Yi Xin (DMA ’14) appears onstage with superstar soprano Renée Fleming during the Chicago Lyric Opera’s production of Strauss’s Capriccio this month. Here’s what Lawrence A. Johnson of the Chicago Classical Review had to say about opening night:
“Richard Strauss’s final opera, which opened Monday night at Lyric Opera, remains an acquired taste for many, and has only been staged once previously at Lyric, two decades ago. Capriccio takes place on the birthday of the Countess Madeleine, where several entertainments are being planned.
“Written in 1942, Capriccio is Strauss’s affectionate farewell to the stage, and the aged composer and his librettist, conductor Clemens Krauss, were clearly drawing on their experiences and frustrations in producing operas. Capriccio is a short one-act opera–here presented with an intermission rather than straight through as the composer intended—yet a heavily conversational and metaphorical one.
“There is no real reason to stage Capriccio unless you have a radiant star soprano in the role of Madeleine, and clearly Renée Fleming supplies the necessary mega-wattage. In her first fully staged Lyric production since La Traviata in 2008, Fleming here reprises a role she has sung to acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera, in the same John Cox production.
“More than anyone else, this was Sir Andrew Davis’s show. Few conductors can equal the Lyric Opera’s music director in Strauss, and Davis’s fluent, spirited yet light-footed account of this score was masterful, maintaining a fleet, conversational pace and rising seamlessly to the breakout lyrical moments.
“Even by their standard, the playing of the Lyric Opera Orchestra was beyond reproach, with a refined quicksilver quality that suits this restless music. The opening string sextet was drop-dead beautiful, Jonathan Boen lofted a gorgeous horn solo to open the final scene, and violinist David Perry, cellist Yi Xin and harpsichordist William Billingham (offstage) made a graceful banda accompanying the ballet dancers.”
Capriccio runs through October 28. lyricopera.org; 312-294-3000.
On Wednesday, October 8, James Burch (DMA ’16) performs David Maslanka’s Remember Me: Music for Cello and Nineteen Players with conductor Robert M. Carnochan and The University of Texas Wind Symphony. Of Remember Me, Maslanska writes: “It was inspired by my reading of a “relatively minor” Holocaust event – the extermination of 5,000 Jews in a small town – in William L. Shirer’s Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. An eye-witness description of a Jewish family about to be slaughtered – mother, father, 10-year-old son, grandmother gently bouncing a year-old baby and making it smile – forcefully riveted my mind and heart. This music is for the baby—a single death, through which it is possible to begin to experience the massive horror of the totality.”
Francesco Mastromatteo (DMA ’12) returns to Central Texas this fall for two solo engagements with orchestra. On Sunday, September 28, Francesco makes his fourth appearance with conductor Robert Radmer and the Balcones Community Orchestra in the Vieuxtemps Cello Concerto. And on October 4 & 5, Francesco makes his debut with conductor David Oertel and the Starlight Symphony Orchestra in Wimberley performing the Haydn Cello Concerto in C major. For venue, ticket and more information, visit 
In addition to teaching at the Meri-Helsinki Music School in Finland, Johannes Teppo (MM ’13) has been appointed to the faculty of the International School of Music in Helsinki, the only official school in Finland teaching music in English and in other foreign languages. At the ISM, Johannes teaches students from the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Korea and China. 
Francesco Mastromatteo (DMA ’12) has been promoted to Head of Chamber Music and the Orchestra Department
at the Conservatorio di Musica Umberto Giordano in Foggia, the second largest province in Italy. His residency is in Rodi Garganico, a seaside resort on the northern coast of the Gargano peninsula. For more information, visit 
Yi Xin (DMA ’14) advanced to the final round of live auditions for the Principal Cello position of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. He was one of only two cellists from outside of the RPO remaining in the finals. This is the third time in the last couple of years that Yi made the finals of a major orchestral audition.
On Sunday, September 7, Nora Karakousoglou (DMA ’16) performs with Artistic Director and pianist Michelle Schumann for the Austin Chamber Music Center’s Season Opening Dinner and Concert. The concert program features two piano trios: Mozart’s K. 502 in B-flat major and Dvorak’s Op. 26 in g minor. The event includes a four-course prix-fixe dinner and pre-selected wine at the Gusto Italian Kitchen + Wine Bar. For more information, visit 
Johannes Teppo (MM ’13) advanced to the final round of live auditions for the Principal Cello position of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra. The 
Longhorn Cellos 