The Brownsville Society for the Performing Arts present its “Presence and Light” concert Saturday at the Texas Southmost College Performing Arts Center in Brownsville. Pictured above is the encore of the piece “Presence” by recognized composer Renea Esmail, guitarist soloist Dieter Hennings Yeomans, and bassoon soloist Kristin Wolfe Jensen. Mykel Del Angel/THE RIDERUTRGV Music Professor Michael Quantz is a nationally recognized and leading advocate for guitar education. Quantz is the recipient of the University of Texas System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award and the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College President’s Outstanding Teaching Award. He served as the Director of Education for the Guitar Foundation of America for seven years. He has presented clinics for numerous school districts, the GFA and the Texas Music Educators Association Conference. Mykel Del Angel/THE RIDERShayna Isaacs is a dynamic educator, performer and an assistant professor of voice at UTRGV. Isaacs holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in voice performance and a graduate certificate in opera performance from Texas Tech University, and a Master of Music in voice performance from the University of Alabama. They are a leading advocate for gender inclusivity and culturally responsive teaching in the voice studio. Isaacs’ research delves into the intersection of voice habilitation and queer theory, offering frameworks for teaching singers across gender identities and musical genres. Mykel Del Angel/THE RIDERTexas Southmost College technicians dim the chandeliers as the concert begins. Mykel Del Angel/THE RIDERDieter Hennings is a professor of music at the University of Kentucky and curates the U.K. International Guitar Series. Hennings is an active proponent of new music, particularly that of Latin America, having recently worked with composers Mario Davidovsky and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. He has recently premiered works by composers, such as Jacob Bancks and Scott Worthington. Hennings has received grants from the Howard Hanson Institute for American Music, the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (Mexico), and the Fondo Estatal para la Cultura y las Artes (Sonora, Mexico), to commission and premiere contemporary works for guitar. Mykel Del Angel/THE RIDERProfessor Kristin Wolfe Jensen, world-renowned performer and teacher, has been a bassoon professor at the University of Texas at Austin since 1995, and is also faculty of the International Festival Institute at Round Top. Wolfe Jensen is the principal bassoonist with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and has made a number of acclaimed solo and chamber music recordings. Mykel Del Angel/THE RIDERMusic Professor Michael Quantz conducts the Cameron County Guitar Orchestra in the “Presence and Light” concert Saturday at the Texas Southmost College Performing Arts Center in Brownsville. Mykel Del Angel/THE RIDER
