Caprice 3, by Hermes Camacho

Parallel Motion, Episode 2: All the Edtech

We spoke with Dr. Rachel Mitchell, Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the University of Albany-SUNY and Senior Content Developer at Illiac Software, at the Society for Music Theory Conference where we discussed product demos and making potential users (professors and students!) happy.

Parallel Motion, Episode 3: Roundtable with Dr. Rachel Mitchell

Hear Co-Founder Hermes Camacho interview our first Education Outreach Intern, Kimberly Caballero, to talk about our initiative and goals, which includes providing an opportunity to pre-college students to learn through hands-on experience just a little bit of what it's like to work with an edtech startup as well as a chance to develop important skills in written and spoken communication and critical thinking.

Parallel Motion Episode 9 - Interview with Our First Education Outreach Intern

Originally written as a 2 minute fanfare for the Dallas Wind Symphony brass and percussion in 2009, Foozle was revised and expanded in 2013. The now 4 minute work comprises of a full complement of winds, additional brass, percussion, piano, and contrabass.

Recorded live January 31, 2013 at Bates Recital Hall
CLUTCH Wind Ensemble, Ryan Kelly conducting

Foozle - Fanfare for Wind Ensemble

Steam Man of the Prairies was a dime store science fiction novel written by Edward S. Ellis in 1868 and is widely considered to be the earliest depiction of a humanoid robot in popular culture. Despite Ellis’s rather clumsy writing style and overtly racist depictions of Irish immigrants and Native Americans, this novel provides an interesting perspective on the excitement surrounding innovations in steam technology and exploration of the Western United States in the late 1800’s.
 
Just as the Steam Man represented the attainment of superhuman capabilities through the use of technology, this piece utilizes electronics to expand the sonic palate of the piano and clarinet. By limiting electronically produced sounds to only recordings of extended piano techniques (bowed, plucked, muted, and scraped) my goal was to create a sonic bridge between the timbres of the clarinet and piano in an attempt to create the illusion of a single super-instrument. As a means to take this sonic cohesion one step further, amplification of the electronic sounds in this piece forgoes a typical loudspeaker setup in favor small vibration speakers attached to the soundboard of the piano. This method allows the strings of the piano to vibrate sympathetically with the electronics and takes advantage of the instrument’s natural acoustic resonance.

Special thanks to the Escola Superior de Música, Artes e Espectáculo in Porto, Portugal for allowing me to record most of the piano extended techniques used in this piece on one of their concert grand pianos.

Steam Man of the Prairies (demo)

Hermes Camacho is a composer, conductor, and violinist based in Austin, Texas. 

His music has been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia and has garnered awards and recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Composers Forum, ASCAP, SCI, the Dallas Wind Symphony, 60x60, MusicX, ArtsAha!, and the Vermont Arts Council, among others, and has served residencies with the Chamber Music Conference of the East, Winthrop University (South Carolina), Boulder Youth Symphony (Colorado), Austin Youth Philharmonic, Northwest Vista College (Texas), Southwestern University (Texas), and the Southwestern College Summer Music Fest (Kansas). 

Camacho has over 150 conducted performances to his credit in a variety of genres and ensemble types, including a performance for a delegation of 45 Ambassadors to the United Nations and a nationally televised broadcast performance for the 2013 Mexican Independence Day festivities in Austin. He has also conducted the premiere of numerous works, primarily with the Sonorous ensemble, a group specializing in contemporary music that he co-founded in 2009. After his freshman year in college, Camacho was invited to serve on the faculty of the Sacramento Youth Symphony, primarily conducting their summer chamber workshop orchestras, coaching small ensembles, and overseeing the Composer-in-Residence program. 

Camacho is currently Lecturer in Music Theory, Aural Skills, and Composition at the University of the Incarnate Word and is on the teaching faculty of Austin Soundwaves, a youth music program benefiting the underserved area of East Austin, Texas, where he leads the wind ensemble and music theory programs, and teaches orchestra, violin, and viola. 

Austin Soundwaves follows the principles of El Sistema, established by Dr. Jose Abreu during the 1970s in Venezuela, among whose most notable alumni include Gustavo Dudamel, the Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the world-renowned Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. 

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Camacho is also a Co-founder and Content/Development Lead at Picardy, an online education platform for building and developing music skills.

Originally from Northern California, Dr. Camacho earned degrees from Cal State Long Beach (B.M.), the University of Colorado at Boulder (M.M.) and a doctorate from The University of Texas at Austin in 2011. He studied composition with Donald Grantham, Dan Welcher, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Daniel Kellogg, Robin Cox, and Carolyn Bremer, violin with Kimiyo Takeya, conducting with Akira Endo, Richard Rintoul, and Samuel Krachmalnick and masterclasses with Pulitzer-Prize winners John Adams, William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon, and Steve Reich. Camacho and his wife spend their free time watching the 49ers, SF Giants, Longhorns, or their toddler, Charlie, who endlessly harasses their two (very patient) cats.

Foozle - Fanfare for Wind Ensemble

HermesComposer