Hailed as “always remarkable” (Austin Chronicle), Austin Haller serves as Organist for the Austin Symphony and as Principal Organist at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church in Austin. He performs regularly with the Grammy®-winning choir Conspirare, and he makes music regularly with a number of Central Texas-based choral ensembles. 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 music-directed for productions at Zach Theatre, Texas State University, TexArts, and Zilker Theatre, and his “fierce piano stylings” (Austin Chronicle) are frequently heard at Austin Shakespeare’s cabaret series at Parker Jazz Club.
Since winning 2nd Prize at the 2006 Leeds Competition, Andrew Brownell has pursued an active and varied international performing career. Critics regularly remark on his creative programming and interpretive insight. Musical Opinion has described him as “potentially one of the most significant pianists of his generation”, and The Oregonian wrote that Brownell “impresses as much with his mind as with his hands… the anti-Lang Lang.” A native of Portland, Oregon, Andrew Brownell began studying the piano at the age of four. His teachers have included Nancy Weems and Horacio Gutiérrez at the University of Houston; John Perry at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles); and Joan Havill at the Guildhall School of Music in London, where he earned a doctorate. An enthusiastic collaborative artist, Andrew Brownell was a member of a prize-winning trio at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition (USA) and has appeared in concert with principals of orchestras such as the Philharmonia, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and Vienna Philharmonic. In 2017, he joined the faculty of the Butler School of Music, The University of Texas at Austin.
2025 Texas Bach Festival Performers
Austin Haller, organist and keyboardist
Dr. Barry Scott Williamson, Founder and Artistic Director of the Texas Bach Festival, is a teaching faculty member with Lifelong Learners-GTX and OLLI UT-Austin, leading a series of interesting and varied seminars on the lives and work of great composers, particularly those presented in TBF’s annual festivals. Dr. Williamson’s June 26 “Q & A with the Maestro” will provide attendees with the opportunity to ask Dr. Williamson questions about the 2025 Festival’s artistic impetus, the origins of the Mozart Requiem, the art of conducting or other entertaining subjects or areas of interest.
Free admission (limit 250 persons)
Bassoon
Daniel Chrisman
Michael Hix, Baritone
Baritone Michael Hix is celebrated for his "expressive voice" and "commanding stage presence," earning high praise from critics across the globe. His illustrious career boasts performances at renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood Music Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and Vienna’s Musikverein.
Hix is a distinguished performer of concert and orchestral works, with an impressive repertoire that includes over 75 oratorio, cantata, and concert roles. His recent album, featuring solo bass cantatas by Baroque composer Christoph Graupner, has been warmly received by audiences and critics alike, and is available through the Affetto Label. In 2019, he was honored with 3rd Place in the American Prize in Art Song and Oratorio Performance.
His European engagements have included standout performances of bass solos in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass and Heligmesse at the International Haydn Festival in Vienna. Additionally, he has captivated audiences with song recitals in Leipzig, Dresden, Lobau, and Lindlar, Germany.
Hix’s distinguished career includes collaborations with prestigious ensembles such as the Boston Pops, Oregon Bach Festival, Arizona Bach Festival, Santa Fe Symphony, and Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra among others. His extensive stage experience features over 20 diverse roles, from Mad King George in Peter Maxwell Davies’ Eight Songs for a Mad King to Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and the Drunken Poet in The Fairy Queen.
Academically, Dr. Hix holds a Bachelor of Music in Music Theory from Furman University, master’s degrees in Voice and Historical Musicology from Florida State University, and a Doctorate of Music in Voice Performance from the same institution. He currently serves as a Professor of Voice and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of New Mexico.
Beyond his professional achievements, he shares a life of joy with his wife, soprano Ingela Onstad. For updates on his performances and more, follow Hix on social media @mhixbaritone and visit his website at www.michaelhixbaritone.net.
Barry Scott Williamson
Dr. David Asbury, classical guitar
Entering its eighth season, the Texas Bach Festival Choir has distinguished itself as Central Texas’ preeminent performance ensemble of the great and timeless music of Johann Sebastian Bach and subsequent composers inspired by him. Led by Founder Barry Scott Williamson, the fully professional choir’s annual Festival appearances include acclaimed performances of Bach’s St. John Passion, Magnificat various cantatas and motets, Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil, Brahms Opus 52 Liebeslieder Walzer and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music. For 2025, the choir will again join with the TBF Camerata to present the Mozart Requiem.
