In the first Texas Hill Country music event of its kind, the Fredericksburg Music Festival and School will kick off with the Festival’s Opening Gala on June 8, when Principal Cellist of the Houston Symphony Brinton Averil Smith explores “Jewishness in Music” at St Joseph’s Halle in Fredericksburg.
Joseph Kuipers, Creative Director of Texas Cellos, promises an ambitious program of classical performances and master classes by the top cellists on the planet. Guests can hear 12 concerts by 25 world-class musicians at five historic venues through June 21.
The repertoire spans performances of Renaissance-inspired music, Baroque masterworks like Bach’s Six Cello Suites, and contemporary works by composers including Fazil Say, Caroline Shaw, Giovanni Sollima, Mieczysław Weinberg, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Folk music will be a prominent theme throughout the concerts, highlighting the event theme “Music Connects Us.”
Special programming includes a mass cello choir concert featuring Giovanni Sollima’s “Note Sconte,” based on Beethoven's Unpublished Pieces and Unused Sketches.
There will be eight cello recitals—with themes ranging from “Jewishness in Music” to “Miniatures,” and “Hinges,” exploring the spaces in between.
The festival concludes with “Ode to Joy,” a mass side-by-side cello choir closing concert celebration featuring the faculty and students of the festival.
Concerts will take place at five historic venues in the heart of Fredericksburg: St Joseph’s Halle, Becker Vineyards, the Marienkirche from 1861, the Auditorium at the Pioneer Museum, and the Auditorium at the Nimitz Museum.
Included in this year’s event is the launch of TexasCelloSchool FREDERICKSBURG, with fifteen gifted international cello students in a meeting that encourages sharing between great musicians and young aspiring artists from around the world.
The complete performance schedule and registration information can be found online at texascellos.org.