The hand-sculpted Festival Chamber Orchestra celebrates Austin’s own fabulous talent, providing the quintessential Austin Chamber Music Festival experience. Austin Symphony Maestro Peter Bay leads the ensemble. The program includes music by Gerald Finzi (the ethereal “Eclogue”) and Divertimenti by Einojuhani Rautavaara and Mozart. Austin Chamber Music Center’s own Michelle Schumann will top off the concert with a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 11 in F Major.
Subject to availability, $12 Student Rush (with student ID), $30 General Admission, $45 Preferred, and $80 Premium tickets may be purchased at the box office on the evening of the concert. The box office will open at 6:30 PM that day.
Program
Eclogue | Gerald Finzi (1901–1956)
Divertimento in D Major, K. 136 | W. A. Mozart (1756-1791)
- Allegro
- Andante
- Presto
Divertimento for Strings | Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016)
- Allegro
- Adagio
- Allegretto ma energico
INTERMISSION
Piano Concerto No. 11 in F Major, K. 413 | W. A. Mozart
- Allegro
- Larghetto
- Tempo di Menuetto
FESTIVAL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Peter Bay, conductor
Michelle Schumann, piano
Peter Bay
Peter Bay became Music Director and Conductor of the Austin Symphony Orchestra in 1998. He is also conductor of the Bravo! Big Sky Classical Festival Orchestra (MT) and Arizona Philharmonic, and the primary conductor for Ballet Austin.
A native of Washington, DC, Mr. Bay is a graduate of the University of Maryland and the Peabody Institute of Music. In 1994, he was one of two conductors selected to participate in the Leonard Bernstein American Conductors Program. He was the first prize winner of the 1980 Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Young Conductors Competition and a prize winner of the 1987 Leopold Stokowski Competition sponsored by the American Symphony Orchestra. In July 2012 he appeared in Solo Symphony, a choreographic work created for him by Allison Orr of Forklift Danceworks. He was inducted into the Austin Arts Hall of Fame in May 2016.
Michelle Schumann
Hailed for her “sensitive, flexible, and tempestuous dexterity” (Fanfare Magazine), pianist Michelle Schumann has built a reputation for evocative and moving performances. Since 2006, Michelle has served as Artistic Director of the Austin Chamber Music Center, where she “is fearlessly expanding our definition of chamber music” (Austin-American Statesman). Her brand of performance includes an enthusiastic interplay with audiences, bringing diverse music together under a narrative blanket. She was named “Best Classical Musician” in the Best of Austin 2019 Readers Poll by the Austin Chronicle.
Schumann is Professor of Piano at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin and additionally holds a Performance Diploma from the Vienna Conservatory.