News

As part of its 20th anniversary, the Miró Quartet announced they would give away a free master class to a school music program, with hopefuls submitting videos via social media. The quartet has announced the winner: Fox Chapel Area High School Orchestra in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Austin Blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughan takes the field with the University of Texas Longhorn Band band during halftime on Thanksgiving Day's football game versus Texas Tech. This marks the first time a hometown pop music performer has performed with the band as part of its halftime show.

Diana Burgess (B.M. 2015) has hit the road with indie-orchestral pop band Mother Falcon. Here, she talks about how performing with the Butler School's UT Symphony Orchestra and in chamber music groups prepared her to perform with Mother Falcon.

The Butler School's director of bands, Professor Jerry Junkin, was among a group of representatives from the College of Fine Arts who traveled to the Rio Grande Valley in October to collaborate with high schools and programs to encourage more students to pursue higher education in the fine arts.

Current Butler School students James Burch (D.M.A. in cello), Matt Armbruster (M.M. in cello), Christopher S. Prosser (D.M.A. in composition) and Nick Galuban (B.M. in clarinet) are fundraising for their newly founded non-profit organization Tetractys, which features a new music concert series that contributes to the cultivation of a thriving new music scene in Austin.

Alan Guckian (B.M. Music Studies 2001), band director at Eastside Memorial High School in East Austin, is one of 25 finalists for the Grammy Music Educator Award, beating out 4,500 other nominees.

Violin faculty member Sandy Yamamoto, mother of two boys, discussed with the Austin Chronicle how having kids has affected her music career and ways of working. 

The University Orchestra kicked off the school year with its first fall performance October 13. Austin Chronicle reviewer Robi Polgar described this “maiden voyage” as a “pleasure cruise” with audience-friendly music that offered “earfuls of drama.”

Texas Monthly named Texas Performing Arts' upcoming screening of Frankenstein (1931), with a live score played by the UT Wind Ensemble, a "must-attend event."

Butler School alum and staff member Russell Podgorsek (D.M.A. 2014) teamed with lit journal NANO Fiction to create short stories with original scores. The result is Sehr Flash: Fiction Becomes Music.