PROGRAM
UTSA Orchestra
Troy Peters, conductor
featuring the winners of the 2023/24 UTSA Concerto & Aria Competition
Alexis Cairy, soprano
Elisa Nivon, violin
Thursday, February 29, 2024 7:30 p.m.
UTSA Recital Hall
Magnolia (2023)
Ben Spivey WORLD PREMIERE (born 2002)
“Chi il bel sogno di Doretta” from La Rondine (1916)
Alexis Cairy, soprano
Tzigane for violin and orchestra (1924)
Elisa Nivon, violin
Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 (1889)
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
Antonín Dvořák
Allegro con brio (1841-1904)
Adagio
Allegretto grazioso
Allegro ma non troppo
ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES
Composer Ben Spivey grew up here in San Antonio and has been playing the violin for over nine years. Ben started regularly composing in his freshman year of college, and has now been composing for over three years. Ben’s main musical inspirations over the years have been Toby Fox, Dan Avidan, and Satoru Kousaki, among others. Ben is currently in his last semester of pursuing a degree in Music Composition at UTSA, and is working diligently on organizing his upcoming senior recital.
Of the work on tonight’s program, Ben writes: “Magnolia is a character I made and thought about when writing this piece. In a fantasy setting, I picture Magnolia as a guardian spirit that presides over a deep forest. This piece is meant to invoke the main aspects of that character: grandiosity, wisdom, gentleness, and power.”
Soprano Alexis Cairy is a Minnesota native now pursuing her Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy and Vocal Performance at the University of Texas San Antonio under the instruction of Prof. John Nix. Ms. Cairy received her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado, Boulder where she studied voice and pedagogy under Dr. John Seesholtz. Ms. Cairy is an active chorister, performer, and teacher in San Antonio. Stage credits include Minnesota Opera’s Project Opera The Nightingale, Nightingale, Memory Boy, Chorus, Music of Mozart, Marcellina. Minnesota Opera MainStage Rusalka, chorus. Eklund Opera, Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life, Chorus/Mrs. Johnson, Hansel und Gretel, Mutter. UTSA Lyric Theatre, The Kidnapping of Europa, Europa, The Firetower a new opera, June. Competition includes, TEXOMA NATS semi finalist, The Schubert Club Bruce P. Anderson Scholarship Competition, finalist and third place recipient 2023, University of Texas San Antonio Concerto and Aria Competition, winner, The Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Encouragement Award. Texas Young Artists Competition, The Schubert Club Bruce P. Anderson Scholarship Competition, finalist 2024. Teaching, Ensemble Music Schools, Voice instructor, The University of Northwestern St. Paul, Voice Instructor, Lutheran Summer Music, Faculty Voice Instructor and Assistant Musical Theater Director.
Elisa Nivon is a dedicated violinist and a member of the National Symphony of Mexico, also serving as a Suzuki Method violin instructor. Born and raised in Kyoto, Japan, Elisa commenced her musical studies at a young age at the Talent Education Institute of the Suzuki Method. She earned a bachelor’s degree with an honorific mention from the Superior School of Music in Mexico City. Currently, she is pursuing a Master’s of Music in performance under the renowned Dr. Nicole Cherry at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where she also serves as a teaching assistant. Elisa has excelled in Mexican chamber music competitions as a piano/ violin duo, and she co-founded the Nevado String Quartet, affiliated with the Mexico State University of the Performing Arts. In addition to her performance commitments, she actively engages in Suzuki festivals and music outreach programs in underserved Mexican communities.
Hailed by the San Antonio Current as “consistently brilliant and impossibly cool,” conductor Troy Peters is Director of the UTSA Orchestra at the University of Texas San Antonio and Music Director of Youth Orchestras of San Antonio. Formerly Resident Conductor of the San Antonio Symphony and Music Director of the Montpelier Chamber Orchestra, Peters has guest conducted many orchestras, including the Oregon Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and Round Rock Symphony. Musical America featured him in their 2016 special issue, The MA30 Professionals of the Year: The Innovators. He was previously Music Director of the Vermont Youth Orchestra and conducted college orchestras at Texas State University and Middlebury College. He has also gained international attention for his orchestral collaborations with rock musicians, including Blind Pilot, Jon Anderson (of the band Yes), and Trey Anastasio (of the band Phish), with whom he recorded two albums on Elektra Records.
