Dedicated to the interests of classical guitarists and those who enjoy classical guitar music. AGS is now on our annual summer hiatus. Our next membership meeting will be held on Saturday, September 12th at 7:30 pm.
Attention Classical Guitar Teachers of Southern California
Registration for the AGS 2026 Annual Bickford Competition opens on Tuesday September 1st at 12:00 midnight. See our Scholarships page for more details and the application form. The competition will be held at the AGS meeting of November 7th. The competition is limited to 7 in the Junior Division and 7 in the Senior Division.
Click here to read our SEPTEMBER 2026 Newsletter
Do you love Brazilian Guitar music? Would you like to join The Online Guitar Choro Club led by Douglas Lora? Read this attached article and join his monthly choro lesson!
The AGS is thrilled to announce that the first concert of our 2026 - 2027 AGS International Concert Series will feature the celebrated guitarist Alexander Milovanov.
The concert will be Saturday, October 10th, 7:30pm at Faith Lutheran Church. Put it on your calendars now! Advance tickets will be soon available through the AGS website. You do not want to miss him!
Alexander first performed for AGS at our 2016 concert at which he gave jaw-dropping performances of the Lute Suite No. 4 of J. S. Bach and the entire Ten Etudes of Giulio Regondi, amongst other works.
The Austin Classical Guitar Society states this: "…Alexander Milovanov's playing is simply transcendent. He has given phenomenal performances for us in the past, and we can't wait to have his elegant music-making featured on our stage again..." We at AGS say the same and now it is happening on October 10th. You do not want to miss this concert! Advanced tickets on sale SEP 15th.
Thank you for supporting our annual fund raiser concert event of April 18th, 2026! The AGS Guitar Orchestra is now starting up for our 2027 fund raising concert. This will be a fun event. Thank you Pepe Perez and Michael Camp.
The 2026 AGS Guitar Orchestra
Please visit our AGS Library to see interesting historic photos, and browse the collection of 20 booklets of classical guitar music that our founder, Vahdah Olcott Bickford, lovingly transcribed, compiled, and published over a span of 30 years. You will also find the doctoral dissertation from Kathy Acosta Zavala on the Life of Vahdah Olcott Bickford and the History of the American Guitar Society. You will also see links to our new AGS Youtube Channel, and our prior youtube channel that contains over 200 videos of performers from AGS meetings dating back to 2010.
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 any 20 of the works she published via the AGS organization.
The purpose of the AGS is to promote the beauty of the Classical Guitar via Education, Scholarships, Concerts, and monthly Meetings where members perform.
Our Mission
Our next meeting will be held at 7:30pm on September 12th. 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. AGS is now on our summer hiatus. We will resume monthly meetings on September 12, 2026.
Meet, Play, Listen
Our meeting schedule for the rest of our new 2027 fiscal year is as follows: October 3, November 7, December 5, January 9 - 2027, February 6, March 6, April 3, May 1, June 5.
The AGS Guitar Orchestra with conductor, Vahdah Olcott Bickford. circa 1927. Click here to see the names of these early AGS members.