Coming off of the Holidays, which were rich with time with family, friends, and Glenda, the New Year has charged out of the gate at a remarkable pace.

ACGS is growing again.  With growth has come interesting challenges, particularly in the areas of staffing, process and communication.  last week web traffic related to our curriculum, GuitarCurriculum.com, roughly quintupled (!) including inquiries from all around the English-speaking world.  More donations and ticket sales are fueling a higher level of service than we’ve ever produced before and the main theme of 2012 has been to figure out how to scale up sustainably.

The first week of the New Year I found myself at dinner at Fonda San Miguel with Maestro Peter Bay, Texas Performing Arts Director Kathy Panoff, composer Graham Reynolds, Conspirare’s Ann Hume Wilson, Texas Music Office’s Casey Monahan and several others – talking about big problems and possible solutions in the arts.  What an honor!

The next night was dinner at our place with Joe Williams and Quentin Lucas… joe wrote the amazing piece we premiered at Austin Pictures.

Another early highlight (January 8th) was our Alamo Drafthouse afternoon showing of the KLRU TV Special about Austin Pictures.  Many of the major contributors convened to watch the show on the big screen and answer trivia questions like: “What did Matt Hinsley begin when he was 6? A) Guitar, B) Vegetarianism, C) Tennis, or, D) Tae Kwon Do”?  (answer below!).

Speaking of the Alamo, we’re cooking up something big for Friday June 22nd!  Think food, wine, outdoor film, live musical performance and armless knife-throwing… and you’re on the right track.  More later!

The week following began with a marvelous lunch with the new president of Austin Community College.  We talked about art and community, of course, and did a little dreaming too.  That week a wrote an article for Austin start-up magazine: Popular Hispanics, about guitar in Austin.  Should come out around South By Southwest.

My cousin Laura came in later that week and we went with Glenda to see the “Austin Grand Prix” swim meet at UT.  It was my first major swim meet.  I left inspired!  Plus we got to see heavy hitters like Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Missy Franklin.

The third week Glenda and I went to… Harry Potter World in Orlando!  It’s amazing I’ve written about anything else, really.  We had a blast.  Saw my Mom and step Dad, my brother and his family, my sister and her family, my Austin Marcia and… my 98 year old Grandfather and his wife Marilyn.  Grandpa is doing unbelievably well, and it was a simply marvelous visit.

This past week was nonstop.  Tuesday night I talked and played for the Point Venture Lion’s Club, Wednesday I pitched on the air live at KMFA for their 45th birthday, Thursday I was on live with John Aielli on KUT’s Eklektikos and our Swedish guest artist Johannes Moller, and Friday we were on Fox 7 Morning News.  Johannes is an amazing young man.

Dreaming big dreams these days.  And searching for the time to put plans into action.  Deeply thankful for each and every day, each opportunity, and each person I’m fortunate enough to meet and work with along the way.

Things begin to get really crazy now.  I’m traveling almost every two weeks for the entire spring.  Immediate items of interest are our gala at One World Theater with Eliot Fisk on February 11th and, before that, I’ll play live at the Cactus Cafe on February 6th for their Views and Brews.  Before THAT I’ll go to Oklahoma City (this Wednesday) to conduct about 70 kids in a city-wide guitar festival!

And before all of that, I’m going to have a cup of tea, and then go present Johannes Moller in concert on our International Concert Series.  What fun!

Oh, the answer to the trivia question is: “B, Vegetarianism”!

Professional highlights were our presentation of Isaac Bustos on our International Concert Series, our Classical Cactus featuring flamenco player Juanito Pascual and Jay Kacherski, our Austin Guitar Salon featuring Alejandro Montiel at the glorious home of Frances and Robin Thompson, my talk for Austin District Music teachers Association, my trip to perform, teach and lecture at Texas State University, and my talk – two days later – at UT about community arts advocacy.

November is always a time of reflection for me.  I think a lot about what I’m thankful for, of course, I think about where I’ve been and where I’m going.  I have a tremendous amount to be thankful for in general, personally, professionally, in 2011, and beyond.  For sure one of the things I’m most profoundly grateful for is the continued opportunity I have been given to work in the arts world.  I’m so thankful for the amazing team I have at ACGS, my incredible board, and our wonderful supportive community.