Peters conducted the world premiere recording of Daron Hagen’s Masquerade with violinist Jaime Laredo, cellist Sharon Robinson, and the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, on Bridge Records. Among the other soloists with whom he has collaborated are Branford Marsalis, Midori, Edgar Meyer, Time for Three, and Richard Stoltzman. His work has been the subject of national media attention from CBS Sunday Morning, National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition, Symphony, and The New Yorker. Awarded a Vermont Arts Council Citation of Merit in 2009, he has also been honored with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music and has conducted more than three-dozen world premieres. He has presented pre-concert talks for the Philadelphia Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and San Antonio Symphony.
Peters is also active as a composer, where his honors include the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and grants from Meet the Composer and the Rockefeller Foundation. He holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of Pennsylvania, where his primary compositional mentors were Ned Rorem and George Crumb.
VIOLIN I
Keith Beene, co-concertmaster
Harmony Skinner, co-concertmaster
Jessica Lara
Jennivie Bui
Nicholas Garza
Josie Garcia
L.J. Lepovitz
Mailyn Armijo-Trinidad
Karyl De Guzman
Ben Spivey
VIOLIN II
Isaac Cortez, co-principal
Nicholas Ruiz, co-principal
Monica Carlos
Akemi Nuñez-Martinez
Stefan Nashawati
Cynthia Elias Nuñez
Lacey Elrod
Valeria Villarreal
Samantha Uria
Isabella Tudela
Andre Alvarado
VIOLA
Bryan Echeveste, co-principal
Victoria Schneider, co-principal
Joaquin Gomez
Guadalupe Lopez
Jackson Bosenbark
Lucas Kampe
Abraham Abrego
Sydney Castillo
Ethen Greenberg
Luke Alvarado
CELLO
Natalie Esquivel, co-principal
Isaiah Valdez, co-principal
Sofia Salazar Arguelles
Isabella Villalobos
Julianna Peña
Ana Malo
Matthew Miller
Daira Hernandez
Alma Lopez
BASS
Heri Ayma, principal
Jessica Salas
Robert Serna
UTSA Orchestra
Troy Peters, conductor
FLUTE & PICCOLO
Hannah Benitez
Jazmine Dearlove
Joaquin Carcamo
OBOE & ENGLISH HORN
August Naranjo
Logan Odom
CLARINET
Joel Hernandez
Kenedy Lerma
BASSOON
Jared Worman
Brendan Tsai
HORN
Raul Martinez
Aidan Mills
Noe Loera
David Valdez
TRUMPET
Gustavo Medrano
Chris Barrera
Daniel Vazquez
TROMBONE
Eva Ayala
Jayden Zunker-Treviño
BASS TROMBONE
Javier Lopez
TUBA
Mik Teteris
TIMPANI & PERCUSSION
Gabriel Durand-Hollis
Lisa Huerta
Emilio De Leon
Jose Palacios
HARP
Rachel Ferris
(Principal Harp, San Antonio Philharmonic)
PIANO
Eymen Geylan
MAKE A BOLD IMPACT
The UTSA School of Music has made incredible strides in providing a high-quality music education for all of our students and being a cultural arts center for the city of San Antonio.
You can help us continue to elevate the quality of our program by making a gift to the School of Music. Our donors have made an invaluable impact through scholarships and funding research, innovative academic programs, outreach activities, and beyond.
Donations have also contributed to our ability to offer public enrichment activities such as Maestria, En Vivo, the Insitute for Music Research lecture series, and On-Corps, our free music program for U.S. veterans.
HOW TO GIVE
Gifts can be made via the secure online donation form. Select “Friends of Music” in the designation dropdown.
For more information on how to make a gift, visit https://colfa.utsa.edu/music/giving
En Vivo brings high-caliber artists from all over the world to our university for free public concerts and masterclasses for our students.
On-Corps engages the community by offering U.S. veterans free music lessons and the opportunity to perform in a concert band ensemble.
View Our Online Form
music.utsa.edu