Recent News

Associate Professor Of Oboe Andrew Parker was featured recently by a local news outlet in Davenport Iowa for his ties with the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. Parker makes the trip several times each year to play with the orchestra, and performed his first solo recital recently with Pianist Marian Lee. 

Parker, who began piano lessons at age five before picking up the oboe in fourth grade, said he was drawn to the instrument because his music teacher said it was the hardest to play.

“I’ve just always had a personality that’s drawn to a challenge,” Parker told Quad City News. “To this day, I believe something sort of providential happened because the oboe just fits me so perfectly. I didn’t know that when I was in fourth grade — I didn’t know what it would entail, anything about it, really. It was a purely instinctual thing, but now looking back, it’s like, yeah, I was called back to that instrument in a way.” 

Earlier this year, Austin's local NPR station KUT did a profile of Longhorn Band Director Cliff Croomes, a story they included as one of their 10 best in 2021.

The University of Texas Trombone Choir wrapped up the semester with an impromptu concert at the alumni center. They spread Christmas cheer with a number of classics, including Feliz Navidad, Winter Wonderland and We Three Kings. "I feel like this is a perfect way to wrap things up," said D.M.A Trombone student Jared Dickerson, who played trombone and conducted a number of tunes during the concert. "We had a lot of serious concerts during the year, which is great to be back in the concert hall, but this is also part of the live music, just super casual playing for people."

The Hispanic Caribbean Ensemble played their final concert of the semester recently outside a local market in Central Austin. The group performed a number of acoustic and electrified dance pieces in a casual setting for a public crowd. They played along with the Butler School's Tex-Mex Conjunto and Middle Eastern Ensemble for a comprehensive showing of the school's world music groups.

"The best part of the concert was when we saw all these people towards the last couple of tunes come up into the front and start dancing and moving around," said J.A. Strub, a doctoral student in Ethnomusicology who sang vocals and played a variety of instruments during the concert. "We saw interactions from people of all different generations."

The Butler School is proud to announce the 2021-22 Rainwater Grant winners. Students who were selected through a competitive process will receive funding to implement their proposed projects. Founded in 2017, the Rainwater Fund for American Music was established with a $5 million endowment created by the late UT Austin alumnus Richard E. Rainwater (B.A., Mathematics, 1966), a Fort Worth investor and fund adviser. 

Master's student in piano pedagogy Moegi Amano's article "Where to Begin" was recently published in Piano Magazine. Amano details the process for learning a new piece successfully, from identifying the title and how it's expressed in the piece, to creating characters and a story line in order to better imagine the piece.

Go inside rehearsal with the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra as they prepare for the final performance of the semester. Students discuss their love for the music, their shared experience and beloved conductor, the orchestra's Director of Music Farkhad Khudyev, who brings passion and energy to every rehearsal and concert.

When Butler Opera Center's Principal Conductor Douglas Kinney Frost began planning his first faculty recital over a year ago with old colleague and friend Andrew Stuckey, the two selected a work from English Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams called "House of Life" based on a shared passion for the music. But when Doug's mother was placed in hospice care about six months ago, the music took on a whole new meaning.