I should also mention that we’re in the middle of a very successful fund drive.  Mike and Tobin Levy and the Meyer Levy Foundation offered $10K in matching funds to help with our end of year $40K matching drive.  We’re over $30K of the way there!  This amidst news of 3 separate grants of $50K, $25K and $10K that all were awarded in November – none of which we knew we would be receiving!  With this support, I am optimistic we will achieve our ambitious goals of the coming year.

So much has happened.  I wish I could chronicle the amazing people I’ve had the incredible fortune to meet these last six weeks – and the conversations that have been had.  But I’ll suffice with sharing this email sent to me by my director of Education, Travis Marcum, following a concert he led for the kids in our program at the Travis County Juvenile Justice System – a program, by the way, that will be the subject of a KUT radio story in the near future!

The pace has not slowed.  The week of October 3rd I had a Finance meeting where we determined we needed to move aggressively into fundraising mode (something we have since done with some success, thankfully).  I also had a marvelous lunch at Fino with Travis County Clerk Amalia Rodriguez Mendoza who introduced me to Lori Moreno of Texas Gas Service and the ONEOK Foundation.  We had a blast and I think there’s some synergy there!  I gave a lecture and performance for about 300 at the Thompson Conference Center that Thursday for UT Lamp, and had lunch Friday with my good friend, and director of Texas Choral Consort, Brent Baldwin.  The week after I had a wonderful lunch with Austin Asset Management Company’s founder John Henry McDonald.  John Henry is on my board, and was a presenting sponsor of Austin Pictures – we met basically to catch up and start thinking about the future.  We also finalized details that week with Mike Levy for the 5-year, $50,000 grant he is generously giving to ACGS through the Meyer-Levy Foundation!  We announce that this week.  It will be $10,000 per year offered as a matching opportunity to our patrons.  Mike is the founder, and was long-time publisher, of Texas Monthly Magazine.  Other highlights from that week were a meeting with my friend Kim Perlak at Concordia University with the Dean of their business school – I’ll be executive in residence for a day this coming spring to talk about nonprofs in the arts to their students!  I had a fantastic chat with Denis Azabagic about a Balkan-Indian music project he’s engaged in that might end up in Austin (!).  And I had a wonderful dinner meeting with a potential new board member.  The week of the 17th began with my Education Director, Travis Marcum, and I giving a talk as part of a panel at UT on arts and the Juvenile Justice System.  A nice review came out in the Daily Texan that begins by focusing on Travis’ presentation!  We had a wrap up meeting with Julie Stoakley who volunteered to be our event planner primarily for the dinner we held at Austin Pictures, and I had a marvelous lunch with my friend Steve Golab – owner of FG Squared, a web development firm here in town.  Other fun things that week were a coffee with Emily Marks – who has run the dynamic Girls Rock Camp in Austin for five years – and then lunch at Marc and Carolyn Seriff’s gorgeous 30th floor condo in the Austonian with a board member and the director of education for Zach Scott Theatre (Nat Miller).  Carolyn wanted to get me and Nat together to talk about education programming.  It was marvelous.  Carolyn is on Zach’s board, and she and Marc just gave an unbelievably generous gift of $500,000 to Zach Scott.  They are also great supporters of ACGS.  Marc was one of the founders or AOL.  We are very lucky to have such generous and artistically-minded people in Austin.  We produced two shows that week, too.  Classical Cactus was Thursday – over-sold, with 150 or so in the audience and a line out the door!  The Saturday we did an Austin Guitar Salon concert at the unbelievable home of prominent arts philanthropist Jane Sibley.  And that brings us to this past week!  Whew!  Highlights this week were a lunch with KUT’s Hawk Mendenhall and Rebecca McEnroy to talk about future plans (always good stuff).  We met at Vivo’s for lunch on Tuesday.  Thursday night I was a “celebrity judge” for something called, I think, the “Wildfire Start Up Slam”.  This is something where entrepreneurs have a few minutes to pitch their ideas before judges and an audience, we ask questions, and then determine a score – which we hold up over our heads ala Dancing with the Stars.  It was fun, and very interesting to hear about new ideas, and see the people behind them.  The event was downtown at the Tap Room.

As always, so much more is going on.  But those are, at least, some of the highlights from the past month!

