Olmos Ensemble opens their 29th season later this month in a new space – Shepherd King Lutheran Church, 303 W. Ramsey (just off of San Pedro), and with a new executive director, Rachel Ferris.
Rachel Ferris: Jeff Garza came to me and asked if I would be interested. (He's the horn player in the ensemble now, and [performs with] the Oregon Symphony.) And yeah, I was intrigued by the idea right away. I've performed with the ensemble several times over the course of 20 years, actually, and then been to a lot of concerts. And I've always been so impressed by their product and their quality of their artistry. And so I was interested, and also interested in getting to different into different aspects of the music business and developing those skills.
Olmos Ensemble opens their season this August with a series of three Sunday afternoon concerts, each one beginning at 3 p.m. sharp, because they’ll be not only live and in person, but live on KPAC 88.3 FM.
It's really lovely. It's almost like a mini festival, and they're extremely varied. The first one is on August 13th and it's called "Woodwind Samplers," so it'll feature many core members of the almost ensemble, plus a pianist, Dominic Cheli. Then on August 28th, we have a Baroque concert featuring Jeannette Sorrell, who's an amazing Baroque specialist in the classical music field. She's a harpsichordist and an excellent conductor, so we are extremely excited about having her come. And that concert is going to feature a lot of guest artists as well. And then on August 27th, we have a program called "Contrasts," various styles on that concert from Beethoven to Ravel to Bartok, and it's even going to feature a transcription by Mark Teplitsky, our artistic director, of "Le Tombeau de Couperin," which is a Ravel piece for orchestra, and he's transcribed it for flute and piano. So I'm really excited to hear what that sounds like.
Longtime classical music fans in San Antonio may know Rachel Ferris not as an administrator, but a performer. She’s played harp for the San Antonio Symphony, and now San Antonio Philharmonic, for many years. Music has been a part of her life from a young age.
I grew up in a household with a lot of older siblings and they all played instruments, so it was just in the house, and I think my mom was always an enthusiast. We had a piano and I was interested in taking piano lessons from a pretty early age. So I started that at age seven and then went to the Interlochen Arts Camp at age ten. And at the time they offered a class that where you could try all of the instruments of the orchestra. And that's how I was exposed to the harp. I wasn't really planning on pursuing it as a profession... but it kind of grabbed hold of me and I had a wonderful teacher, Joan Holland, who was able to help me reach levels that I didn't know I was capable of. So, yeah, I think I've just always enjoyed the process of chipping away at something, making it my own over time and then presenting that to other people. I think that's what's attracted to me.
Olmos Ensemble depends on donations for their operations, because their concerts are always free and open to the public. And Rachel Ferris says she means it – everyone is welcome to attend, whether you’ve been to a classical concert or not.
You don't need to know anything to come to a classical music concert. You don't need to have any previous experience with it or educate yourself or anything like that. It's for everyone. And it's just about having a live auditory human experience in person. And, you know, you can experience it any way you want to, but. But it is a special thing to do with other people and experience together. So yeah, I would just say, come, we would love to have you. And we're also planning post-concert receptions for our August series and possibly the rest of the season two in the Fellowship Hall at Shepherd King Lutheran Church. So it'll be a little bit of a social event.
Olmos Ensemble’s 29th season opens Sunday, August 13 at 3 p.m. at Shepherd King Lutheran Church. You can learn more about their whole concert series online at olmosensemble.com.