Trumpet
Kyle Koronka - principal
Joe Cooper
Wesley Miller
Patrice Calixte, violin
Mariama Alcântara, violin
Bruce Williams, viola
Douglas Harvey, cello
Timpani
Cindy Willis
David Polley is an adjunct Professor of Organ at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX and currently serves as the Music Director of Grace Episcopal Church in Georgetown. He earned degrees from Concordia University, Seward NE; Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; and the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE. He has served Lutheran, Catholic, and Methodist churches in Wisconsin, Nebraska, and Texas. He has performed as a featured recitalist in concerts in the Georgetown Festival of the Arts playing music of Schubert, Schumann, Saint-Saens, and Vierne as well as Scandinavian and Latin American composers. His most recent invited recitals include the Church of the Heavenly Rest in Abilene, TX, St. Austin Catholic Church in Austin, TX, and Redeemer Presbyterian Church, Austin.
Oboe/English Horn
Julianne Webner - Principal
Jennifer Bernard
Founded by Barry Scott Williamson, the TBF Camerata is the performance partner of the TBF Choir and presents its own Festival concerts primarily of 18th century repertoire. Comprised of the finest performance artists in Central Texas, previous concerts have included the Bach Brandenburg No. 2, St. John Passion and Magnificat, Handel Messiah excerpts, Mozart Exsultate jubilate, Gran Partita and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and Vivaldi’s complete The Four Seasons. For 2025, the Camerata will pair with the TBF Choir on Mozart’s iconic Requiem.
Texas Bach Festival Choir
Tenor
Evan Brown
Michael Dixon
Gary Goethe
Mark Istratie
Jeffrey Jones-Ragona
The Artisan String Quartet, Patrice Calixte and Mariama Alcântara violin, Bruce Williams viola, and Douglas Harvey cello, is comprised primarily of principal players from the Austin Symphony Orchestra and has become a fixture around central Texas and beyond. In addition to regular appearances at Mozart Festival Texas in San Antonio and the Victoria Bach Festival, the Artisans enjoy Quartet-in-Residence status at the Texas Bach Festival in Georgetown, Classical Sound Inc., the Mason Chamber Music Festival, and the Lampasas County Chamber Music Festival. MidAmerica Productions, Inc. invited the Artisan String Quartet to make its Carnegie Hall debut performing on the Carnegie Hall Weil Recital Hall Chamber Music Series on March 22, 2012. The concert in New York was commemorated by the Texas House of Representatives on March 13, 2013, with HR 703 read into the Texas Congressional Record with the Artisans present. Please visit the ASQ website at www.artisanstringquartet.com or “like” us on Facebook.
Flute
Adrienne Inglis - Principal
Nicholas Goodwin
Michael Hix, baritone
Texas Bach Festival Camerata
Violin 1
Mariama Alcântara - concertmaster
Megan Zapfe
Ashley Cooper
David Polley, organ
Guitarist David Asbury has appeared on concert stages and venues
throughout the United States and around the world. Active as a solo recitalist and chamber musician, Dr. Asbury has played in a diverse array of venues and styles, has given numerous performances on radio and television and has been active as a recording artist and studio musician. In recent seasons he has played recitals for the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, Library of Congress, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Festival International des Corde Pincées de Rabat, The American Legation in Tangiers, Kiev International Music School, Art Song Canberra, Bay View Music Festival, Palm Beach Atlantic Hispanic Heritage Festival, East Carolina Guitar Festival, Austin College, Rhodes College, Murray State University, Western Michigan University, Round Top Music Festival, Biola University, Chattanooga State College, Cloud County Community Arts Series, Montana State University,
Hastings College, Riverton Arts Alliance, University of South Dakota, Valley City State University, Arts on the Prairie, Green Mountain College, University of Arkansas at Monticello among others, and has appeared as a concerto soloist with ensembles such as the Dnipropetrovsk Philharmonic Orchestra (Ukraine) and the Austin Civic Orchestra. He has won numerous awards, including the Diploma of Merit from the Academia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts where he studied with noted pedagogue Aaron Shearer, and Masters and Doctorate of Music degrees from The University of Texas at Austin where he studied with noted virtuoso Adam Holzman. His scholarship on composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco has led to professional papers and presentations to organizations such as the Guitar Foundation of America, the College Music Society and the Melbourne Conservatorium’s Instrument of Change: The Rise of the Guitar (c.1870-1945). He has recorded for the Clearnote and Retamas labels. Dr. Asbury is also a dedicated teacher, joining the faculty of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, in 1992, where he served as department chair from 2015-2021.
Andrew Brownell, piano
Viola
Bruce Williams - Principal
Alexander Smith
Bass
Jonathan Rouse
Continuo
Austin Haller
Artisan String Quartet
Violin 2
Karen Styles - principal second violin
Helen Cooper
Antonio Cevallos
Cello
Douglas Harvey
Bass
Benedict Ankuwah
Michael Follis
Eric Johnson
Tim O’Brien
Gil Zilkha
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