November is an interesting shift for me. I’ll be playing a few concerts, and giving quite a few talks.  Our final major event of the year is Saturday the 5th at 8PM.  Then we don’t have another until January 28th!  (little events, but no really big ones).  We will mainly turn our presentation sites toward Guitars Under the Stars on February 11th with Eliot Fisk.  That’ll be our next major effort.

The show is this Saturday, and here’s our top-twelve favorite things online so far.

#12          The article in the Oklahoman about the kids from OKC coming down.

#11           Our talk with composer Joseph Williams II about his new piece.

#10           A clip of Caballero… doing the amazing thing he does!

#9            Our talk with the Miró String Quartet.

#8            The wonderful community pictures shared via Facebook.

#7            A conversation with the Alamo’s Tim League.

#6            The great Austin Pictures Article at CultureMap.

#5            This great TV video story about the students from Brownsville.

#4            Our talk with Peter Bay.

#3            The Austin Chronicle Article about Austin Pictures.

#2            The incredible video piece by KUT about the artists!

…and…

#1            The 11 commissioned paintings: see them online here!

I’m heading over to YNN this morning… got a new haircut and everything!

Media: Austin Pictures will be featured live on YNN today at 11am.  A full-hour radio story will air at 7PM tonight on Classical Austin on KMFA, 89.5 FM.  Friday morning at 8:50am Jorge Caballero will perform live on the Fox 7 Morning News program.  A funny and inspiring video story on the artists just came out online on KUT’s Storyboard (whole story here)!  And a great event overview article is here at CultureMap.

Also yesterday this great TV Story came out about the students in Brownsville who are busily preparing to come here to be part of the show!  It’s a great companion piece to the article in the Oklahoman a few weeks back about the high school students in Oklahoma City who are also preparing like crazy.

Tickets: Are available at (877) 435-9849 or online.  Save 15-20% by purchasing ACGS Season Tickets online or at 512-300-2247 (includes Austin Pictures).  ACGS Season tickets will be sold only through 5PM tomorrow (Thursday).  ACGS Season Tickets will be unavailable Friday or at the door Saturday, though single tickets for Austin Pictures will be available as long as supplies last.

Parking: The best guide for parking at ACL Live is online here. You’ll see 7 nearby options on a map with details below it!

Austin Pictures Insight Videos: Alamo Drafthouse’s Tim League, ASO’s Maestro Peter Bay, Composer Joseph Williams, Miró String Quartet.

Most popular AP blog posts: Artwork has arrived, The Program for Saturday Night, Austin Pictures Top 10, Jorge Caballero.

It’s all here: Austin Pictures

This is easily the most ambitious single presentation I’ve ever attempted with ACGS.  And it’s coming up this Saturday night, October 1st, at 8PM at  ACL Live at the Moody Theater!

I was inspired last year when one of my favorite artists, guitarist Jorge Caballero, told me he was programming the impossibly difficult, and incredibly beautiful and evocative, “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Modest Mussorgsky for solo guitar.  That combined with our friendship with KLRU and the spectacular new ACL venue opening led to Austin Pictures.  It’s a multimedia, highly collaborative show, all swirling around the Pictures at an exhibition, with visual art, music and film, some of the greatest musicians I know along side of student artists, musicians and filmmakers.

We’re gonna have a very good time!

Plus we auctioned off a doubles tennis match against Jorge and me for the morning after the concert – so the pressure is really on!

Tons of info is at my newest AP blog: “Austin Pictures Top 10” where I give 9 links to videos and online stories about the project.  Check it out!

Austin Pictures is rapidly approaching.  This project is huge!  Right now the kids are furiously finishing their paintings, the composer has written all but one movement of the guitar orchestra piece, and we’ve distributed the parts far and wide, the student filmmakers have engaged in their projects as well.  The office is buzzing like crazy – I’ve filmed five video features we’re about to start releasing including a monologue from me about the production overall, and interviews with the composer, with the Alamo Drafthouse’s Founder and CEO Tim League, Austin Symphony Orchestra’s Maestro Peter Bay, and the Miro Quartet (that one was filmed this morning!).  We’re in daily production meetings with ACL Live, the Alamo, KMFA, the various film folks, our event planner, Silicon Labs, and more.

