2007-02-26 - The Vancouver Classic Guitar Society is Incorporated.
How It All Started…
Here’s how founding director Galina Jitlina remembers it:
In 2005 or 2006, going along West Boulevard at the corner of 41 West Ave I noticed a sign: ROBERT JORDAN, CLASSICAL GUITARIST. I entered the building, found the room and knocked at the door. I introduced myself, expressed my love for the classical guitar and for the ensemble playing. By that time Robert was an established teacher and performer with quite a rich biography practically retired but still teaching a few students at his Studio. Since then almost every Saturday I had been coming to Robert's tiny studio. We played different duos together, or - depending on who else was showing up - trios or quartets.
Robert had quite a few acquaintances among the older generation of Vancouver guitarists. At some point I told Robert that I really miss having a Guitar Society in Vancouver - I remembered a Guitar Society from my home in Leningrad (St-Petersburg, Russia). It appeared that Robert was a founder of the Vancouver Guitar Society in the past (1966), and it existed till 80-ites but then dissipated. He was inspired by the idea of creating a new Guitar Society. A few other people - Marilyn Grant, mother of Michael Kolk, one of Robert's best students, Sam Israel , an amateur guitarist, and his wife Brenda Webster, who both had experience in organizing and running another non profit society, and Steven Cheng, an IT specialist and an amateur guitarist as well - joined us, and after a few meetings at Sam's and Brenda's house all the documents necessary for creating a new Vancouver Classic Guitar Society were collected, the purpose formulated and on February 26th of 2007 the Society was officially incorporated. Robert insisted on the name "Classic" as more suitable for our declared purpose. Robert was elected a Chair of the Board, Marilyn - Treasure, Galina - Artistic Director
VCGS Mission Statement
The Vancouver Classic Guitar Society was incorporated with a mission statement that read:
The purpose of the Vancouver Classic Guitar Society is to build community among classic guitar enthusiasts, to educate and increase the public’s understanding and appreciation of classic guitar music by providing performances of an artistic nature in public places, and by providing workshops relating to classic guitar music, to encourage study of the classic guitar, to enrich the culture of classic guitar in Vancouver, and to provide opportunities for guitarists of all levels to meet and play together.
That same year, the VCGS logo was created and has been used ever since.
Why classic guitar and not classical?
At the time the society was formed Robert Jordan insisted the correct term is ‘classic’ guitar. In fact both classic or classical guitar are correct and mean the same physical instrument with nylon strings built for finger style playing, traditional Spanish and formal classical music.
The original logo created for the Vancouver Classic Guitar Society in 2007.