Our Gala Is Sold Out!
We’re thrilled to celebrate a full house on April 12. Thank you to our generous community for making this possible.
Join Austin Classical Guitar for SPARK — our 35th Season Gala!
SPARK celebrates 35 years of Austin Classical Guitar’s work expanding access to music education and transforming lives through artistry, community, and service.
Proceeds from SPARK benefit ACG Education, which serves tens of thousands of young people — in every Austin ISD middle and high school, five Texas juvenile justice centers, 45 school districts across Texas, 30 U.S. states, and more than a dozen countries worldwide.
Your support helps bring connection, beauty, and opportunity to youth on a remarkable scale.
Event Details
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Explore the enchanting atmosphere of one of Austin's most distinctive historic spaces while enjoying signature drinks and exquisite bites from some of the city's premier restaurants, and browsing the unique items and experiences up for bid in our silent auction.
Then we’ll come together for an inspiring program featuring decadent desserts, music, stories, and a spectacular live auction in support of ACG Education.
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At Austin Classical Guitar we've had the extraordinary opportunity to introduce a completely new for-credit course subject to American schools — classroom guitar — reaching tens of thousands of students near and far.
Before 2000, American schools offered choir, orchestra, and band, but rarely guitar. Yet guitar is the most popular instrument in the world, and when it’s available, new and different kids join the performing arts in large numbers. And when students participate in the arts, everything gets better: grades, attendance, behavior, and graduation.
At ACG, our mission is helping kids in school on a large scale. Our tool happens to be guitar.
As our curriculum and teacher-training programs spread across Texas and beyond, new opportunities emerged: we built the first and only for-credit performing arts courses for incarcerated youth in Texas history. We’ve been teaching in that space every school day since 2012 and now reach youth in five secure facilities across the state. We also partner with the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, where a fifteen-year collaboration led to the world’s first braille-based lifelong learning pathway for guitar.
Today, ACG Education means new and different kids discovering joy, belonging, and success in school. Our data shows it clearly: when students engage through music, they thrive.
With 35 years of proven innovation, we are poised to SPARK a massive positive shift in American music education — and we invite you to be part of it.
2026 also marks the 30th year of Executive Director Matt Hinsley’s inspired leadership at Austin Classical Guitar. Through his vision and dedication, ACG has become the largest classical guitar nonprofit in the world, contributing millions each year to Austin's creative economy, supporting hundreds of artists, and transforming countless lives through music.
Community leaders helping ignite the future of music education
We are deeply grateful for the generous support of our SPARK sponsors. Thank you for helping us bring joy and belonging into the lives of countless young people in our community and beyond.
Platinum Sponsors
Gold Sponsors
Silver Sponsors
Bronze Sponsors
SPARK Restaurant Partners
