Austin Camerata Presents: ChamberFest
Sun May 20, 4:00 PM - Sun May 20, 6:00 PM

Enjoy complimentary food and drink while listening to select movements for string quartet by Haydn, Grieg, Borodin, and Gabriela Lena Frank, finishing with the finale to Tchaikovsky's string sextet "Souvenir de Florence."



About Gabriela Lena Frank's "Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout:"

Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout for string quartet draws inspiration from the idea of mestizaje as envisioned by the Peruvian writer José María Arguedas, where cultures can coexist without the subjugation of one by the other. As such, this piece mixes elements from the western classical and Andean folk music traditions.


About Tchaikovsky's sextet "Souvenir de Florence"

"The composition of Souvenir de Florence was not easy for Tchaikovsky. ‘I’m composing with unbelievable effort’, he wrote to his brother Modest on the day he started work. ‘I’m hampered not by lack of ideas but by the novelty of the form. There must be six independent and at the same time homogeneous parts.’ And to his friend Ziloti: ‘I constantly feel as though … I am in fact writing for the orchestra and just rearranging it for six string instruments.’ Interpreters of the work today still face the conflicting demands of an orchestral or soloistic approach, and yet this encourages performers towards a virtuoso style which has helped place the Souvenir de Florence among the most popular works in the string chamber music repertoire." -from notes by Tim Boulton



Musicians include:

- Violin: Matt Lammers, Emmy Tisdel, Marisa Ishikawa, Sophie Verhaeghe, Patrice Calixte, Ji-Yeon Lee

- Viola: Erica Schwartz, Vincent Marks, Alex Smith

- Cello: Daniel Kopp, Cory Blais, Hyugrai-Ray Kim, Matt Kufchak