Doug Machiz (MM ’11) is co-founder and manager of the San Francisco-based Friction Quartet. Friction is garnering attention and praise from throughout the bay area, and developing a national reputation for exhilarating performance of contemporary music. The Quartet recently signed with Ariel Artists, a Boston based management firm. In their first two years, they have commissioned 25 new works for string quartet, give 22 world premiere performances and have received rave reviews from SF Examiner, SF Chronicle, Shambhala Times, and “I Care if You Listen” and “The Loose Filter Project” blogs. Friction collaborated with composer Danny Clay and a third grade class to perform a graphic score made up of drawings by the students. The video of the performance synced with the drawings, entitled 27 Overtures, is a hit on YouTube. Friction was the resident string quartet for Garrett-Moulton Productions’ “A Show of Hands” which was called “the greatest dance bargain offered in this town since the San Francisco Ballet performed in Stern Grove last summer” (SF Chronicle). Brave New Music, a new chamber music series in Healdsburg, CA, recently presented Friction Quartet in their inaugural concert. In December, Friction will perform and give composer readings at UC Riverside, CSU Long Beach and CSU Monterey Bay, and make their New York City debut in January 2014 at The Firehouse Space. Kronos Quartet has invited Friction Quartet to perform with them at Z Space in February 2014.
Diana Burgess (BM ’15), as a member of Austin-based indie band Mother Falcon, appears with Tim and the Space Cadets at the 2013 Austin City Limits Music Festival. Performances take place on the Austin Kiddie Limits Stage on October 4-5 and October 11-12. For ticket, parking and other information, visit www.aclfestival.com.
Anna Záborszky and Johannes Teppo, two students who joined the cello studio last year on exchange from the Sibelius Academy, got married over the summer and celebrated for a week in their native countries of Estonia and Finland with relatives and friends visiting from all over Europe. The two are now back in Helsinki preparing for their Master of Music degree final exams at the Sibelius Academy.
Here is the newlywed couple performing Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” arranged for two cellos by Johannes…
Francesco Mastromatteo (DMA ’12) returns to Central Texas this month for two solo engagements with orchestra. On Sunday, September 22, Francesco makes his third appearance with conductor Robert Radmer and the Balcones Community Orchestra in the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto in A minor. And on Saturday, September 28, Francesco opens the season for the Round Rock Symphony Orchestra performing the Haydn Cello Concerto in D major with their new music director Stefan Sanders. For venue, ticket and more information, visit www.bcorchestra.org and roundrocksymphony.org.
Among his many summer activities, Daniel Smith (DMA ’15), as a winner of the concerto competition at the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, performed the Dvorak Cello Concerto with conductor Scott Yoo and the Festival Orchestra in the Richard F. Celeste Theater at the Edith Kinney Gaylord Cornerstone Arts Center.
Diana Burgess (BM ’15), as member of the orchestral indie band Mother Falcon, performs a Tiny Desk Concert at NPR Music…
Francesco Mastromatteo (DMA ’12) has recorded the Ligeti Sonata for Solo Cello for MTSmusictosee in Italy. The short film, directed by Giulio Bottini, audio engineered by Patrizio Petrucci, was made at Palazzo Sforza Cesarine in Genzano di Roma.
Professor Tsang and the Longhorn Cellos are both referenced by Ariane Todes in her article “Spread the Love,” from the June 2013 issue of The Strad, which reports about the enormous influences of pedagogues Aldo Parisot and the recently deceased (April 28) Janos Starker. Arianne writes…
“The festival’s format was to have seven 50-minute masterclasses, a different professor and two students each, all in a row, from 9am to 5pm, with an hour for lunch and 10-minute breaks, over three days. The relentless pace of this immersion might not have led to in-depth problem solving, but then how much can be achieved in a masterclass anyway? The best classes tackled one or two problems and just nudged the students to think in a different way. For example, Bion Tsang (a Parisot student), in the limited time, encouraged the students to listen to themselves properly, and to learn how to teach themselves. He asked, ‘What can you self-assess?’ ‘Can you tell me what you’re doing to work on it?’ After getting one student to work on the consonant sound of a chord in the Elgar Concerto by singing it, and working out if she wanted a ‘ya’ or a ‘bam,’ he said, ‘You have to experiment on your own—a teacher can only tell you so much.’
“Another aspect [of the festival] that has developed is the participation of cello ensembles—something that is a key part of the Parisot training, with his Yale Cellos group. Some teachers brought ensembles made up of their students, and as well as the members taking part in the masterclasses, each group performed in the final concert. This culmination involved a wide ranging programme that showed what a versatile and exciting instrumentation massed cellos can provide. At one end of the spectrum was a sonorous arrangement of the Bach Chaconne performed by Bion Tsang’s Longhorn Cellos, sounding more like a Walton film score in this sound world, and taking on a romantic life of its own.”
The Longhorn Cellos are now on YouTube! Four members of the studio, Ying Zhang (DMA ’15), Anna Záborszky (MM ’13), Johannes Teppo (MM ’13) and David Campbell (DMA ’14), formed the Longhorn Cello Quartet and presented their first concert at Heller Hall on April 23, 2013. Here they are on YouTube performing Wagner’s “Feierliches Stück” from Lohengrin for Four Cellos…
Diana Burgess (BM ’15) is a member of Mother Falcon, an orchestral indie band born in Austin, Texas that has quickly become an award winning recording act and a top concert draw, performing in rock clubs while maintaining a presence in the performing arts scene scoring plays and films. The band releases its latest album You Knew on May 7. NPR Music presents a profile of the band and a sneak peak of the album in its entirety.
Longhorn Cellos 