Schubertiade

About the Artists

Page Stephens

Page Stephens is a mezzo soprano, voice teacher and arts administrator based in Austin, TX with a soft spot for new music. She is a founding member of VAMP, an all-female vocal quintet which champions music by women and living composers. VAMP's debut album will be released in November 2025. Stephens has premiered works by Reena Esmail, Matthew Lyons, Donald Grantham, Katherine Pukinskis, Dana Lyn, Russell Podgorsek, Thomas B. Yee, and others. Stephens maintains a robust performing career in a wide variety of genres. In the last decade, she has performed with Copland House, Voices of Change, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, Austin Symphony Orchestra, line upon line percussion, Sō Percussion, Texas Early Music Project, invoke string quartet, and many others. In addition to performing, Stephens is on the voice faculty at Austin Community College. She is the assistant director for operations at the Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin, where she also received her master’s and D.M.A. degrees.

Artem Kuznetsov

Native of village Novopokrovskoye, Russia, pianist Artem Kuznetsov is an award-winning concert pianist and an enthusiastic chamber musician, hailed for his artistry, virtuosity, lyricism and electrifying energy. He performs extensively, and has collaborated with internationally acclaimed orchestras. In the past year alone he has performed with  Orquestra Filarmónica Portuguesa, Orchestra Simfonica di Sanremo, Orquesta Internacional Virtuosos de Madrid, Orchestra Filarmonica Mihail Jora di Bacau, Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès,Royal Prince Consort Orchestra, Euregio Chamber Orchestra, among others. He enjoyed performances with the most prominent conductors such as Conrad Van Alpen, Simon Crawford-Philips, Ovidiu Balan, Benedetto Montebello, Lawrence Golan and Osvaldo Ferreira. Partnering with musical organizations in the USA, he has been actively involved in musical outreach for underserved communities as well as educational events for young musicians.  He has participated in organizations and concert series that have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to charities. After winning the first prize at the 25th Santa Cecilia International Competition in Porto, Portugal, Mr. Kuznetsov is actively preparing for numerous performance engagements in Europe, Asia, North and South Americas in the coming years.
 

Sandy Yamamoto

Violinist Sandy Yamamoto has dazzled audiences in concert performances around the globe for the past three decades as a soloist and as a member of the Miró Quartet. With the Miró Quartet, she performed on the major concert stages of the world, regularly concertizing in North America, South America, Europe and Asia.  As a member of the Quartet, she was a recipient of the Naumburg Chamber Music and Cleveland Quartet Awards, won First Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and was one of the first chamber musicians to be awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since leaving the Quartet in May 2011, she has been appointed Associate Professor of Practice in Violin Performance at the Butler School of Music and was the recipient of the Butler School of Music Teaching Excellence Award.  For the 2024-25 season, she is Co-Concertmaster of the San Antonio Philharmonic under the artistic leadership of Jeffrey Kahane.  Most recently, she has accepted a position as the new Artistic Director of the Austin Chamber Music Center. 
 

Wilhelm Manger

The first violist in 111 years of the competition to be awarded the Prix d'Europe in 2022, Wilhelm's solo engagements in 2023-2024 include recitals and chamber music concerts in Canada, the United States and Poland. Wilhelm is interested in expanding the viola repertoire and has transcribed many works by composers such as Bach, Lutoslawski, Paganini and Waxman for the viola. In addition to performing, he has given masterclasses in the USA and Canada. He holds a master's degree in viola performance from Yale University in the class of professor Ettore Causa. Previously, he studied with Professor André Roy and Natalia Kononova. He was named to CBC Music's "30 under 30" list in 2022. Wilhelm has appeared in many summer festivals, including Yellowbarn, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Kneisel Hall, the Young Artists Program of the National Arts Center, and the Orford Music Academy. In his spare time, Wilhelm enjoys playing chess and listening to music. Wilhelm is a recipient of the Sylva Gelber Foundation award. He plays a Ryan Soltis, Nelson, 2023 viola and an Ouchard bow generously loaned by CANIMEX INC. of Drummondville (Quebec), Canada. 

