CHAMPS Informance-November 6th, 2011

Austin is extremely lucky to have a program like CHAMPS (Chamber Music in Public Schools). This unique program offers free weekly chamber music coachings, and bi-annual concerts to thirteen public middle schools and high schools in the Austin area for free. We have been fortunate enough to coach for the CHAMPS program for the last two years. Working with our students at Anderson High School and Akins High School every week has been a pleasure and a very rewarding experience for us as coaches.

Last Sunday, we participated in an "informance" with Will Fedkenheuer of the Miro Quartet, Aiana String Quartet, our students at Akins High School, and students from Murchison Middle School. We had the opportunity to coach our string quartet from Akins High School, and then perform and receive a coaching from Will Fedkenheuer, all in front of an audience.

Here is a photo of us with our students from Akins High School after the performances:

From left to right: D'Auriel, Marina, Sarah, Justin, Alyssa, Jesus, Willie, and Jose
(thank you to Alyssa's mom for the photo!)


To learn more about the CHAMPS program, or the Salon Concert series, you can visit this website: http://salonconcerts.org/

Visiting East Austin College Prep Academy

One of the best parts of being in a quartet are the awesome opportunities we receive on a regular basis to outreach into the community. On October 27th, we had the pleasure of working with a group of students at the East Austin College Prep Academy. East Austin College Prep Academy is an innovative, tuition-free public school with the following vision:

"The vision of the East Austin College Prep Academy is to serve as a model school with a rigorous curriculum that successfully prepares all students, regardless of economic background, for graduation and success in college and career, while also instilling a commitment to community service."


We played Mozart String Quartet K. 421 for the students, and talked about playing stringed instruments, being in a string quartet, and Mozart's life. They are currently starting a string program at East Austin Prep Academy, but the new instruments have not arrived yet. In the meantime, the students, with the help of their teachers Patrick, Laura, and Liz, have created some awesome paper mache stringed instruments!

To learn more about the school, click the link below. Thanks to Patrick and Marina from Skyros for setting up this great outreach opportunity! We hope to see the students at East Austin Prep Academy again soon!

http://www.eastaustincollegeprep.org/schools/academy/about/message.html

To see more pictures of our visit, courtesy of Patrick, click this link to Austin Soundwaves' flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69558507@N03/sets/72157627957747039 

Skyros Quartet Enters the Blogosphere!!!

We (Sarah, Marina, Justin, and Willie) are excited to make our debut into the blogging world! Look out for new exciting posts in the near future!