Texas Guitar Quartet & YK
Texas Guitar Quartet & YK
Cactus Café
Austin, Texas
This concert was a third in a new series of “Classical Cactus” shows held at the Cactus by the Austin Classical Guitar Society. This show featured UT music students past and present. Before the show began, there was a line stretching far beyond the door and the air was filled with people chattering about the legendary Cactus stage and how far they’d come to see the show. By the time everyone had filed in, the house was packed as people milled around to talk, grab a drink, or find a comfortable place to stand in the back.
The show began with a half-hour set by YK, who is studying for his Master of Music degree, and who dedicated his performance to UT’s graduate music students. He is a quiet performer, but though he didn’t engage in very much banter from the stage he more than made up for it in his emotive playing. YK kept his eyes closed whenever he wasn’t glancing at his sheet music, and he moved along with the impeccably plucked melodies. Though a serious performer, he still held a sense of humor about some of the absurdities that come with playing classical music. At one point, YK pulled out an extremely long piece of sheet music and battled to get it to stay on a music stand, a campaign met with a dusting of laughter from the audience and which solicited a chuckle from the man himself. What he plucked from his repertoire to perform was widely varied, from a typical classical guitar piece to a frilled-up version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things.”
After a long intermission, the Texas Guitar Quartet took over the stage. They engaged in some banter about their newest member, a doctoral candidate at UT’s Butler School of Music, where the three other performers also honed their skills, and having to add new music to their repertoire. At one point in the show, playing at the Cactus was likened to coming home. First the quartet stuck to a more conventional classical guitar program, playing a Vivaldi concerto and three movements from Isaac Albéniz’s Suite española. The highlight of the show was when the group took a turn for the modern and played a piece written for the ensemble by local composer Mark Anthony Cruz just a few months before.
Though the quartet had at this point run through the whole catalogue for the evening, they pulled out a piece by Brazilian composer Paulo Bellinati. After this was a stunning rendition of Astor Piazzolla’s La muerte del angel, which was met with enthusiastic applause from the whole Café. As the applause faded and it became clear that there wasn’t any more to be heard out of the quartet there was a palpable craving in the room for one more tune. The want for and love of classical guitar in the Austin area was clear in the sheer number of happy faces left after the show.
by Marie Meyers
Cactus Café
Austin, Texas
This concert was a third in a new series of “Classical Cactus” shows held at the Cactus by the Austin Classical Guitar Society. This show featured UT music students past and present. Before the show began, there was a line stretching far beyond the door and the air was filled with people chattering about the legendary Cactus stage and how far they’d come to see the show. By the time everyone had filed in, the house was packed as people milled around to talk, grab a drink, or find a comfortable place to stand in the back.
The show began with a half-hour set by YK, who is studying for his Master of Music degree, and who dedicated his performance to UT’s graduate music students. He is a quiet performer, but though he didn’t engage in very much banter from the stage he more than made up for it in his emotive playing. YK kept his eyes closed whenever he wasn’t glancing at his sheet music, and he moved along with the impeccably plucked melodies. Though a serious performer, he still held a sense of humor about some of the absurdities that come with playing classical music. At one point, YK pulled out an extremely long piece of sheet music and battled to get it to stay on a music stand, a campaign met with a dusting of laughter from the audience and which solicited a chuckle from the man himself. What he plucked from his repertoire to perform was widely varied, from a typical classical guitar piece to a frilled-up version of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things.”
After a long intermission, the Texas Guitar Quartet took over the stage. They engaged in some banter about their newest member, a doctoral candidate at UT’s Butler School of Music, where the three other performers also honed their skills, and having to add new music to their repertoire. At one point in the show, playing at the Cactus was likened to coming home. First the quartet stuck to a more conventional classical guitar program, playing a Vivaldi concerto and three movements from Isaac Albéniz’s Suite española. The highlight of the show was when the group took a turn for the modern and played a piece written for the ensemble by local composer Mark Anthony Cruz just a few months before.
Though the quartet had at this point run through the whole catalogue for the evening, they pulled out a piece by Brazilian composer Paulo Bellinati. After this was a stunning rendition of Astor Piazzolla’s La muerte del angel, which was met with enthusiastic applause from the whole Café. As the applause faded and it became clear that there wasn’t any more to be heard out of the quartet there was a palpable craving in the room for one more tune. The want for and love of classical guitar in the Austin area was clear in the sheer number of happy faces left after the show.
by Marie Meyers
