Daniel Smith (DMA ’15) has been appointed as Principal Cellist of the Waco Symphony Orchestra beginning this season. The Waco Symphony Orchestra has been a cornerstone of Waco music for over 50 years and has been directed by conductor Stephen Heyde since 1987. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma headlines their opening Gala Concert on October 15, 2015.
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This season, Doug Machiz’s (MM ’11) Friction Quartet will be the first ensemble in residence at the Center for New Music in San Francsico. They will also be one of three ensembles in residence at San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music. Other season highlights include the St. Lawrence String Quartet inviting the quartet to participate in their Emerging String Quartet Program this fall where they will enjoy a week-long residency at Avaloch Farm in New Hampshire work shopping a new piano quintet with composer Andy Akiho as well as residencies at UNC Greensboro, Appalachian State University, Coastal Carolina University, CSU Long Beach, and Western Washington University, and performances at Berkeley Chamber Performances and People Inside Electronics in Pasadena, CA.
Michelle Ferry Williams (BM ’09) has been appointed as Principal Cellist of the Rockbridge Symphony Orchestra in Virginia and will perform the Vivaldi Double Cello Concerto with cellist Julia Goudimova, Artistic Director and Conductor Mark Taylor and the RSO later this season.
In addition to teaching cello, double bass and music appreciation at Murray State University, Jinhee Han (BM ’07), has been appointed as Ensemble Director of the Murray State University String Project as well as Conductor of the Paris Henry County Youth Orchestra (TN).
Diana Burgess (BM ’15), as cellist of the orchestral indie band Mother Falcon, has signed a recording contract with Universal Music Classics. Mother Falcon’s first CD on the Universal label will be released in October. Mother Falcon will also tour the US with singer-songwriter and cellist Ben Sollee including stops in Nashville (City Winery), Philadelphia (World Café), Chicago (Thalia Hall), and New York City (Le Poisson Rouge). Diana directs the creative part of the tour including assisting with arranging pieces for the program. Complete tour dates are listed below:
The Fall Migration Tour w/ Ben Sollee
10/11 Brown Theatre Louisville, KY
10/12 City Winery Nashville, TN
10/13 Saturn Birmingham, AL
10/14 Terminal West Atlanta, GA
10/16 The Grey Eagle Asheville, NC
10/17 The Howard Theater Washington, DC
10/18 Strand Capitol Theatre York, PA
10/20 World Café Live Philadelphia, PA
10/21 Le Poisson Rouge New York, NY
10/22 Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Troy, NY
10/23 First Church Congregational Cambridge, MA
10/24 Columbus Theatre Providence, RI
10/25 3S Artspace Portsmouth, NH
10/27 Club Café Pittsburgh, PA
10/28 Southgate House Revival-Sanctuary Newport, KY
10/29 Thalia Hall Chicago, IL
10/30 Cedar Cultural Center Minneapolis, MN
11/01 The Old Rock House St. Louis, MO
11/09 Club Congress Tucson, AZ
11/10 Soda Bar San Diego, CA
11/11 Teragram Ballroom Los Angeles, CA
11/12 Great American Music Hall San Francisco, CA
11/13 HiFi Music Hall Eugene, OR
11/15 The Domino Room Bend, OR
11/16 Mississippi Studios Portland, OR
11/17 Barboza Seattle, WA
11/18 The Bartlett Spokane, WA
11/20 Urban Lounge Salt Lake City, UT
11/21 Bluebird Theater Denver, CO
Just two months after graduating from the UT Butler School, Chloe Hyojung Jang (MM ’15) returned to her native Korea to win a position as section cellist in Symphony S.O.N.G.
Symphony S.O.N.G. (Symphony Orchestra for the Next Generation) is led by artistic director Shinik Hahm, who is also music director and chief conductor of the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) Symphony Orchestra. “Four principles—innovation, purity, fairness and transparency—constitute Symphony S.O.N.G. I am a person who sticks to the principles and I don’t compromise with those breaking them,” Hahm said.
James Burch (DMA ’16) appeared at the SoundSCAPE festival in Maccagno, Italy, this past July. Here he is performing Colin Frank’s Obsession with clarinetist Gleb Kanasevich, percussionist Christian Smith and double bassist Matt Kline.
Francesco Mastromatteo (DMA ’12) has published an article, ” Kodály’s Sonata Opus 8: Transformation of Hungarian Lament,” in the International Journal of Musicology, New Series Vol. 1, Peter Lang Academic Series (editors: Elliott Antokoletz and Michael Von Albrecht). The article is a revision of Francesco’s doctoral lecture-recital at the Butler School of Music.
On Friday, July 3, Diana Burgess (BM ’15), as member of the orchestral indie band Mother Falcon, performs a set of opening concerts for the 19th Annual Austin Chamber Music Festival. The 7:30 PM show is a seated show, while the 10 PM show is a standing only show, both at The North Door. For venue, ticket and other information, visit austinchambermusic.org.
Doug Machiz (MM ’11) and his San Francisco-based Friction Quartet continue to garner attention and praise from throughout the bay area. Joshua Kosman, music critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, named the chamber group “An artist who should be discovered” and wrote a glowing review of their December 5th show at the Center for New Music:
The members of the Friction Quartet — four gifted and alert young string players with roots in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music — seem to have adopted an appropriate name not just for their ensemble, but for an entire vein of musical thought.
The pieces the group unveiled during an engrossing concert on Friday night at the Center for New Music in San Francisco shared a predilection for the gritty, the intense, the rhythmically pungent. Throughout the entire program — which included some new works written for the ensemble and others of less recent vintage — you could hear the expressive potential of bows rubbing abrasively against strings.
Which is not to imply that the music was especially dissonant or difficult, though some of it was. Some was radiantly lovely, and even more of it infused a certain rough-hewn rock ’n’ roll fervor into the sprung rhythms and cheery repetitions of post-minimalism.
But all of it avoided any hint of serenity, or for that matter much in the way of resolution. This was high-octane music-making, and the Frictioneers — violinists Kevin Rogers and Otis Harriel, violist Taija Warbelow and cellist Doug Machiz — brought to all of it a fine blend of rhythmic ferocity and tonal flair.
You can read Joshua Kosman’s full review here.
Longhorn Cellos 