Earlier today, Hyugrai “Ray” Kim (DMA ’19) advanced to the Final Round of auditions for the position of Principal Cello in the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Led by music director Giancarlo Guerrero, the 83-member Nashville Symphony performs more than 150 concerts annually and is one of the most active recording orchestras in the US, with 29 releases on Naxos, earning a total of 13 GRAMMY® Awards and 24 nominations.
Congratulations, Ray!
Congratulations to Eunhye Lim (AD ’18) and Cory Blais (MM ’19) for winning the First and Second Prizes of the 6th Annual Coltman Chamber Music Competition with their respective groups, the Fidelis Piano Trio and Wundertrio. Competing in the Collegiate Division in the category of Strings and Piano, the Fidelis Piano Trio performed works by Arensky and Beethoven, while Wundertrio performed trios of Mendelssohn and Shostakovich. The Fidelis Piano Trio also won the Grand Prize, which includes a 2019-20 engagement with Austin Chamber Music Center.
For more information, visit austinchambermusic.org.
This weekend, on Friday and Saturday, March 29 & 30, Daniel Kopp (MM ’18) appears with Ventana Ballet in their production DISRUPT at the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center.
DISRUPT will break the mold of traditional concert performance… aiming for aggressive, yet poised… daring, yet crisp… short, but high-energy performances featuring local professional artists in dance, choreography, music, and composition.
The show will premiere brand new dance choreography by AJ Garcia-Rameau, Dorothy O’Shea Overbey, and Erica Gionfriddo, accompanied by live musicians of cello, violin, and piano who will play works by Bach, Sollima, Fauré, and Vitali.
For more ticket, venue and more information, visit www.ventanaballet.com.
Tomorrow, on Saturday, February 23, at 1:30 PM, Seth Russell (DMA ’19) presents a master class at the Classical Music Institute’s (CMI) Cello Summit at the Carlos Alvarez Studio Theater of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts in San Antonio. The master class is open to pre-college cellists in the San Antonio area.
Established as the education program of the Chamber Orchestra of San Antonio, CMI debuted in summer 2016. CMI provides classical music education to Bexar County’s youth during a two-week program, as well as year-long outreach and continuing education. This includes: private instruction and group lessons; classes in chamber music, orchestra, ear-training, rhythm training, and music appreciation; salon performances, outreach concerts, faculty concerts, and a final concert with students at the Edgewood Theater for the Performing Arts. The CMI Chamber Orchestra will continue to perform as a resident company of the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts.
For more information, visit cmi-sa.org.
On Friday, January 25, at 7:30 PM, Seth Russell (DMA ’19) performs in Beerthoven’s He-Brews: Klezmer, German and Yiddish Songs, which explores music with Jewish themes, from the celebratory sounds of klezmer, to the meditative music of Yom Kippur, to memorializing songs of the Holocaust.
Beerthoven Concert Series is a down-to-earth, approachable celebration of classical song, chamber music, and beer; a quirky mixture of Bach and Doppelbock in a unique and intimate setting. Beerthoven finds its inspiration in the musical and festive events at the Austin Saengerrunde as well as the private “salon” concerts of Beethoven’s own time. All Beerthoven events feature live classical music, free beer, and other refreshments. There is no backstage area here; audience members may even find themselves standing in line for beer with the performers.
For ticket, venue and more information, visit
www.beerthoven.com.
This weekend, on Sunday, January 20, at 2pm, Austin Camerata presents CelloFest! at the Georgetown Public Library. Artistic Director Daniel Kopp (MM ’18) brings together twelve cellists for a celebration of the cello. Former and present Longhorn Cellists include: Christina An (DMA ’20), Matt Armbruster (MM ’17), Cory Blais (MM ’19), Ray Kim (DMA ’19), Kelvin Lee (MM ’19), Matthew Gustavson (MM ’20) and Seth Russell (DMA ’19). Works will include Julius Klengel’s Hymnus, Astor Piazzolla’s Fuga y Misterioso and Heitor Villa-Lobo’s Bachianas Braseileras No. 1.
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.
On Friday, January 18, and Saturday, January 19, Nora Karakousoglou (DMA ’16) appears with the Austin Chamber Music Center in “It’s All Greek to Me.” Nora performs works by Beethoven, Ravel and Christos Hatzis with violinist Sonja Larson and pianist and ACMC artistic director Michelle Schumann. See the ACMC’s spotlight on Nora here. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit austinchambermusic.org.
This past season, Doug Machiz (MM ’11) and his San Francisco-based Friction Quartet released its debut album, Resolve, which features the Haydn “Emperor” Quartet, Britten String Quartet No. 2, and Friction by Roger Briggs. The quartet also performed George Crumb’s Black Angels at Carnegie Hall on their Sixties Festival. Through the San Francisco Symphony’s Adventures in Music, the quartet performed for every student in grades 3-5 in San Francisco public schools. They completed a fundraising campaign to commission six new works, including UT Alumni Max Stoffregen, as well as Canadian composer, Nicole Lizée and British composer, Piers Hellawell. And, over the summer, Friction completed residencies at Lunenburg Academy of Music and Performance in Nova Scotia, Interlochen Summer Camp, and New Music for Strings Festival in Denmark.
Longhorn Cellos 