Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

San Antonio’s premier chamber music group, Camerata San Antonio, has announced its 2023-24 season which will start on Sept. 1, just when everyone is refocusing on city life after summer travels and school vacations.  As usual, each program will be performed at three different locations to give people living throughout San Antonio and the surrounding area an easy access to first-class chamber music. The programming covers a lot of music territory,and includes a number of less-frequently performed musical treasures.

So, we asked co-founder and artistic director, Ken Freudigman, how he goes about “composing” a season.

“I often start with an anchor piece or theme,” he said. “Our pianist, Viktor Valkov, suggested that we perform the (Ernest) Bloch piano quintet this year, and our violinist, Matthew Zerweck, suggested the Kreisler String Quartet, so those two suggestions guided me towards a theme of music from the years between World War I and World War II – music that looks towards the past and music that looks toward the future. That’s how the first two programs came to be.

His “unofficial motto” is “There’s so much music and so little time,” which is always a guiding principle when he programs. “I’m constantly on the lookout for music that is familiar and rare, that does not get performed that often,” he noted. “This year we are highlighting music of women composers such as Florence Price, Germaine Tailleferre, Clara Schumann, and British composers Errollyn Wallen and Ethyl Smith.”

With so much top-notch music to choose from, it’s hard to pick special highlights, but Freudigman said that if you could attend only one program this year, go for “Las Musas” in February. It’s an all- vocal program featuring the “magnificent” soprano Sarah Davis who will perform works by Wallen, Turina and Faure.

The Wallen piece is titled “Are you Concerned about the High Cost of Funerals.” Isn’t that a great title?!,” quipped Freudigman.

Season performers are Ken Freudigman (cello), his wife and co-founder Emily Freudigman (viola), pianists Viktor Valkov and Kristin Roach, violinist Laura Scalzo, and soprano Sarah Davis.

The Freudigmans were members of the now defunct San Antonio Symphony. In 2009, the ensemble’s CD, “Salon Buenos Aires: Music of Miguel de Aguila” was nominated for two Latin GRAMMYs: Best Classical Album and Best Classical Contemporary Composition. In addition to his Camerata duties, Ken Freudigman is currently also conducting the YOSA Symphony and teaching cello at UTSA.

So, here’s what’s coming up:

Sept. 1,2 & 3: 19^th Century Echoes: Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing (Incidental music); Fritz Kreisler: String Quartet in A Minor; Florence Price: String Quartet in A Minor.

Sept. 29, 30 $ Oct.1: Breaking Away: Leos Janacek: Pohadka; Germaine Tailleferre: String Quartet; Ernest Bloch: Piano Quintet No 1

Jan. 12,13 & 14: Star-Crossed: Claude Debussy:  Pelleas et Melisande; Clara Schumann: Piano Trio in G Minor, Op.17; Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op.8

Feb. 9, 10 & 11: LAS MUSAS: Errollyn Wallen: Are You Worried About the Rising Cost of Funerals; Joaquin Turina: Las Musas de Andalucia; Gabriel Faure: La Bonne Chanson

April 5,6 & 7: Bold Brilliance: Ethel Smyth: String Trio in D Major, OP.6; Ludwig van Beethoven: String Trio in E-Flat Major, Op.3

May 5: The Camerata Recital- Zerweck/Valkov: Cui, Beethoven and Shostakovich

Each concert will be performed in three venues: First Presbyterian Church Kerrville (800 Jeferson); the Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit in NW San Antonio (11093 Bandera Rd.) and Christ Episcopal Church, (510 Belknap). This last venue is a new/old home for the group which used to perform there in previous years.

“We are looking forward to returning to Christ Episcopal Church for our Sunday concerts,” said Freudigman. “It’s a wonderful warm venue that we really love performing in, and our long-time audience will remember it from previous seasons.”
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For more information about the programs and performers – and season tickets: www.cameratasa.org