Amy Levine-Tsang 

Cellist Amy Levine-Tsang enjoys a vibrant career as both chamber musician and teacher.  She has collaborated with the Colorado, Cassatt, Brentano, Daedalus, and Meridian String Quartets, and been a frequent guest of the New Jersey Chamber Music Society and the Richardson Chamber Players. Ms. Levine-Tsang has performed frequently in the Austin area with Austin Camerata, Chamber Soloists of Austin, La Follia, and the Austin Chamber Music Center.  A founding member of the award-winning Laurel Trio—recipient of the Concert Artists Guild’s Nathan Wedeen Management Award and the Pro Piano Competition—she has appeared at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Gardner Museum in Boston, the La Jolla Chamber Music Society, and as Artist-in-Residence at WQXR-FM and the Tanglewood Music Center. Festival appearances include Marlboro, Portland, Music in the Vineyards, Cactus Pear, and the Laurel Festival of the Arts.  Formerly on the faculty of Princeton University, Ms. Levine-Tsang now maintains a private studio in Austin, Texas, where her students have gone on to study at leading conservatories and universities throughout the country.

Joel Braun

Joel Braun is associate professor of double bass at The University of Texas at Austin.  As an orchestral musician he has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic.  He currently serves as faculty artist and assistant principal bass of the Eastern Music Festival under the direction of Gerard Schwarz.  An in-demand soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue, Joel has recently performed and presented classes at the Universidad Nacional de Música in Lima, Perú, the University of Iowa, the University of Illinois, the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Michigan State University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music.  Past teaching positions include Ball State University and The Juilliard School Pre-College Division. Joel began his studies on the double bass in St. Louis, Missouri under Sue Stubbs.  He moved to New York City to study with Eugene Levinson at The Juilliard School where he earned a pre-college diploma, B.M., and M.M. degrees. 

Anton Nel

Winner of the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition at Carnegie Hall, Anton Nel continues to tour internationally as recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Highlights in the U.S. include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, and Detroit Symphonies (he has a repertoire of more than 100 works for piano and orchestra.) In addition to recitals in virtually every U.S. state he has appeared overseas at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, as well as major venues in China, Korea, and South Africa. Much sought after as a chamber musician he regularly appears with some of the world’s finest instrumentalists and singers at festivals on four continents. He holds the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long Endowed Chair at The University of Texas at Austin and also gives an annual series of masterclasses at the Manhattan School of Music and the Glenn Gould School in Toronto. During the summers he is on the artist-faculties at the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, and the Orford Music Academy in Quebec. Nel also frequently performs as harpsichordist and fortepianist. His recordings include four solo albums, chamber music recordings (including the complete Beethoven and Brahms cello/piano works with Bion Tsang), and works for piano and orchestra by Franck, Faure, Saint-Saens and Edward Burlingame Hill. The Johannesburg-born Mr. Nel is a graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand, where he studied with Adolph Hallis, and the University of Cincinnati where he worked with Bela Siki and Frank Weinstock. His website is antonnel.com.

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Upcoming Events

Mahler Symphony No. 2, Resurrection
Symphony Orchestra & Combined Choirs
Leah Crocetto, soprano 
Sophio Dzidziguri, mezzo soprano

One of the most beloved symphonies in the canon, Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony boasts a large orchestra, mezzo and soprano soloists, and similarly to Beethoven's 9th Symphony, a large choir in the final movement. For this performance, the Butler School's Concert Chorale and University Chorus ensembles will join forces; they will be joined by Butler School alumni singers and community choral singers from around Austin.

Tuesday, March 31, 8:00 p.m.
Long Center for the Performing Arts

Tickets

VAMP
Debut Album Release Concert
Thursday, November 13, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall

BUTLER HOLIDAY CONCERT
Featuring Chamber Orchestra & Choirs
Saturday, December 6, 7:30 p.m. 
Sunday, December 7, 4:00 p.m. 
Bates Recital Hall

LILIANA GUERRERO, soprano & JAMES MAVERICK, piano
I Dissent: Songs of American Protest
Sunday, January 25, 3 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall

MIRÓ QUARTET
with Wilhelm Magner, Viola
Friday, January 30, 7:30 p.m.
Bates Recital Hall

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