Year in Review: A Look Back at CGC in 2025

CGC Summer School 2025

We had another wonderful Summer School in June 2025, with guest artists Hao Yang, Petra Poláčková, Thomas Flippin, and Koh Kazama.

The highlights of this year’s Summer School was certainly the guest artist concerts. Each of our performers displayed a very high level of musicianship and virtuosity. And each program was so different from the next!

In addition to top-level concerts, we also had wonderful music to enjoy for the Guitar Orchestra, once again led skillfully by Janet Agostino, who also helped arrange a good deal of the music we performed.

We also had wonderful camaraderie at meals, small ensembles, workshops, and in our evening fun gatherings. While we will be changing venues for the 2026 Summer School, we have many memories to carry forward from our time together at Endicott!

The CGC Blog

In 2025, the Classical Guitar Corner blog featured new posts with a diverse set of topics, including repertoire lessons, musical terms and concepts, and masterpieces for the guitar. Some highlights from the year include:

• Lágrima by Francisco Tárrega (revised and updated): A brand new and updated lesson on one of the most well-known pieces in the classical guitar repertoire, exploring musical phrasing, tone, and interpretation alongside practical learning strategies.

• Rubato in Classical Guitar Music: A deeper look at expressive timing: what rubato really is, how to apply it tastefully, and how to avoid common pitfalls when shaping musical phrases.

• Clair de Lune by Debussy for Classical Guitar: An exploration of adapting this iconic work for classical guitar, with discussion of musical character, phrasing, and interpretation.

• What Are Grades in Classical Guitar Music? A practical explanation of graded repertoire, how grades are used, and how they fit into a structured learning path for classical guitarists.

The CGC YouTube Channel

On the Classical Guitar Corner YouTube Channel we released 16 videos in 2025. Along with a completely revised lesson on Lagrima by Tarrega, this year was the year of the fireside chat! Simon uploaded several videos talking about different topics from what and how to practice, to new content coming up at the Academy, to what makes a virtuoso on classical guitar. Here are some of our favorites:

Repertoire Lessons

• Poco Allegretto by Carulli
• Siciliano by Carcassi
• Romanze by Mertz
• Lesson No.61 by Sagreras

Fireside Chats

• When Is It Time to Move on? 
• Are You a Virtuoso?
• Practice? Practice! Practise*

New Book

Easy Classical Guitar Volume 2: Renaissance

We released a follow-up to our very popular Volume 1 book of easy classical pieces for classical guitar, focused on music from the Renaissance. Featuring works from Claudio Monteverdi, Cesare Negri, Francis Cutting, Fabrizio Caroso, and Adrian Le Roy, this collection of forty pieces from the Renaissance period features a carefully selected set of repertoire: both musical and approachable.

The works vary from Grade 1 to Grade 3 in difficulty, and while they are not for the absolute beginner classical guitarist, they fall under the ‘easy’ category, featuring few barres and mostly first-position playing. If you are looking for a complete beginner’s guide to playing the classical guitar and learning how to read music notation, I would suggest using the Cornerstone Method for Classical Guitar Grade 1.

Pick up your copy of Easy Classical Guitar Volume 2: Renaissance.

Free sheet music

One of the most popular pieces from our Graded Repertoire for Classical Guitar book has been Julia Florida by Agustin Barrios. So we decided to make this music freely available to download back in July. You can read all about the music with historical background, interpretation, and analysis on the blog, watch a performance, and get the music for free here if you missed it.

Go here to check out all of our sheet music at CGC.

CGC Academy in 2025

In 2025 we added a lot of new content at CGC Academy, focusing especially on expanding the Cornerstone Method curriculum. These are just some of the highlights at CGC Academy this year:

The CGC Community

One of the most rewarding parts of 2025 has been seeing the continued growth of our members at CGC Academy.

Inside the Academy, students shared performances, asked thoughtful questions, and supported one another’s progress, reinforcing the idea that learning music is both a personal and communal experience.

That sense of shared learning remains at the heart of Classical Guitar Corner.

Along with member progress, we continued to expand the Cornerstone Method curriculum at the Academy.

New Lessons, Courses, and Live Sessions

Throughout 2025, much of our work at Classical Guitar Corner centered around Cornerstone Method Grade 2, with new lessons and repertoire designed to help members bridge the gap between the fundamentals and more intermediate musical challenges.

But we also added lots of other new lessons, some of which will feature in our new Cornerstone Method Grade 3, along with others. Here are the highlights:

New Lessons

• Air on the G String by Bach
• Romanze by J.K. Mertz
• Ejercicio No.9 by Ferrer
• Scherzo by Diabelli
• Study Op.6, No.9 by Sor
• Tempo di Marcia by J.K. Mertz
• Poco Allegretto by Carulli
• Si Dolce e’l Tormento by Monteverdi
• Lagrima by Tarrega (new and revised)

Guest Artist Workshops, Member Challenges, and Live Sessions

We also brought in a number of guest artists to offer workshops for Academy members, including:

• Gohar Vardanyan
• Evan Taucher
• Connie Sheu

In addition to these wonderful sessions focused on technique, we had member challenges focused on how to practice and guided listening (how to be a more active listener and how that can benefit your playing).

Plus More…

• We hosted biweekly Open Mics, Q&A sessions for our members, including beginner-focused Q&A’s, and other special live sessions focused on technique.
• Guitoberfest 2025 was a great success again and this year our special guest was guitarist and composer Vincent Lindsay-Clark. In addition to a wonderful session focused on how to compose for the guitar, Vincent offered a masterclass with two Academy members where he offered positive critique on their own compositions.

Looking Ahead to 2026

As we move into 2026, the focus at Classical Guitar Corner will remain the same: structured learning paths, deeper musical understanding, and helping our members build on their “love of the craft” (the definition of amateur).

Just recently we launched Cornerstone Method Grade 3, as we continue to expand on our revision of the curriculum at the Academy. And there’s much more in store!

Thank you for being part of CGC, even if you just recently joined the Mailing List or just became a member of the Academy. Your dedication to the instrument and to your own growth is part of what makes this community so special.

If you’re not yet a member, we would love to welcome you as a new member to CGC Academy in 2026. If you’d like to learn about what it’s like to become a member so you can access all this new material as well as what’s to come in the year ahead, go here to get more info and join CGC Academy today.

Here’s to another great year of music, learning, community, and guitar! As friend of CGC Ben Verdery likes to say, “Peace, love, and guitars!”