of music and camaraderie with about 40 folks in attendance.

PROGRAM

John Swinnerton – Phoenix Rising (original)

DJ the Troubadour – Crazy (Willie Nelson)

Francesco Bard – C’est La Vie, The Sage (Greg Lake)
 
Randall Walker – Dangling Conversation, April (Paul Simon)

Brian Parris – The Heart That You Own (Dwight Yoakum), Tenderly Calling (John Denver), Into The Mystic (Van Morrison)

Mark Turnbull – The Good Sport, Ask (originals)

Matt Dorris – Elegy (J.K. Mertz)

~ Intermission ~

Aaron Haas (pictured above), our featured performer from Seattle, played a set of beautiful music:

Improvisation

Passacaille by Alexandre Tansman

Suite of Aaron’s arrangements of Yumi Kimura’s music from movies by Hayao Miyazaki:
• One Summer’s Day from Spirited Away
• The Legend of Ashitaka from Princess Mononoke
• Princess Mononoke’s Theme from Princess Mononoke
• Merry-Go-Round of Life from Howl’s Moving Castle

Prelude, Fugue, and Allegro by J.S. Bach, BWV 998
 


Announcements

Gypsy jazz guitarist Jimmy Grant and violin virtuoso Tim Kliphuis will play a small, intimate concert sponsored by the guitar society at Paschal Winery on Friday, February 28 at 7 P.M. Tickets and information will be available soon, with guitar society members (see below under “Membership News”) getting first access to tickets. They last time they played a house concert in Ashland to 60 people, the concert sold out in about 10 days!

Grant Ruiz and Dan Fellman (Canto Sol) play Sunday, January 19 from 3:30-5:30 P.M. at Paschal Winery, and on Sunday, January 26 from 5-7 P.M. at Belle Fiore Winery in Ashland. They will also play on Friday, February 14 (Valentines Day) from 7-9 P.M. at Liquid Lounge in Ashland.

Membership News

Thanks to a number of very generous donors, we raised $1,365 during our first fundraising drive, as well as $1,000 matched by the board! This will go a long way in helping the guitar society continue its mission

Since we are in a new year, it’s time to renew your membership or become a new member. Dues are the same as last year ($25 for a single membership, $40 for a family), but we’ve added some benefits. Click the button below to sign up and read more:

Become a member

We are now looking for new board members to help guide the guitar society through another exciting year of performances and community outreach activities.

Please respond to this message if you’re interested.

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A follow-up to last month’s PSA

Last month Grant described a potential scam that he experienced. It turns out that Matt Dorris, Jimmy Grant, and Bob Bath were also targeted by the scammer in the same way. Fortunately, everybody at some point became wary and backed away. Grant also learned that the scammer managed to procure legitimate paper stock used to print cashiers checks, which show the word void when scanned (above).

Monthly Meeting Recap and News for July 2024

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Greetings guitar fans,

Welcome to this month’s newsletter. Read below for a recap of our last meeting and upcoming guitar events coming this month! There’s also a special report on Grant’s visit to the Guitar Foundation of America conference this year.

The Monthly Meeting

There was a hot time in the ol’ town on Thursday night! The packed tasting room was warm and full of good music.

PROGRAM

Trillium (Francie Buckley, Judy Trautman, Kristi Schoenbachler) + 1 (Grant Ruz) – Dacw ‘Nghariad (trad. Welsh), Passacaglia by Lou Warde

Matt Bock – La Vals Espanole by Jose Ferrer, La Folia Variations by R. de Vidali (arr. Frank Longay)

Bob Bath – Europa by Carlos Santana

John Swinnerton – Introspection (original)

Mystic Bard (Francesco Bard, Heather Hutton) – Escape from the 12th House, Piscean Revelation (originals)

Brian Parris – Someone I Used to Know by Jack Clement, Long Long Time by Gary White

Mark Turnbull – Dogs, This Mortal Coil (originals)

Matt Dorris – Milonga by Jorge Cardoso

~ Intermission ~

Cameron O’Connor from Corvallis then took the stage and played a wonderful set, receiving a standing ovation and playing an encore for us.