The energy is incredible.

And then there’s our education program.  I shared this story with my board yesterday in an email:

###

Dear ACGS Board of Directors,

Yesterday we had a meeting at the Juvenile Justice System with the Director of Fine Arts for AISD, our case worker at Gardner Betts, Travis and myself.  The conference room we normally meet in was booked, so we ended up in another room.  The case worker informed us that the room divides two parts of the facility and so kids might be escorted through during our meeting.

Sure enough, about 15 minutes into a terrific meeting, a guard knocked on one of the doors and the case worker waved him in.  He and another guard were escorting about 10 high school boys in a line.  When students walk at Gardner Betts, they have to keep their hands behind their backs – and the group shuffled in looking primarily at the floor.

Then they saw us, and, particularly, Travis.  It turned out that three of the boys have been in guitar class there.  They simply lit up!  It was a remarkable transformation.  A boy near the front wanted very much to stop and talk to Travis, and asked permission to do so – which was granted.  He told Travis that today would be his last day at Gardner Betts.  he had received his GED and would be moving to Houston and… could he please have a guitar to take with him? We have been giving instruments to the kids that successfully complete the program there.  He was proud, he was excited, and he really wanted to have that guitar.  He will, of course, be leaving Gardner Betts today with a guitar.  The other two boys in the back of the line are still there and are still in guitar class.  One told Travis excitedly about the new music he just learned, and said he just couldn’t wait to show Travis in class later on.

Our program will continue at Gardner Betts this fall as the only for-credit arts course ever at the facility.  I know now more than ever – firsthand – that the class is changing these young peoples’ lives. The UT School of Social Work is also compiling a study from this past summer – the data is compelling and should be available soon.

###

Our program doubled this year.  Guitar programs opened in 26 schools for us last week including the Juvenile Justice System and also a new program at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.  It’s now a daily occurrence that we receive requests for new curriculum subscriptions or some kind of guidance from someplace around the world.  We recently launched a redesigned curriculum site – check it out!

It seems like the next several weeks will be owned by Austin Pictures.  I hope it’s a wild success and that folks have a terrific time.  We have tremendous amounts of work to do between now and then, but it’s about the ride, not the destination, no?

Tango! was fabulous.  Bandini-Chiachiaretta was amazing – folks loved, loved, loved it!  Here’s great review in the Statesman.

And speaking of the Statesman – a lovely article came out last Sunday focusing on the growth, service, capacity and education program of ACGS.  Wow!

This week officially we’re gearing up for our final concert in our Latin Summer Series - Viva Mexico! It’s going to be a great show.  Our major efforts, of course, are now going toward other things, though, since the work for that series is mostly over now.  Today was an amazing day – at one point we had about 10 people crammed into our little 3-4 room offices, all working feverishly on various projects.  Wow does that feel good!  The main work?  Launching our new series and, especially, Austin Pictures.  Stay tuned!

We have a wonderful intern, Jared Huff, in from Arizona.  An extremely talented intern in from Boston as well, Colin Thurmond.  The educators were in working today, along with a volunteer – Lloyd Pond, April Long (Operations Manager) and Chuck Lutke (Development Director).  Then we had guests: we had interviewees for a new educator space we’re filling, as well as teachers from AISD coming through for free lessons and training we’re giving all summer so that the new AISD programs go as smoothly as possible – did mention our programs in Austin are more than doubling this year?  So the wheels are really turning right now to prep in the best ways possible.

What has been fun lately…. let’s see, working backwards: Sunday Glenda and I went to Dripping Springs for an amazing country dinner at our friends Hester and Webb’s home – Webb built the place over the last 20 years or so, and it’s unbelievable.  Saturday night we had margarita’s with our friend, and Austin celebrity cookbook author, Lucinda Hutson at Fonda San Miguel, before scampering off to an ACGS party for our adult ensemble members.  Friday night we had a wonderful dinner with my friend (and ACGS board member) Ken Ferguson and his wife Elaine before heading over to Zach Scott Theater to see Hairspray – Ken and Elaine’s son is the male lead, Link, and he was awesome!  Friday I met KMFA’s new program director Keith Neisler, who is going to be a dynamic new force in Austin’s cultural landscape, before heading over to lunch at UT club with John Henry McDonald (owner/founder of Austin Asset Management Company) and our new friend Larry Walker.  Last Wednesday and Thursday I got the guitar out and gave back-to-back lecture/performances at the Austin Newcomers Club (for about 100) and the Austin Woman’s Club (for about 50).  I spoke mostly about service through ACGS – and sprinkled in some performance pieces throughout.  A Tuesday highlight was lunch at Hyde Park bar and Grill with the Austin Chronicle’s Art Editor Robert Faires, who told me all about his recent trip to Oregon and their visit to the Ashland Shakespeare Fest.  Monday began with a visit to Silicon Labs to sort out logistics for the dinner they are hosting for us on October 1st for Austin Pictures!  Tango! was two nights ealier – and was sold out – but I’d be remiss not to mention that on Sunday the 17th we went and saw the final installment of Harry Potter – and loved it!

