​Portland Classic Guitar, originally founded by William Jenks in 2001, initially began presenting concerts and master classes at the shop in 2005 which was a high-end classical guitar instrument dealer and teaching studio in Milwaukie just southeast of downtown Portland. In 2011, he then moved the shop to the West Linn area and continued to present concerts and master classes in other venues including Marylhurst University's Wiegand Hall and Saint Anne's Chapel where Jenks was on staff as the guitar professor and guitar ensemble director from 2016 through the year Marylhurst University closed in 2018. Other venues in Portland included the First Congregational Church in downtown Portland, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, the Newmark Theatre, and the Rolling Hills Community Church. In 2018, the series then expanded to Los Angeles and Hawaii and became the nonprofit organization known as U.S. Classic Guitar. For the Portland area, these concerts took place at the First Unitarian Church of Portland Main Sanctuary and Eliot Chapel, the Portland Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and Christ's Church Episcopal Parish in Lake Oswego. The Los Angeles concerts took place at the First Congregational Church in downtown Los Angeles and the private residence of the the grandson of the late Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco in the Mar Vista area. The Hawaii concerts took place on the Big Island at a private residence in Hawii known as Cliffs of Bellavista and the Kahilu Theatre.