String Project Fall 2026 Concert

Winter Concert

The University of Texas String Project

Butler School of Music

A student sketch of a violin, surrounded by floating musical notes, all suspended above an open violin case.

Saturday, November 14, 2026
10:30 a.m. | Bates Recital Hall

Dr. Marissa Guarriello, director
Rebecca Braun, program coordinator/assistant director

Soojin Kim, piano 
 

Artwork by Vritika Parmar

 

This program will last about 90 minutes without intermission. 

 

Program

 

Traditional
This Old Man
Maggie Euscher, Finnigan Gilbert, Lillian Olivo
Early Childhood Families
 

Traditional
Five Green & Speckled Frogs
Maggie Euscher, Finnigan Gilbert, Lillian Olivo
Stepping Stones Families
 

Traditional
Up Like a Rocket
Rey Canales, Sarah Horton, AJ Marks, Natalie Reitzes, Pedro Salas, Benedict Ventura
Junior Cadet Violins & Cellos
 

Traditional
Flower Song
Hannah Thompson, Brianna Moehnke, Adriana Rizk
Senior Cadet Violins 
 

American Folk Song
Old Brass Wagon
Ema Deguchi-Kelly, Sarah Uy
Senior Cadet Cellos
 

German Folk Song
Lightly Row
Rylan Hall, Courtney Nottingham, Adriana Rizk
Beginning Violin Ensemble
 

Traditional
Froggy in the Meadow

Traditional
Hoedown
Aiden Flora, Cecilia Nguyen
Beginning Viola Ensemble
 

Ludwig van Beethoven
Ode to Joy
Rey Canales, Finnigan Gilbert, Benedict Ventura
Beginning Cello Ensemble
 

Traditional Folk Song
Are You Sleeping, Brother John? 

African-American Spiritual
Chatter with the Angels

Shinichi Suzuki
Twinkle, Variation A
Ema Deguchi-Kelly, Andrés Hernandez, Darrin Luong
Beginning Bass Ensemble
 

Travis Marcum
Blue Magic

Travis Marcum
Lofi
Ben Glasser, Theodore McCoy
Guitar Ensemble I
 

Travis Marcum & Jeremy Osborne
Intersection

Travis Marcum
Koi Under the Moon Bridge
Lauren Zelda Gordon, Connor McManus
Guitar Ensemble II
 

Celso Machado
Marchinha de Carnaval

J. S. Bach 
arr. Jake Giles
Invention No. 4
Jake Giles
Guitar Ensemble III
 

Shinichi Suzuki
Twinkle, Twinkle
AJ Marks, Alice Pak
Foundations

 

Prelude & Foundations Orchestras
Lilya Aljarrah, Ema Deguchi-Kelly, AJ Marks, Jennifer McKeeman, Alice Pak, instructors

Susan H. Day
Pizzicato Party
 

Brian Balmages
Pepperoni Pizza Rock
Jennifer McKeeman, conductor
 


Overture Orchestra
Andres Hernandez, Ema Deguchi-Kelly, Sarah Horton, Cecilia Nguyen, instructors

Japanese Folk Song
arr. Michael Story
Sakura
Cecilia Nguyen, conductor
 

W. A. Mozart 
arr. Carrie Lane Gruselle
Finding Figaro 
based on Le Nozze di Figaro
Andres Hernandez, conductor
 


Concert Orchestra
Aiden Flora, Gwendolyn Lay, Darrin Luong  Natalie Reitzes, instructors

Kathryn Griesinger
Epic Adventure
Aiden Flora, conductor
 

Adrian Gordon
A Tender Moment in Time
Natalie Reitzes, conductor
 

Gustav Holst 
arr. Christina Hans
Themes from St. Paul’s Suite 
I. Jig
Darrin Luong, conductor 
 


Sinfonia Orchestra
Suhyun Lim, Courtney Nottingham, Hannah Thompson, Eric Wang, instructors 

W. A. Mozart 
Violin Duos, Nos. II & III, K. 487

Josef Werner
Elegie for Four Cellos, op. 21

Gustav Holst 
Themes from St. Paul’s Suite 
I. Jig
Courtney Nottingham, conductor

 

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Student Artwork of a snowman and a bunny rabbit playing music together.
Student artwork of a rabbit, a cat and a mouse playing in an ensemble while a human conducts.

