Musicians

Patrice Calixte & Mariama Alcântara, violins
Bruce Williams, viola
Douglas Harvey, cello

Left to right:
Back row: Andres Carrero, Alexander Smith, Bruce Williams, Austin Haller, Douglas Harvey, Jonathan Rouse
Middle row: Daniella Láncara Espinosa, Mariama Alcântara, Amy Harris
Front: Patrice Calixte

Austin Haller is an organist, pianist, conductor, vocal coach, and arranger who can be heard in Texas and beyond. Hailed as “always remarkable” (Austin Chronicle). He serves as Organist for the Austin Symphony and as Principal Organist at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Austin, and he has led hymn festivals and presented solo organ concerts throughout the southern United States. He has performed with the Grammy®-winning vocal ensembles Conspirare and Roomful of Teeth, and he makes music regularly with a number of Central Texas-based choral ensembles, including Inversion Ensemble, Panoramic Voices, Amphion Choirs, and illumine.

Austin’s musical theatre music direction “produces a gloriously rich choral sound full of exquisite harmonies” (Broadway World), and he is the grateful recipient of Austin Critics’ Table and B. Iden Payne Awards for Music Direction. He has performed with many Broadway and his “fierce piano stylings” (Austin Chronicle) are frequently heard with Broadway performers at Austin Cabaret Theatre. He also serves as music director for Austin Shakespeare’s cabaret series at Parker Jazz Club – its production of A Little Night Music was praised by the Austin American-Statesman as a “fresh twist on cabaret theater (that) attained almost instant perfection.”

Presently a member of the Austin Opera orchestra, and a regular sub with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Andrés Carrero is a passionate performer and educator. He has a degree from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and worked with notable mentors there such as Peter Slowik, Kirsten Docter, and his former primary teacher, Sibbi Bernhardsson. He recently finished his master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music under the instruction of Yoojin Jang and subsequently moved to Austin, Texas.

Andrés has had many opportunities to enhance his work in music education and find a way to contribute to its growth in all communities. His projects have led to concerts and teaching engagements in Latin America including as a faculty member at the string summer festival in Panama City, Panama. Andrés’s interests include performing contemporary music and expanding his repertoire of traditional and classical Latinx music. His goal is to reach larger audiences with his projects in hopes of contributing to the universal knowledge of lesser-known composers and music.

Jonathan Rouse has been Principal Bass of the Austin Symphony Orchestra since 2016 and Assistant Principal Bass of the Austin Opera since 2018. Other positions have included Assistant Principal Bass of South Carolina Philharmonic, Augusta Symphony, and Winston-Salem Symphony, as well as Section Bass with Charleston and Greenville Symphony Orchestras. He has also performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Atlanta Opera, Fort Worth Symphony, and the Louisiana Philharmonic. He has worked with world renowned conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Kurt Masur, Robert Spano, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Charles Dutoit, Alan Gilbert, Franz Welser-Möst and Gianandrea Noseda. Internationally, Jonathan has performed with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra in Germany, as well as the Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland. He also played for two seasons as section bassist with L’Orchestre Symphonique de Quebec in Quebec City, Canada. Jonathan holds degrees from the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, and the University of South Carolina.

Amy Harris has been an active violinist and violin teacher in the Austin area for the past ten years, with a large violin studio. She has received violin performance degrees from University of Texas at Austin (Doctor of Musical Arts), the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, and the University of Northern Colorado. During her studies she won many awards. She played with the National Repertory Orchestra for two different summer seasons in Breckenridge, Colorado. As a professional musician, she has played with many different orchestras and chamber groups, including the Colorado Springs Symphony, Boulder Philharmonic, Greeley Philharmonic, and the Austin Symphony. She has been a member of UCC churches since childhood and has participated in their musical offerings both on the violin and in the choir. She has been a part of the Austin Congregation Church’s trio since 2012 and has been singing and participating at the church since she moved here in 2006.

Alexander Smith is currently a member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra and has previously worked with the Kansas City Symphony and the Chicago Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist, he has been featured in performances of works by Rolla, Walton, Hindemith, Dale, and Krieger. He has appeared in chamber music with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Glenn Dicterow, Martin Chalifour, and David Radzynski. A recent doctoral graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, he served for three years as the Teaching Assistant to Professor Roger Myers. Alexander received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a student of Stephen Wyrczynski, Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and Yuval Gotlibovich.