Austin Camerata: Grand Finale
Sunday, May 21, 4:30 pm, at Imagine Art Gallery
Tickets $15
www.eventbrite.com
www.austincamerata.com.

Led by its artistic director Daniel Kopp (MM ’18), Austin Camerata kicks off its first annual music festival this Saturday, May 13. Matt Kufchak, KMFA’s Marketing and Engagement Assistant and one of Austin Camerata’s musical performers, previews what to expect at the four day festival.

Read the entire preview at www.KMFA.org.

Austin Camerata presents its first festival beginning Saturday, May 13, at noon, at the Rotunda of the State Capitol Building. Artistic Director Daniel Kopp (MM ’18) and others will reprise their Bach and Colorfield performance from the Blanton Museum as well as selections by Caroline Shaw, Paul Wiancko, Schubert and more. The festival continues through Sunday, May 21 at Imagine Art, the Austin Public Library and 4th Tap Brewery.

Founded in 2017, Austin Camerata is a festival that reimagines chamber music and reaches new audiences through unconventional concerts, artistic collaborations, and community engagements.

For ticket, venue, parking and more information, visit www.austincamerata.com.

Doug Machiz (MM ’11), with his San Francisco-based Friction Quartet, from his performance at the Hearst Memorial Mining Building, receives a glowing review from the San Francisco Classical Voice:

Like intrepid space explorers expanding human knowledge of the cosmos, the Friction String Quartet is boldly broadening quartet repertoire by commissioning and performing new music. On Sunday evening at UC Berkeley’s Hearst Memorial Mining Building, an ample audience tuned in for Friction’s “Spaced Out,” a program of works inspired by ideas about the universe. Just as cosmic phenomena can be both familiar and mysterious, this performance was accessible yet surreal.

Friction’s young players are as accomplished in their artistry as they are unpretentious about everything, including performance space. While Hearst is beautiful, its three-story atrium and unlocked doors resulted in boomy acoustics and unsuspecting students occasionally wandering in during the performance. These quirks contributed to the concert’s charm.

Friction has won numerous recent honors, including a Carnegie Hall debut through a program with the Kronos Quartet. Judging by Sunday’s program of intense musicianship coupled with ambitious programming, Friction’s potential seems — a bit like the universe itself — immense and incalculable.

By Jessica Balik

Read the full review…