2025
March 13th, 6:30 pm: “Strum and Sing” at the Rocky Neck Cultural Center
Join us for an hour of communal music making - area professionals, amateurs, and enthusiasts gather to play and sing a preselected setlist of songs. This is an informal and low-pressure get together, somewhere between a backyard jam session and an open mic. Guitarists and singers welcome, and bring friends! We will have the chords and lyrics projected on a screen. Songs will be played in the keys of the selected recordings:
Folk Week, August 27-30
Ezekiel’s Wheel, Jug of Punch, Michael O’Leary, Fabiola Mendez, The Clements Brothers
We are excited to showcase some of our area’s most exciting and unique musical voices in a variety of venues on Cape Ann. Our diversity is our strength! Get to know the folk music of the Puerto Rican countryside, Jewish celebrations, the Emerald Isle, and modern Americana. Venue and ticketing details to come.
Previous Events
2025
January 18th, 2 pm: Boubacar Diabate workshop.
2024
December 20th - CAGS Upstairs on Main
Brendan Evans, Scott Moore, Night Owls perform upstairs at Shalin Liu
September 28th - Cape Ann Guitar Society’s first annual Guitar Festival
Join us at Windhover for this all day affair, with workshops and performances from these artists:
Workshops (in chapel)
12 pm Steve Lacey, Jazz
1 pm Nick Schillace, American Primitive
Performances (under tent)
245 pm Mariachi Cuerdas de Plata
345 Brendan Evans, Classical
445 Bill Gleason, Blues
545 Dinner/ soundcheck
715 Nick Schillace, American Primitive
815 Sambalolo, Griot
September 7-14, Five Cent Fireballs at the Manship Artists Residency
The Cape Ann Guitar Society proudly presents Five Cent Fireballs, an all female alt-bluegrass group, at the Manship Artists Residency from September 7th through the 14th. Based out of Charlottesville, Virginia, the Fireballs are coming up to Cape Ann for a week of composing and rehearsing material for their debut album, culminating in a concert on Friday the 13th. In addition to creating and performing their own work, the Fireballs will also teach two workshops while in residency at Manship.
September 9th, 7 pm: Bluegrass instrumental workshop - bring your guitar, banjo, mando, or fiddle, and learn tips, tricks, and tunes with the Fireballs. All levels welcome. Register here.
September 11th, 7 pm: Bluegrass vocal workshop - warmups, techniques, harmony, and joy. Register here.
September 13th, Five Cent Fireballs in concert! Doors at 6:30 pm, music at 7. Tickets available here.
July 5th and 7th: United Flamenco and the Cape Ann Guitar Society present workshops in flamenco guitar and dance at Windhover Center for Performing Arts. Bring your nylon string (steel is fine too) and learn the basics of flamenco guitar with maestro Guillermo Guillen at 5:45 pm on July 5th in the chapel, with a $25 suggested donation. Or, come to a free beginner dance workshop under the tent on July 7th at 1:30 pm. Read more about United Flamenco at their website: https://unitedflamenco.org/
June 29th - Cape Ann Guitar Society hosts its first monthly meetups for classical guitarists. Come to this informal salon type gathering to meet, listen to, and play for other local nylon players! No tickets, signups, or formal programs, just show up at 1 pm at the Community House at 58 Broadway in Rockport.
May 18th - Inaugural concert and launch party at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts.
Join the Cape Ann Guitar Society for its inaugural concert, featuring classical guitarist Brendan Evans playing Mysteries and Legends, a recital of guitar music conjuring strange and haunting tales from Turkey, Spain, and New England. Carlo Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba, a suite pastorale describing “the natural beauty of a little bay” overlooking the Aegean Sea, is inspired by Turkish music and the legend of the shepherd saint Koyunbaba. Selections from Manuel de Falla’s ballet El Amor Brujo, a tale of love, ghosts, and witchcraft, will include Fisherman’s Romance and the Song of the Will O’ the Wisp, arranged for solo guitar. Russian composer Nikita Koshkin’s Usher’s Waltz is a meditation on Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, which opens with the quote: “his heart is a suspended lute, as soon as it is touched, it resounds.”
5/18 Inaugural concert and launch party at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts.
Join the Cape Ann Guitar Society for its inaugural concert, featuring classical guitarist Brendan Evans playing Mysteries and Legends, a recital of guitar music conjuring strange and haunting tales from Turkey, Spain, and New England. Carlo Domeniconi’s Koyunbaba, a suite pastorale describing “the natural beauty of a little bay” overlooking the Aegean Sea, is inspired by Turkish music and the legend of the shepherd saint Koyunbaba. Selections from Manuel de Falla’s ballet El Amor Brujo, a tale of love, ghosts, and witchcraft, will include Fisherman’s Romance and the Song of the Will O’ the Wisp, arranged for solo guitar. Russian composer Nikita Koshkin’s Usher’s Waltz is a meditation on Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher, which opens with the quote: “his heart is a suspended lute, as soon as it is touched, it resounds.”
This launch event will include a wine and cheese reception at 7:00 followed by the 7:30 performance, and details of Cape Ann Guitar Society’s projects and plans.
Limited availability. Don’t Wait.
9/7 - 9/13 Five Cent Fireballs in Residency at Manship Artists Residency.
Vocal and guitar workshops TBA.
https://fivecentfireballs.com/
https://www.manshipartists.org.
9/27 - 9/29 First annual CAGS Festival and Competition at Windhover Center for the Performing Arts.
https://windhover.org