Roots

​Casual Concert: February 9th, 2025 @ 7 PM
Avoca Coffee Roasters (Foch St. Store), Fort Worth

Salon Concert: February 10th, 2025 @ 7:30 PM
Private Home, Fort Worth
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Expression is born from personal experience, and when a composer chooses to musically highlight their own origins and deeply rooted cultural environment, a magical individualism in their expression shines brightly. This eclectic concert features an impressive variety of compositional voices from Spanish to Hungarian to British, each voice amplifying a flavor and texture of their country of origin. 

The Casual Concert on September 15th at 7 PM will be held at Avoca Coffee Roasters (Foch St.). Doors open at 6:30 PM, with hand-crafted coffee and snacks available for purchase. Sip on perfection while enjoying high-level classical music in a laid-back environment! Tickets are $25 for adults and $5 for students. ​​

Our Salon Concert on October 16th at 7:30 PM will be presented at a beautiful private home in Fort Worth. The concert includes a complimentary pre-concert reception with refreshments and hors d’oeuvre. Enjoy this wonderful chamber music concert played by outstanding artists in a private atmosphere. Share the moment with fellow music lovers and artists. Tickets are $70 per person.  
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Program
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Bela Kovacs: Homage to De Falla 
Andrea Casarrubios: Afilador for Clarinet and String Trio
Reinhold Glière: Selection from 8 Pieces, Op. 39 for Violin and Cello
Bela Kovacs: Sholem Alekhem rov Feidman, arr. for Clarinet and String Trio 

Mauricio Murcia Bedoya: Colombian Dances for Two Clarinets 
Antonin Dvorak: Four Miniatures, Op. 75a for 2 Violins and Viola
Ruth Gipps: Quintet for two clarinets and String Trio, 1st movement  
Astor Piazzolla: La Muerte del Angel

Musicians
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Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a violinist “full of subtlety and poise”, Samantha Bennett is an active and varied performer around the globe. Ms. Bennett is a violinist in The Dallas Opera Orchestra, having previously served as the Principal Second Violin of the Sarasota Orchestra from 2016-2021. Ms. Bennett was a member of the first violin section of the Fort Worth Symphony orchestra for the 2021/22 season. She performs regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony. Alongside her husband, percussionist George Nickson, Ms. Bennett is the founder and Co-Artistic Director of ensembleNEWSRQ (enSRQ), a new music collective based in Sarasota, FL. Dedicated to innovative programming and thoughtfully curated concerts, enSRQ's 2022/23 season comprises six programs of contemporary classical chamber music in Sarasota, including commissions, collaborations and world premieres.  As Co-Artistic Director of enSRQ, Ms. Bennett is known for her performances of some of the most challenging contemporary repertoire. Ms. Bennett has premiered works by Gunther Schuller, Toshio Hosokawa, Oliver Knussen, John Cage, George Benjamin, Augusta Read Thomas, Philip Glass and numerous others. At Tanglewood, she premiered Einojuhani Rautavaara's 'Lost Landscapes' for solo violin and orchestra and led the North American premiere of George Benjamin’s award-winning opera, Written on Skin. She performed with the Santa Fe Opera for the Summer 2023 Season. Born in Ames, Iowa, Ms. Bennett studied with Almita and Roland Vamos in Chicago before completing her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees at the New England Conservatory in Boston studying with Donald Weilerstein and Malcolm Lowe. ​
DJ Cheek joined the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as Principal Viola in August 2021, and made his solo debut with the orchestra in 2023 performing the Bartók Viola Concerto. This season he will appear as soloist in works by Bruch and Mozart. Prior to his current appointment, DJ played Principal Viola in the Jacksonville Symphony. In recent years he appeared as guest Principal with the Indianapolis Symphony and IRIS Orchestra in Tennessee, and as a substitute with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony. 

