Our Story: Who we are
The Tucson Guitar Society, formed in 1987, is a nonprofit, community-based organization.
Our goal is to provide local guitar enthusiasts with opportunities to meet other aficionados, improve their playing, and attend guitar performances and events. The Society sponsors workshops, concerts and classes throughout the year.
We also work with other arts organizations to expand the reach of our instrument.
Society members range from appreciative non-players through all levels of performers, from beginners to professionals. All members are eligible to receive discounts on activities sponsored by the Society.
MEET the tgs BOARD
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Chairman Emeritus, Treasurer Pro tem
Joined the TGS board in 2010 while still in transition from the Chicago area to being a full-time Tucsonan.
While her training was in finance, she brought with her a long-standing enthusiasm for classical music, in particular guitar. Her previous community work had been with Friends Against Aids, an organization dedicated to supporting families with children being treated for HIV infection at the University of Chicago.
Ms. Pernet is also a director on the boards of the Tucson Desert Song Festival and True Concord Voices and Orchestra.
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President
Joined TGS in 2023.
Born in Mexico, Misael is one of the most talented guitarists of his generation. Misael is a recent DMA graduate of the Bolton Guitar Studies program at U of A, where he also received his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Music. He has an additional Master degree with top honors in guitar from the University of Alicante, in Spain.
Misael received 10 international first prizes in guitar competitions in North America and Europe. He also won 23 first prizes at the Bolton Guitar Studies internal competitions, three of which being the prestigious David Russell Bach Prize awards. He was a 5 time recipient of the Steve Schulman Award. In addition, he was the recipient of multiple academic awards such as the Music Advisory Board Graduate Distinguished Award (2020), the Creative Achievement Award (2018), and the Northern Trust Distinguished Graduate Student Award (2015).
Misael is also one of the top Flamenco guitarists in the country, and continuously performs with the most prominent flamenco companies in the area. His second solo Flamenco Guitar CD is set to release in September of 2024.
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TGS Orchestra, Conductor
Joined TGS in 2010.
Dr. José Luis Puerta is an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music. Jose Luis served as TGS President until summer of 2023. He collaborates with multiple ensembles including Grupo Riken, Tucson Guitar Quartet, Puerta-Vázquez Duo, and the Borderland Ensemble.
For more on Jose Luis, click here!
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Bolton Guitar Studies, Liason
Joined TGS in 2020.
Born in Bucharest, Romania, Ana Maria Iordache received her Bachelor's in Music Performance from the National University of Music in Bucharest. She holds a Master's in Classical Guitar Performance, from the University of Alicante, Spain. Currently, she is pursuing her DMA degree at the University of Arizona. In 2017 she released her debut album “Reverie”, produced by the Romanian label E&E Music Production.
For more on Ana Maria, click here!
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Tohono Chul Concert Series, Director
Joined TGS in 2022.
Born in Tucson, Arizona, Dante Olita has been surrounded by the world of music and guitar for his entire life, learning the guitar at a young age and playing vast styles and genres, from acoustic and fingerstyle guitar to the classical guitar. Having discovered the classical guitar after working with an alumnus of the U of A Bolton Guitar Studies program, Dante Olita has dove head first into being a committed student of the craft. He is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in music performance at the University of Arizona’s Bolton Guitar Studies program under the tutelage of Professor Thomas Patterson. Dante has had the opportunity to study with international artists such as David Russell, Sergio Assad, and Antigoni Goni. Having already participated in the Guitar Foundation of America Festival and the 16th Edition of the Volterra Project, Dante is looking forward to studying abroad and attending more international festivals and competitions.
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TGS Orchestra, Liaison
Joined TGS in 2022.
Classical guitarist Jonathan Rodríguez Ortega was born in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, México. He began his classical guitar studies in 2013 at Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa with Pavel Meza as his guitar professor. In 2018 he was able to travel to Bogotá, Colombia for a semester to study with Edwin Guevara as part of an international exchange program from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional. Jonathan Rodríguez Ortega has taken masterclasses with excellent classical guitarist from around the world including: Juan Carlos López, Krishnasol Jímenez, Martha Masters, Alfredo Amezcua, Juan Carlos Laguna, Eduardo Fernández, Abel García Ayala, Omán Kaminsky and Pablo Garibay. He was awarded with the 1st prize at the Universidad Autónoma de Sinaloa guitar competition (2017) Sinaloa’s state classical guitar competition “Heriberto Soberanes Lugo” (2017) and 3 rd prize at El Nogal guitar competition in Bogotá, Colombia (2018). He was also awarded with the Fulbright García-Robles grant in 2021 which he is currently using to pursue his master’s degree in classical guitar performance at the University of Arizona.
MISSION
Promoting the guitar and similar stringed instruments to people of all cultures, ages, abilities, and economic means through bringing guitar music and performance opportunities to Tucson and its surrounding communities since 1987.
MEET the tgs advisory BOARD
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Grammy Award-winning guitarist
GRAMMY award winner for his CD AIRE LATINO in the category of best instrumental soloist in classical music.