Here I am with Cesare Chiachiaretta (left) and Giampaulo Bandini having crepes after being on TV, but before going over to KUT, the morning before their concert here!

Here's what a sold out tango show looks like at the Mexican American Cultural Center. They were amazing!

Here's a casual shot from the side of me playing at Austin Newcomers Club. They meet at Green Pastures - I had a simply wonderful time and felt that my talk there and the one at Austin Woman's Club the next day, was really well received.

I snapped this in the office today. That's Travis Marcum, ACGS' director of education on the left, Asst. Director jeremy Osborne through the door, and our new intern (and amazing doctoral-level New England Conservatory guitarist) Colin Thurmond standing and working at the file cabinet since we had just reached critical mass at the office!

And speaking of radio!  I just finished listening to my interview with Dianne Donovan on KMFA a few minutes ago.  I was talking about this weekend’s show, of course, but also giving her a preview of our giant Austin Pictures Project for October 1st.  Then she played a few excerpts of Jorge Caballero playing (Jorge will be our guest artist, along with 150 student guitarists, the Miro Quartet, Peter Bay and more!) and all of a sudden the clouds parted and the sun started shining again.  My goodness, Caballero is a genius.

Our logo for Austin Pictures! I don't think I shared this yet... I totally love it. Our designer (Claudia) is awesome!

I can’t believe it’s July!  Since last post I went to GFA in Georgia.  It was a nice, warm event with lot’s of friends.  Very nice not to be running it this time around!  Some other recent highlights:

We secured major sponsorships, a combined $42,500 in all, plus in-kind and rental values, for Austin Pictures from Austin Asset Management Company, Michael Fields with Ameriprise Financial, The Kodosky Foundation, HEB, and Silicon Labs.  We also have received substantial media sponsorships from KMFA, KUT, YNN, KLRU, and The Austin Chronicle.  I feel like we can move forward with agility and freedom now as we try to create the greatest event we can on 10/1.

Lot’s of media meetings, both local and national… crossing fingers!

Yesterday I had an exhilarating meeting with Austin Chamber Music Center Director Michelle Schumann, and Conspirare Artistic Director Craig Hella Johnson and Exec Dir Ann Hume Wilson.  Wow!  It was fun, we’re talking about playing together – possibly in a very major way.  We’ll see where it leads…

Tomorrow we have our ACGS board meeting – Joey Ikner is flying in to present his thoughts on our education program.  Joey is a guitar in ed wizard from Loudoun County Virginia who we hope to have increasingly involved with us here at ACGS as GuitarCurriculum.com continues to grow.

I went to the Davis Cup last Friday with my tennis partner Mike!  US lost, but it was awesome tennis.  Oh, and speaking of tennis… Jorge Caballero plays, and he’s agreed to let me auction a doubles match against he and I (followed by lunch) for the morning after Austin Pictures!

Oh, did I report yet that we’ll more than double service to 22 schools in AISD this fall?  That has the ed team working double time, and we’re trying to sort out how to support it!

Things are really moving in wonderful ways.  It feels like I’m at the very edge of my capacity, and sometimes that can be uncomfortable, especially when folks are waiting on me… but I am constantly aware of how fortunate I am to have the opportunities that I have to make things happen in our community through art.  This is a big week with the board, Joey, the Tangueros, a new intern who started yesterday (who’s fabulous!), and countless projects.. but hopefully with major events behind us for two weeks, Monday will bring some perspective!