All in Twilight (1st mvt) by Tori Takemitsu
Theme, Variations, and Finale by Manuel Ponce 
Farewell by John Dowland
Land of Enchantment by Michael Chapdelaine
Toodle-oo, Winter Waltz by Cameron
Granada by Isaac Albéniz (arr. Segovia/O’Connor)
Homenaje by Manuel de Falla
Cádiz by Albéniz (arr. Bream/O’Connor)

Outreach Corner

Grant Ruiz will play a set of Flamenco and Latin American music at the Jacksonville Library on Saturday, July 20, 2024 from 2pm to 3pm. This event is sponsored by the GSSO.

Announcements

On Sunday, August 4, Mystic Bard will play at Paschal Winery from 3:30 to 5:30pm.

For those of you interested in other guitar events, Hawaiian slack key guitarist Stephen Ingliss will play with pedal steel guitarist Barry Sless (who has played with Bobby Weir and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead) at Weisinger Family Winery on Friday, July 19 at 7pm. You can get more information here.

We’re thinking of starting a “classifieds” section of this newsletter, helping to connect people who are selling and looking for guitars. Watch this space!  If you have a guitar for sale or are looking for one, please write to grantruiz@ashlandhome.net.

Please consider becoming a member of the guitar society! Annual dues are $25 for individuals and $40 for a family membership (2 or more people) and help pay for logistical costs. They are good for the calendar year, January through December. Performers, teachers, luthiers, and repair people will have the added benefit of being included in the upcoming Resource page of our website, plus the Society will help announce your services.

Grant’s GFA trip report

Hi, this is Grant, GSSO’s field reporter (for now). I went to the Guitar Foundation of America conference from Monday, June 17 to Saturday, June 22 at Cal State Fullerton. I attended the preliminaries, semifinals, and finals of the international competition. Dragos Ilie, who played a wonderful concert for us in May, made it all the way to the final four out of forty! He mysteriously ended up finishing third. Dragos recently posted on Facebook saying that some people disagreed with his choice to end his set with A Night in Tunisia by Dizzy Gillespie, which he played for us as an encore in May. You can catch his complete performance in the finals here. All of the finalists were stunning players and worth checking out: 

1. Leonela Alejandro (Puerto Rico)
2. Hao Yang (China)
3. Dragos Ilie (Romania)
4. Francisco Luis (Portugal)

During the conference I got to hear some wonderful concerts, including by Patterson & Sutton (cello and guitar), Duo Mantar (mandolin and guitar with Adam Levin), Petra Polackova, Andras Csaki, the Canadian Guitar Quartet, the Kupinski Duo, and Paul Galbraith, who was inducted into the GFA Hall of Fame at the end of the week. Check these people out as well if you love the classical guitar. Listening to such extraordinary guitar music was uniquely inspirational.

I also attended lectures on arranging pop tunes for the guitar, the origins of the guitar quartet, guitar education, and guitars as a energy transference devices. At the last lecture I got to play a guitar with no back. It sounded just as bad as you might imagine.

Probably the most fun was hanging out with and talking to other guitarists like Elina Chekan (who concertized here with her husband René Izquierdo in November ’23), Bill Kanengiser of the LAGQ, Meng Su, Andy Levin, Adam del Monte, Martha Masters (Director of the GFA), Michael Partington, Paul Galbraith, and composer Steven Goss. Adam, Martha, Michael, and Paul have all played for the guitar society, and all had fond memories of being here. (Michael and Martha were our first guitar series artists back in 2004!). I also got to spend time with luthiers Greg Byers, Jennifer Trowbridge, and Jack Sanders. Jack was the guitar instructor at my alma mater, Pomona College.

If you ever want to seriously geek out on classical guitar, the GFAs are a great place to be. Next year they will be in Louisville, Kentucky.