DJ recently joined the faculty of Kneisel Hall and Texas Chamber Music Institute, and he performs at the Colorado Music Festival and teaches at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp. He has appeared at festivals such as Music@Menlo, the Perlman Music Program, Lucerne, Sarasota, Olympic, and Yellow Barn. DJ performed as a guest artist with Donald Weilerstein and Kim Kashkashian in support of Music for Food, and he continues to perform with the Music for Food chapter in Fort Worth. 

DJ holds a master’s degree from New England Conservatory and a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College-Conservatory, where he studied with Kim Kashkashian and Peter Slowik, respectively. He was further mentored by Beth Guterman Chu.
Cellist Bree Ahern is a versatile performing artist committed to building community through performing, teaching, and collaborating across art forms. A passionate solo and chamber musician, she has dedicated herself to presenting innovative programs to diverse audiences and using music to serve and enrich her community.

Chamber music is central to Bree’s career and spans the expanse of standard to contemporary repertoire. She currently performs as a member of Kinetic Ensemble, an artist-led ensemble committed to showcasing diverse, underrepresented, and newly composed classical music, and Monarch Chamber Players, a flexible chamber ensemble dedicated to taking classical music out of the concert hall and into accessible community spaces. From 2019-2022, she was a Young Artist with Da Camera of Houston, a chamber music fellowship program dedicated to developing
citizen artistry through proactive community engagement with underserved audiences. Bree is keen on interdisciplinary collaborations and has worked with dancers, artists, folk musicians, scientists, and more, most recently presenting programs with MUSIQA Houston and Hoppa Project at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts and the Kennedy Center.

As an orchestral player, Bree performs as a substitute with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and has appeared with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Tulsa Symphony, and Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. Her festival appearances include the Louis Moreau Institute for Contemporary Music, Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, Round Top Festival Institute, Hot Springs Music Festival, and Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, with select performances featured on WQXR and New Music USA.

Equally dedicated to pedagogy, Bree has served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Cello at Oklahoma State University and been on cello faculty at San Jacinto College, Houston Youth Symphony’s Melody Program and AFA’s Chamber Music Academy and Summer Music Festival.

In addition, she has extensive clinic and masterclass experience, presenting classes at Sam Houston State University, Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, and Opus One Chamber Music School, among others. She now maintains a private studio in Fort Worth.
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Bree is a graduate of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where she studied under Norman Fischer on a full scholarship.
 An "eloquent" clarinetist with "incredible artistry” Russian-born Stas Chernyshev has established a versatile career as an orchestral musician, soloist, chamber musician, and educator (Dallas Morning News, Theater Jones). Principal clarinetist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Mr. Chernyshev has performed at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall in New York, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as in Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Russia, South Korea and Japan. A devoted chamber musician, Mr. Chernyshev has collaborated with Grammy-winning ensembles Eighth Blackbird and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, commissioned new works for his instrument. He has been featured on WQXR -New York’s classical music station and WHYY’s television program - On Stage at Curtis. He is the founder and artistic director of Fort Worth Performances for Autism, and a co-founder of Opus Nova Chamber Music Series. Mr. Chernyshev holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and a Master’s degree from St. Petersburg Conservatory. 
Ann Hung, born in Taipei, Taiwan, began her musical studies at a young age, starting with piano at age five and clarinet at age nine. Dr. Hung is an active performer in the Dallas and Fort Worth area who regularly performs in the realms of both the orchestral and chamber music. She has shared the stage with the Fort Worth Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the faculty of the Juilliard School. Dr. Hung is always pushing the boundaries of her repertoire and skills, such as collaborating with jazz musicians and commissioning new composers. As a proponent of new music, she has avidlycommissioned new works including a wind quintet with her quintet Opus Now premiering in Symphony Space in NYC. One of the new works that Dr. Hung commissioned is included in a recently released album “Stained Glass Story” by Eldad Tarmu. Dr. Hung is currently teaching in Lewisville ISD, Burleson ISD as private lesson instructor and often plays with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. She is the associate director of the Fort Worth Performances for Autism and co- founder of Opus Nova Chamber Music Series.
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