Dedicated to the interests of classical guitarists and those who enjoy classical guitar music.
Our next meeting will be Saturday, January 10th at 7:30 pm. This meeting will take place at our new permanent location: The Faith Lutheran Church at 7500 De Soto Ave in Canoga Park, CA.
From all of us at the American Guitar Society, the heartiest of wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year. Thank you Wesley Park for the delightful Christmas concert you gave at the DEC 6th meeting. Here is Wesley’s performance. Enjoy!!
THANK YOU patrons, members, and fans. The 2025 AGS Giving Tuesday was a huge, heart warming success.
Last year the AGS received over $1500 in generous donations on Giving Tuesday. This year your helpful and appreciated donatations totaled to $3600. This money will be used in 2026 to increase our scholarship awards and host concerts from world renownd classical guitar artists! Stay tuned for more on this.
Thank you!
On Saturday December 6th, AGS gave awards to our 2025 Bickford Competition winners.
AGS is very proud of all the young contestants who decided to enter our 2025 competition. All 12 contestants (6 in DIV 1 and 6 in DIV 2) performed world class compositions for the classical guitar. All played beautifully from memory, and all were worthy of the outstanding applause they received from our appreciative AGS audience.
In Division 1, First Place was awarded to Joaquim Park and Second Place was awarded to John Barsoumian.
In Division 2, First Place was awarded to Hea Lee and Second Place was awarded to Dylan Watanabe.
AGS Treasurer Mark Achuff, Dylan Watanabe, Hea Lee, John Barsoumian, Joaquim Park, AGS President Gregory Newton
Listen to these contestants as they perform a piece that contributed to their success in winning the competition.
Joaquim Park performing El Colibri by Julio Salvador Sagreras
John Barsoumian performing Preludio from Suite del Plata No. 1 by Maximo Diego Pujol
Hea Lee performing Prelude from Suite in Gm, BWV 995 by J.S. Bach
Dylan Watanabe performing Caprichio Arabe by Francisco Tárrega
Listen to more pieces from these young artists on our AGS Youtube Channel.
AGS is busy building a new Youtube library of videos of our performers who bring excellent presentations to our monthly meetings. We have just added a new performance videos from our June 2025 meeting. One new video features Mark Charles Smith performing his compositions.
Use this link to have a look at the AGS Youtube Channel.
Please see our Events page to read a review of Eric Henderson’s AGS concert performed on October 25th.
The AGS 2026 Guitar Orchestra is now in progress with rehearsals
in preparation for our annual fund raising concert!
On Saturday April 25th, 2026, the AGS 2026 Guitar Orchestra will present our annual concert which will feature an all new selection of music.
Click on this link to see the scrap book for our 2025 AGS Guitar Orchestra event.
Please visit our AGS Library to browse the 20 publications that Vahdah created to enhance the repertoire of the classical guitarist. As a starter, we suggest spending some time with this one
The Chopin Album for Guitar.
Vahdah Olcott Bickford
photo from about 1915
The American Guitar Society is the oldest, continuously operating guitar society in the United States. It was founded in 1923 by Vahdah Olcott Bickford (VOB), who was born in Norwalk, Ohio, in 1885 and died in Los Angeles in 1980. She was considered one of the foremost concert guitarists in the United States from 1910 to 1957, at which time she retired from the stage to devote the rest of her life to teaching and publishing. VOB published a number of original compositions and arrangements of popular pieces for the guitar, where she declared AGS as the publisher. Visit the LIBRARY tab to view and download all 20 of the works she published via the AGS organization.
Our Mission
The purpose of the AGS is to promote the beauty of the Classical Guitar via Education, Scholarships, Concerts, and monthly Meetings where members perform.
Meet, Play, Listen
Our next meeting will be held at 7:30pm on January 10th. We meet at the FAITH LUTHERAN CHURCH located at 7500 De Soto Ave, Canoga Park. Please join AGS and sign up to perform your classical guitar pieces at an upcoming monthly meeting. Our meeting dates for remainder of our new fiscal year are these: January 10, 2026 (second Saturday due to New Year's), February 7, March 7, April 11 (second Saturday due to Easter), May 2, June 6.
