Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
There exists in Texas a band of like-mined players who create all their music through playing cellos. They’re called Texas Cellos and their purpose is the brainchild of Dallas musician Joseph Kuipers, who has planned two different December concerts in Fredericksburg.
“On December 5, we will do (what) we call a Nordic Christmas concert, and it is 12 cellos, basically recreating a very popular Scandinavian tradition, which is St Lucia's Day,” Kuipers said. “We have essentially taken that idea and replaced the children's choir with a cello choir.”
Given that the voicing of the cello runs parallel to human voicing, a cello choir actually makes sense.
“Because of the range of the instrument and the qualities that are very similar to the human voice, we can play everything from symphonic transcriptions to actual choir transcriptions to pieces written for a cello ensemble,” he said.
They also are also playing another Fredericksburg concert on December 19.
“The second concert we're doing is cello quartet, and that is at Altstadt Brewery in Fredericksburg,” Kuipers said.
In addition to the 12 members of Texas Cellos he is bringing in cellists who are internationally known players.
“We have Jonah Kim, who's an international soloist who lives in San Francisco, coming in. John Henry Crawford, and then myself from North Dallas, and Caitlin Peterson, who's originally from San Antonio,” he said.
The core group has been around for a half decade now. Kuipers said his musical selections come from most everywhere.
“Italy to romantic Germany, Schubert, and we will end with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", transcribed for four cellos,” he said.
“It was founded as a cello choir five years ago, which means a group of cellists who play transcriptions kind of like a vocal choir,” he said.
If you need tickets, you can find them here.
