For his final DMA lecture-recital at the Butler School of Music, Yi Xin (DMA ’14) will present the first performance of Augusta Read Thomas’s Cello Concerto No. 3: Legend of the Pheonix in cello and piano reduction form. The concerto was originally premiered by cellist Lynn Harrell, conductor Christoph Eschenbach and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in March 2013.
About Legend of the Pheonix, Augusta Read Thomas writes:
“One might describe Legend of the Phoenix as ‘Scenes with Arias’ with the solo cello as a singing storyteller. Shaped in one long-reaching, continuous arch, the energy flow is often activated by the soloist, who is at the “philosophic center,” beckoning, caressing, and summoning the music’s chain of outgrowths.
“With sparkling, radiant, and capriciously witty atmospheres that celebrate the soloist and orchestra, this concerto is optimistic, clean, colorful, bright, sunny. There exists a wide and spontaneous variety of characters, including: triumphant, in-flight, ever-renewing of energy, graceful, majestic, spacious, pure and clean, playful, spry, jazzy, lively, rhythmic, ever-rising, resonant, and elegantly vibrant.”
Yi’s lecture-recital will take place on Wednesday, December 3, 2014, at 6 PM, in MRH 2.614. Admission is free.
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:
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 