Honorary Doctorate in Music by the University of Arizona in Tucson in 2014.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Guitar Foundation of America in 2018.
Classical guitarist David Russell is world renowned for his superb musicianship and inspired artistry, having earned the highest praise from audiences and critics alike.
David Russell spends his time touring the world, appearing regularly at prestigious halls in main cities, such as New York, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Madrid, Toronto or Rome. Concert-goers everywhere are in awe of his musical genius and inspired by his captivating stage presence. His love of his craft resonates through his flawless and seemingly effortless performance. The attention to detail and provocative lyrical phrasing suggest an innate understanding of what each individual composer was working to achieve, bringing to each piece a sense of adventure.
A prolific recording artists, his collection includes seventeen CDs with Telarc International.
The New York Times wrote about his performance: "... Mr. Russell made his mastery evident without ever deviating from an approach that places musical values above mere display. It was apparent to the audience throughout the recital that Mr. Russell possesses a talent of extraordinary dimension".
For more information on David Russell, click here!
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Bolton Guitar Studies, Director
Guitar Professor at the Fred Fox School of Music, University of Arizona.
Endowed Chair, Sanford & Phyllis Bolton for Classical Guitar.
Thomas Patterson has given recitals throughout North America, the People's Republic of China, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Mexico, and Italy. For nearly four decades, he has received international acclaim for his direction of the Bolton Guitar Studies Program at The University of Arizona Fred Fox School of Music. Bolton students have won countless prizes at prestigious international competitions including the GFA, Tarrega, Segovia, Montreal, and Stotsenberg Competitions. Professor Patterson’s students currently hold professorships in Colombia, China, the Philippines, Canada, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, the USA, and Brazil where seven former students hold positions. Professor Patterson has been the recipient of numerous prizes and awards, including fellowships with the Tinker and Kellogg Foundations. The Tinker Fellowship supported performances in South America, where he also studied with Abel Carlevaro in Montevideo, Uruguay and Antonio Lauro in Caracas, Venezuela.
For more information on professor Patterson, or the Bolton Guitar Studies program, click here!
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Grammy-Award winning guitarist & composer.
Born into a musical family in Mococa, São Paulo, Brazil, Sérgio Assad began creating music for the guitar not long after he began playing the instrument. He learned Brazilian folk melodies from his father and by age 14, he was arranging and writing original compositions for the guitar duo he had formed with his brother, Odair. At the age of 16, he and Odair began their studies under the best-known classical guitar teacher in Brazil at the time, Monina Távora, a former disciple of Andrés Segovia. Sergio later went on to study conducting at the Escola Nacional de Música in Rio de Janeiro, and worked privately with Brazilian composition teacher, Esther Scliar.
Over the last thirty years Assad has concentrated most of his efforts on building a repertoire for the guitar duo. He has extended the possibilities of the two-guitar combination through his arrangements of Latin American music by composers such as Piazzolla, Villa Lobos, Ginastera and Gismonti as well as Baroque and Modern music by Scarlatti, Rameau, Soler, Bach, Mompou, Ravel, Debussy and Gershwin among many others. He has completed over 300 arrangements for different chamber music settings. He has been arranger for Gidon Kremer, Dawn Upshaw, YoFYo Ma, Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, Paquito D'Rivera, Turtle Island String Quartet, and LA Quartet among others.
As a composer Assad has completed over a hundred works for guitar, many of which have become standards in the classical guitar repertoire. Pieces like Aquarelle, Fantasia Carioca, Farewell, Sonata 1, and Eli’s Portrait are part of the repertoire of many well-established guitarists today. In 2008 Sergio Assad was awarded the first prize in the Latin Grammy for his original composition Tahhyya Li Ossoulina.
For more information on Sergio Assad, click here!
More about us
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Tucson Guitar Society Membership
Besides supporting our local guitar community, your yearly membership to the Tucson Guitar Society gives you access to:
• House Concerts
• Masterclass observation
• Discounts for Arizona Early Music Society & the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music
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Golden Torch Initiative: Celebrating Women Composers
TGS is committed to advancing initiatives that aim to program works by women composers. Last year we partnered with Bolton Guitar Studies to award a special monetary prize to all finalists who perform a work composed by a woman in their final round.
In 2023, TGS commissioned a woman composer, Olga Amelkina Vera (Belarus) to write for our Guitar Orchestra.She wrote a guitar ensemble and voice piece which we presented in April 2023 as part of the Tucson Desert Song Festival. She set 5 poems by Ofelia Zepeda, a member of the Tohono O’Odham nation, a Regent professor at the University of Arizona, and a MacArthur fellow to music. The piece was sung by American mezzo Mack Wolz.
If you would like to support these initiatives, please consider donating!
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Students Grants
TGS supports students in their musical learning path. Student Grants are made available through a competitive application process. The $200 grants may be used to fund guitar students’ participation in summer camps, competitions, and conferences. Funds are also held in reserve for students in distress, such as personal emergencies and humanitarian needs. If you would like to contribute to this fund, please donate here.
