Balcones Community Orchestra
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The Balcones Community Orchestra is in its twenty-fifth season of bringing high-quality chamber orchestra music to the Austin region. The all-volunteer group draws its repertoire from the masterworks for small orchestra, and presents free concerts in venues that approximate the conditions under which these works were first performed and heard.
Please check our website often to see upcoming events, including full orchestra performances, as well as other musical events pertaining to the classics.
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Please consider investing in us and help us keep
classical music alive and free to Austin.
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jessica mathaes, VIOLIN
Chen/Zhanhao He:
Butterfly lovers violin concerto
Sunday, jan 21, 2024- 4:00 pm
Episcopal Church of the Resurrection
The orchestra will also perform:
TBA
2023-2024 CALENDAR - SUNDAYS AT 4:00
September 24 - Patrice Calixte, Violin & Alex Smith, Viola - Lakeway Activity Center
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante
October 22 - Anton Nel, Piano - St. Matthew's Episcopal Church
Mozart: Piano Concerto in F Major, K. 459
November 19 - Bryan Hall, Violin - Episcopal Church of the Resurrection
Dvorak: Violin Concerto
January 21, 2024 - Jessica Mathaes, Violin - Episcopal Church of the Resurrection
Chen / Zhanhao He: Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto
February 18 - SungEun Park, Piano - St. Matthew's Episcopal Church
Repertoire TBA
March 17 - Thomas Gougeon, Violin - Episcopal Church of the Resurrection
Beethoven: Romanze in F and Wieniawski Polonaise in D Major
April 21 - Francesco Mastromatteo, Cello - Episcopal Church of the Resurrection
Dvorak: Cello Concerto
May 19 - Artina McCain, Piano - St. Matthew's Episcopal Church
Repertoire TBA
Bio
Jessica Mathaes:
Hailed “a violinist like no other” (The New York Times) and “a master of the Khachaturian violin concerto” (Austin Chronicle), Jessica Mathaes enjoys an international career as a soloist, recording artist, educator and concertmaster.
As a concertmaster, Mathaes has led numerous orchestras including the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra, and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. She has also appeared with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras. In 2005 at the age of 25, Mathaes was appointed concertmaster of the Austin Symphony, becoming both the youngest and first female concertmaster of the orchestra in its over 100-year history.
As a soloist, Mathaes has been broadcast live on Performance Today and Chicago Public Radio, and has performed throughout Singapore on a solo and masterclass tour sponsored by the US Embassy. She has also performed as a soloist with the Austin, Victoria, Bismarck-Mandan, Round Rock, Northwest Iowa, Masterworks, and National Music Festival Orchestras. She has premiered works by many American composers including Pierre Jalbert and Paul Reale, and has released solo albums on the Naxos and Centaur labels to critical acclaim in Gramophone. She has served on the faculty of the Credo Music Festival, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, the National Music Festival, and the Masterworks Festival, and her students have gone on to earn spots at top music schools in the United States. In 2022 Mathaes joined the faculty of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, where she teaches violin and chamber music.
Born in Chicago, Mathaes grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, where she was concertmaster of the Omaha Area Youth Orchestra and made her solo debut at age 16 playing the Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3. She was also an award-winning pianist in her youth. Mathaes holds performance degrees from Rice University, where she graduated magna cum laude.