Once a year, we open the floor to you at KPAC with a special event. In collaboration with SOLI Chamber Ensemble, we celebrate the performers who do it for the love of the music – and often, in their spare time.
Open Mic Night brings both amateur and professional musicians together to share their talents through performance of a piece of contemporary classical music. Which, in the 500-year history of classical music, means pieces generally written after 1970.
The low-key, informal concert is always full of surprises, including this year a teenage pianist who took up the instrument last year after watching YouTube, a beautiful piece for guitar ensemble written by a local composer, and a thunderous piece for piano written and performed by Grace X. Schott, a homeschool mom of four who lives in Seguin. "Many of the pieces in this series were inspired by nature," she explained. "I did study composition... even though the quantity of time is not there as it was before I had kids, the inspiration I get today is so different, so vast, and so varied," she said with a smile.
SOLI also performed two pieces at the show, including an amazing work by Che Buford that seemed to suspend time itself, and a lively new work by San Antonio composer Edna Longoria that opened the event with plenty of toe-tapping sounds.
And if you're so inspired, get to work on some music yourself, and we'll see you at the tenth annual Open Mic in 2026!
Use the audio player at the top of this page to listen to the full program. See more photos from the event on TPR's Facebook page.
PROGRAM:
- Edna Longoria, "La fiesta del recuerdo," performed by SOLI Chamber Ensemble
- My-Linh Pham, "E Parade," performed by the composer
- Grace X. Schott, "Poetry without Words," performed by the composer
- Astor Piazzolla, "Tango Etude No. 3," performed by Joseph Buechner
- Thomas Fedorchik, "Père-Lachaise," performed by the composer
- Gibran Alcoser, "Idea 22," performed by Hala Ftesi
- Azhaad Ali, "Empty set No. 2," performed by Collin Wiseman
- Che Buford, "as if it were a scene made up by my mind, that is not mine, but is a made place," performed by SOLI Chamber Ensemble
- Craig McLaughlin, "Retro Metro," performed by the composer
- Michael Torke, "Nave," performed by Nathan Cone
- Lennon/McCartney, "Dear Prudence," performed by David Montero
- George Rochberg, "Elegiac Piece No. 3," performed by Ron Allen
- Nicholas K. Lucero, "Sleep Study No. 1," performed by the UIW Guitar Ensemble
