About Mark and Sarah

Mark and Sarah Ames are a classical guitar duo who reside in San Diego, California.

They play a variety of music in purely acoustic or slightly amplified acoustic instruments, ranging from Texas swing to Beethoven. Their repertoire includes classical music, Mexican, flamenco and popular standards.

Mark and Sarah have entertained audiences for decades in San Diego as well as in San Antonio, Austin and Galveston, Texas.

Sarah Ames

Sarah started playing guitar at age ten, and was taught by her father. As an adult, her interest led to taking lessons from flamenco guitarist Torcuato Zamora in Washington D.C. She later refined her style with classical guitar lessons from Leslie Diggs (U. of VA, Charlottesville) and music theory from Chris Bevan (Berkley School of Music). She incorporated all this into what became a very heartfelt and unique style.

She can also be seen busking with violin, and sometimes accordion, in Hillcrest or downtown San Diego.

Mark Ames

Mark was self-taught at first when he picked up a guitar during a college semester break in the early 1970’s.

After meeting Sarah in 1976, he learned to read music and quickly stole as much of Sarah’s material as he could, learning the basic classical pieces which were later incorporated into their performances as a classical guitar duo.