Participating Students

Sam Agarwal
Zoe Alley
Iris Anderson
Chidirim Anya
Chizisa Anya
Megha Balaji
Calvin Barrack
Alessandra Behl
Gabriel Behl
Louie Benitez
Emilio Benitez
Buckley Berry
Townes Berry
Lucy Bhaskar
Paul Bhaskar
Rithvika Bhat
Ryman Bowers
Eloise Bowling
Ellsworth Bryant
Jasper Burns-Trahanovsky
Emily Burrows
Franklin Buxton
Kaiyel Camillo
Mackenzie Capalongan
Mina Carper
Maral Carter
Leah Choi
Ashton Colquitt
Christian Davis
Clara Delfeld
Aanika Devarajan
John Diego Dinning
Advay Dixit
Anthony Doan
Ziggy Ferrentino
Raum Fields
Eames Fields
Isaac Fraher
Samuel Frias
Lucy Gallagher
Merona Garman
Remy Garman
Alianna Garza
Elna Geephilip
Emmelyn Geephilip
Kaveh Ghazban
Alvin Gijo
Alexandra Guerrero-Montes
Perseus Guillen Hernandez
Anup Gunamuni
Apur Gunamuni
Dula Gunamuni
Mayobanex Guridy-McKnight
Hayley Hall
Charlie Hall
Milena Hernandez
Cecilia Hill
Sofia Hoang
Sonia Hoang
Nina Vivienne Howell
Oliver Huynh
Isabella Inala
Gabby Inala
Yaara Ann Jacob
Yoshua Jacob
Joanna Jebaseelan
Betsy Jerkins
Yuchuan Joshi
Arjun Karthik
Azan Khawaja
Ian Kim
Caleb Kim
George Kirkham
Eli Klein
Edwin Koh
Stella Koh
Ariana Koleini
Andrew Krause
James Krause
Kira Landolt
Athena Langdell
Eleanor Lee
Aleyah Liao
Henry Lowe
Sebastian Maceiras
Connor Machicek
Cora Machicek
Ean Marediya
Alejandro Marquez Acevedo
Elias Marquez Acevedo
Aria Martell
Homero Martell
Matt Matheka
Camille Mayo
Kaobi Mba
Clara Merritt
Leonardo Munoz-Cabana
Maximilian Munoz-Cabana
Nicolas Munoz-Cabana
Maeve Murphy
Elizabeth (Poppy) Nellans
Ophelie Nguyen
Owen Niedermeier
Benjamin Padilla Sherbert
Vritika Parmar
Nina Petrini
Alexander Philip
Ananya Philip
Andrew Philip
Ryan Piper

Orlaya Ponkratz
Waverly Ponkratz
Hannah Pothen
Agastya Puthiyaveetil
Nathan Randall Baladi
Gavin Richards
Pablo Andres Riera
Camila Riera
Beatriz Rincon-Rivera
Alia Roberts Garces
Charlie Ruedin
Josie Ruedin
Kai Ryckman
Oslo Safi
Diego Saldivar
Lucien Saldivar
Mariana Sanchez
Sofia Sanchez
Yaneli Sanchez
Sabine Schilder
Calla Shang
Kabir Sharma
Mina Shirazi Alvarez
Christian Michael Slawek Robertson
Maddy Soto
Hugo Soudier
Aria Spargo
Sebastian Spiridonov

Tristan Spiridonov
Rya Teal
Anne Rebecca Thomas
Robert Ting
Rosalie Ting
Ignacio Tovar
Simon Tovar
Abigail Tsoi
Caroline Turner
Canturk Uzmezler
Sorin van Steensel
Jean-Luc Villalba
Agneya Vineeth
Caleb Vogel
Calvin Warshauer
Maxwell Warshauer
Jessica Wegner
Emily Welch
Julian Woerndle
Henry Woerndle
Colin (Sam) Wu
Yibo Yang
Yina Yang
Alina Yee
Lucas Yen
Remington York
Amelia Young

 

Back to Program

 

String Project Faculty

Beautiful tone, beautiful heart”

– S. Suzuki

 

Lilya Aljarrah, viola
Rey Canales, cello
Courtney Castaneda, cello
Kelly Chanpong, piano
Ema Deguchi-Kelly, bass
Maggie Euscher, ECE
Aiden Flora, viola
Finnigan Gilbert, cello & ECE
Jakob Giles, guitar
Ben Glasser, guitar
Lauren Gordon, guitar
Rylan Hall, violin
Andrés Hernández Labra, bass
Sarah Horton, violin
Gwendolyn Lay, viola
Suhyun Lim, violin
Darrin Luong, bass
AJ Marks, violin & ECE
Theodore McCoy, guitar
Jennifer McKeeman, viola
Connor McManus, guitar
Brianna Moehnke, flute
Cecilia Nguyen, viola
Courtney Nottingham, violin
Lillian Olivo, ECE
Alice Pak, violin
Natalie Reitzes, viola
Adriana Rizk, violin
Pedro Salas, violin
Hannah Thompson, viola
Benedict Ventura, cello
Eric Wang, violin
 

Back To Program ^

Student drawing of a child happily playing a violin, surrounded by music notes.
An Abstract student drawing depicting musical notes and symbols floating in a sea of stars.

Our Deepest Gratitude to

Susan Thomas & the Butler School of Music
The University of Texas College of Fine Arts 



Division of Music and Human Learning
Greg Cavazos
Robert Duke
Amy Simmons
Justin J. West
Marjorie Yankeelov

 

The University of Texas String Faculty
Joel Braun, double bass
Adam Holzman, guitar
Brian Lewis, violin
Wilhelm Magner, viola
Bion Tsang, cello
Sandy Yamamoto, violin
Members of the Miró Quartet

 

Butler School of Music Staff
Nita Isom, Building Manager
Ruth Sogas-Paramio, Butler School of Music Business Office
Page Stephens and the Scheduling Office
Marina Sakellakis, Production Manager


Teachers of our Ensemble-Only students
 

Our Sponsors & Volunteers
Parent Volunteers
The Junior League of Austin
Strait Music
Westbank String Shop 

A very special thanks to the String Project students who submitted artwork!
Lucy Bhaskar, Paul Bhaskar, Betsy Jerkins, Ean Marediya, Vritika Parmar, Andrew Philip, and Sabine Schilder
 

Back To Program ^

A student drawing of a squirrel listening to music on their headphones.
Student artwork of a young girl sitting and thinking happily, music notes float above her head.