American city, capital of Texas. The first settlers (1835) were predominantly of German descent. The city was incorporated in 1839. The Austin Lyceum was established in 1841 to promote the study of the arts. It was disbanded the following year. Evening concerts were given in the grounds of the capitol from 1846. In the late 19th century the city, whose population numbered about 15,000, had three opera houses, giving performances by local artists and later visited by touring companies, and a number of vocal and instrumental ensembles that performed regularly. The Austin SO, founded in 1911 and conducted by Hans Harthan, was a loosely organized amateur group that performed sporadically until 1938 when it hired its first paid conductor, Hendrik Buytendorp. In 1948 the players joined the American Federation of Musicians and hired Ezra Rachlin, who conducted until 1969. Other conductors have included Akira Endo (1975–80), Sung Kwak (1982–96) and Peter Bay (1998–). The orchestra gives eight pairs of subscription concerts and numerous ‘pops’ concerts annually, and has an active community outreach programme. The annual 4th of July Concert on the banks of the Town Lake attracts an audience of 60,000.
The Austin Civic Opera Company was active from 1927 to 1931. The Austin Lyric Opera was founded in 1983 with Walter Ducloux as musical director (retired 1996) and Joseph McClain as stage director; its first production was Die Zauberflöte (1987). The company mounts three productions each year at the University in the Performing Arts Center or the Paramount Theater (an old opera house), and engages internationally known and mostly American singers as well as local performers. Highlights have included the American première of Rossini's La pietra del paragone (1992).
The community supports several choral organizations (including Austin Choral Artists, Austin Civic Chorus, Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble, Capital City Men's Chorus, New Texas Conspirare Choir) and instrumental ensembles (Austin Chamber Ensemble, Chamber Soloists of Austin, La Follia, Austin Chamber Music Center, Austin Wind Ensemble, Austin Symphonic Band and others). In addition to the productions of the Austin Lyric Opera and the University of Texas, operas are also staged by the Austin Gilbert and Sullivan Society. In 1993 the New Texas Festival was founded. It was renamed New Texas Music Works in 1999.
Austin is the site of the University of Texas, which created a school of music in 1919. The music department sponsors more than 400 performances each year by student and faculty soloists and ensembles, as well as performances, masterclasses and lecture-recitals by visiting musicians. University ensembles include the University of Texas Opera Theatre, directed by Robert Desimone, and the University of Texas SO. The choral programme is headed by Craig Hella Johnson. The Bates Recital Hall (700 seats) houses one of the world's largest tracker organs (Rowland-Visser). The faculty has included the composers Paul Pisk and Kent Kennan, the performers Gerard Souzay, Charles Rosen and Jess Walters, and the musicologists Gilbert Chase and Gerard Béhague. The Grand Concert Hall of the Performing Arts Center seats 3000, and the Opera Theater 400. The university maintains the Lomax folk music archives. Included among the musical holdings of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Library are manuscripts of compositions by Stravinsky, Berlioz, Debussy, Ravel, Copland, Fauré and Dukas. The centre houses the largest institutional collection of music and music-related materials by Paul Bowles and Nicolas Nabokov.
Austin is also noted for its active popular music community, particularly in the areas of country, blues and blues-influenced rock and roll, and identifies itself as the ‘Live Music Capital of the World’. Each spring there is a South by Southwest music festival and conference, the largest of its kind, with performances by hundreds of popular musicians from around the world. The Austin community supports a full-time non-profit radio station devoted solely to classical music (KMFA).
GroveA (H.C. Sparks)
L.M. Spell: Music in Texas (Austin, 1936/R)
M.O. James-Reed: Music in Austin, 1900–1956 (Austin, 1957)
M.S. Barkley: History of Travis County and Austin, 1839–1899 (Waco, TX, 1963/R)
J. Reid: The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock (Austin, 1974/R)
B.C. Malone: Southern Music, American Music (Lexington, KY, 1979)
H.C. Sparks: Stylistic Development and Compositional Processes of Selected Solo Singer/Songwriters in Austin, Texas (diss., U. of Texas, Austin, 1984)
HUGH CULLEN SPARKS/JERRY YOUNG