Hello Southern California Guitar Community,

I am delighted to share that, after two years of pandemic-impacted seasons, the Orange County Guitar Circle is back, live and in person at Chapman University, for the 2022-2023 concert season! 

Programming: Our 2022-2023 season will see the return of world-class guitar music in the heart of Orange County. Featured artists for this season include Phil Goldenberg, Dragos Ilie, Robby Gibson, and Guitar Foundation of America International Concert Artist Competition winner Bokyung Byun. Additionally, we will see the return of our four Members’ Showcase Concerts, which welcome the next generation of concert guitarists from our membership to share their music with our community.

Our first concert of the 2022-2023 season will be our Welcome Back Members’ Showcase Concert! This concert will be held on Saturday, September 17th, at 8:00pm in Chapman University’s Salmon Recital Hall. If you are a current member of the OCGC and would like to perform in our Welcome Back Members’ Showcase Concert, please submit your repertoire selection, including title, composer name, and composer dates, to Andrew Stroud at stroudandrew@hotmail.com.

Policies: I would be remiss if I did not recognize a few small changes that will be forthcoming for this season. Should any of these policies change, we will send out communications with updates:

• Per the policies of Chapman University, all guests need to complete the Visitors Daily Health Screen. This simple form can be completed at any time the day of an Orange County Guitar Circle event, and a “CLEAR” result must be submitted to a member of the OCGC staff prior to admission into each concert. You can access the Visitors Daily Health Screen at the following URL: https://chapmanu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eVx4H7TOlNNChsa 
• Additionally, per Chapman University policy, we will be postponing our intermission coffee refreshments service. 

Memberships: Finally, I would like to share an update on the OCGC Membership pause. In the Spring of 2020, the Board of the OCGC made the decision to pause memberships, as we believed that members were entitled to nine live performances each season that, due to the pandemic, we could not provide. Since in person events will now be resuming, we will be stopping the membership extensions instituted in the Spring of 2020. This means that our Welcome Back Members’ Showcase Concert will mark the resumption of this membership.

We eagerly look forward to welcoming you back to Chapman University on September 17th and beyond as we continue to celebrate the guitar and the community of music lovers here in Orange County!

Sincerely,

Daniel de Arakal

President, Orange County Guitar Circle