Blair Lawhead concert announces this year’s guest

Jul. 18—Organizers behind the Blair Lawhead Celebration of Music has revealed this year’s guest musician.

The concert, which will take place at 4 p.m. on Aug. 24, and will feature cellist Alan Snow. The concert will take place on the same weekend as the Austin ArtWorks Festival, which is spread across Aug. 23-24.

Snow is part of a new generation of elite artistry to the classical music scene. Snow studied violin with Gerardo Ribeiro at Northwestern University before receiving his Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University.

He also won the position of Associate Concertmaster of the Minnesota Orchestra in 2022. Prior to doing so, Snow worked closely with concertmasters Glenn Dicterow, Alexander Kerr, and Jorja Fleezanis.

An avid chamber player, Snow studied closely under the Pacifica Quartet and has risen to collaborate with the top artists around the world. He has performed chamber music with Rachel Barton Pine, Jon Kimura Parker, James Buswell, Jorja Fleezanis, Tony Ross, and Eric Kim, as well as under the baton of conductors and leaders such as John Williams, Joshua Bell, Osma Vänskä, Thomas Søndergård, and others.

Snow has two chamber music albums, one as a member of the Chicago Panamerican Ensemble called, “Voices of Mexico’s Past and Present” and one with pianist Joanne Chang called, “Dialogos.” Both albums explore the rich landscape of classical music in Mexico.

Brandon Lawhead, who is behind the Celebration of Music, said of Snow, “one of the most exciting violinists I have heard in decades.”

Snow joins an elite group of musicians, who have come to Austin’s ArtWorks Festival and to pay tribute to Blair Lawhead. They have included Jon Kimura Parker, piano soloist and creative partner for the Minnesota Orchestra; Pine, premier violin soloist; Montreal Symphony Concertmaster Richard Roberts, Minnesota Orchestra Associate Concertmaster and Bobby Z, drummer for Prince and The Revolution.