Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

When cellist Ken Freudigman was nine years old, his mother took him to a concert in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that featured the great Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. As his mother tells the story, once the virtuosic Slava started playing, her squirmy little boy became transfixed by the player and the sound of the cello, and sat still and attentive throughout the 40-minute concert.

“I had never heard a more beautiful sound and I knew at that moment that I had found my voice,” said the very grown-up Ken who is today a highly accomplished cellist himself, a member of SA Phil and the founder and leader of the prominent chamber music ensemble, Camerata San Antonio. He and his wife, violist Emily Freudigman, founded Camerata in 2003.

“We are starting our 22^nd year playing chamber music together and I have enjoyed every minute of it,” said the cellist.

The ensemble, which also includes violinists, Matthew Zerweck and Laura Scalzo – plus pianist Viktor Valkov – will present six programs during the 2024-25 season in three locations, two in San Antonio and one in Kerrville. The season opens Sept. 6.

So, how does he go about formulating a season?

“Hmm, I have been programming for Camerata for 22 seasons. When I start planning, I first think of the personnel we have and of anchor works such as works by master composers like Beethoven, Bach, Brahms…; things that we all like to play. But I am also acutely aware that there has been a lot of music that was neglected or rarely played because of the composer’s race or gender. So we include some of those “unheard voices.”  In fact, six composers on the program fit that bill. One is Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, an African-American who wrote a lot of music inspired by jazz. Also, other composers who are not in the “canon,” like French female composer Mel Bonis who was around and composed at the same time that Faure and Ravel did – a wonderful composer!

I constantly research composers. My personal motto is ‘There is so much music and so little time.’ As I get older, I realize there is so little time to perform all this music. So far, Camerata has played close to 600 works in 22 years, which is a lot of music; and we repeated only 14. I am constantly looking for new music and new challenges.”

The season will also feature Nadia and Lili Boulanger and John Corigliano, yet another lesser- known composer. His father was the concert master of the San Antonio Symphony many years ago.

In addition to performing, Camerata is dedicated to educating students, said Freudigman. In fact, the group has been bringing concerts into schools, offering master classes and seminars.

“The Camerata performers believe in passing on our knowledge to a new generation” said the music director. In fact, the ensemble is offering free admission for all students in San Antonio and the Hill Country.

                                                                  Season Lineup

Quartets – Sept. 6-8 (Works by Beethoven, Haydn and Coleridge- Taylor Perkinson)

Longing – Oct. 4, 6 (Works by Schubert, Brahms, Mel Bonis and Mieczyslav Weinberg)

Tresors Musicaux – Nov. 8, 10 (Works by Saint-Saens, Lili Boulanger, Nadia Boulanger, Gabriel
Faure)

Bach Reflections – Jan. 10-12 (works by Bach and Corigliano)

The Camerata Recital – Feb. 16 (Works by Bartok, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Samuel Coleridge Taylor)

Romantic Resonances – April 25-27, 2025 (Camille Saint Saens – Barcarolle for Piano Quartet, OP. 108 and a String Quartet by Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel as well as a piano quintet by Erno Dohnanyi

 Each concert will be performed in the following three venues: Kerrville – First Presbyterian Church, 800 Jefferson St.; San Antonio – Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit; 11093 Bandera Rd.; and Christ Episcopal Church , 510 Belknap Place.  Tickets and season subscriptions can be reserved at www.cameratasa.org