TLU - Texas Lutheran University

Eric M. Daub, who holds a doctorate in Piano Performance from the University of Texas at Austin, is an associate professor of piano and music theory at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas, where he holds the Baenziger Professorship in Music. Born in Kyoto, Japan, he grew up in Lawrence, KS, and Madison, WI. He received a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Wisconsin in 1982, studying the piano with Tait Barrows and Leo Stephens, and jazz piano with Ted Jackson and Richard Davis. He then moved to Austin, Texas in 1985 to pursue a Master of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance at the University of Texas at Austin, studying piano and accompanying with Dr. William Race, Anton Nel, David Garvey, and Gerard Souzay. His doctoral treatise is entitled “The Mùsica Callada of Federico Mompou” and the Mompou Foundation, located in Barcelona in the apartment that the composer and his wife shared at the end of his life, requested a bound copy for their library. Dr. Daub has a wide range of experience as a solo recitalist, chamber musician, recording artist, collaborative pianist, church musician, arranger, jazz, blues and gospel pianist, and rock keyboardist. He has worked repeatedly with various singer-song writers in the Austin area co-writing, arranging, and recording music in a variety of styles. His musical collaborations have brought him into contact with musicians from many stylistic genres including bassists Kristin Korb, and Roscoe Beck, guitarists Van Wilks, Dave Sebree, and Bobby Zinner, drummer Shelley Scott Hamilton, singers Babbie Mason and Diane Schurr, and composer Jake Heggie.

Laura Jenschke, instructor; A.A., SMU-Perkins School of Theology; B.M., The University of Texas at Austin; M.M., University of Texas at San Antonio. Ms. Jenschke serves as instructor of voice, general music, and music education classes. She has been a choral director and singer for the past 30 years. She was the founder of the Fredericksburg Children’s Chorale, which she directed for 22 years, she started the Eastman Children’s Choir and the Eastman Youth Choir at the Eastman School of Music’s Community Music School in Rochester, New York. Ms. Jenschke has been a church choir director for 25 years teaching adult, youth and children’s choirs. She founded the TLU/ Mid-Texas Symphony Community Youth Choir program for the Community Music Academy and serves as the CMA director since August 2010. As a singer, Ms. Jenschke has performed in opera, oratorio, recitals and professional choirs throughout her career. Laurie is a graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with an undergraduate degree in music education and a graduate of the University of Texas at San Antonio with a master’s degree in conducting. Ms. Jenschke also serves as director of the Mid-Texas Symphony Chorus.

Trombonist Steve Parker is active as a soloist, ensemble musician, and educator. He worked as a Fulbright Scholar in Germany, and is presently a Donald D. Harrington Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, Artist-In-Residence at the Blanton Museum of Art, and on faculty at Texas Lutheran University.

 

An advocate of new music, Steve has commissioned or premiered over 100 new works, working with composers Helmut Lachenmann, Corey Dargel, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang. He is an artist of Ensemble Signal, described as “one of the most vital groups of its kind” (New York Times) and a “new music dream team” (TimeOutNY). With Signal, he has performed at Tanglewood, the Guggenheim Museum, Le Poisson Rouge, the Bang on a Can Marathon, and has recorded on Cantaloupe and Mode Records.

 

As a soloist, Steve has performed in the US, Europe, Asia, and South America. Recent engagements include solo recitals at the International Trombone Festival, at futureplaces (Portugal), and in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, and Tatui, Brazil. Other highlights include solo appearances at the Spoleto Festival, Santa Fe New Music, Bowerbird (Philadelphia), Red Room (Baltimore), Roulette (NYC), HPR’s the Front Row (Houston), Music from Almost Yesterday (Milwaukee) and the American premiere of David Lang’s MEN for solo trombone, ensemble, and video at the Gene Siskel Film Center (Chicago).

 

In the orchestral realm, Steve studied for three summers at the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland) with Pierre Boulez and Ensemble InterContemporain. He has received fellowships with the Music Academy of the West, Spoleto Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, and the National Repertory Orchestra, and has performed with the Malaysian Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Jacksonville Symphony, New World Symphony, Charleston Symphony, and Sarasota Opera.

 

Steve holds a MM from Rice University and a BA/BM from Oberlin College in Applied Mathematics and Music. His teachers include Dr. Nathaniel Brickens, Michael Mulcahy, Abbie Conant, Mike Svoboda, Robin Eubanks, and James DeSano. He lives in Austin.

Dr. Eliza Thomason is the Director of Strings and Assistant-Professor at Texas Lutheran University, holding the Anita Windecker Endowed Chair. A sought after performer, Dr. Thomason is an active recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral violist. She currently plays with the San Antonio, Mid-Texas, and Corpus Christi Symphonies, and has won positions with the Spokane Symphony, New Haven Symphony, and New World Symphony. Her orchestral solos as principle violist with the Aspen Concert Orchestra have been featured on The Classical Station of New York City and NPR's show, Performance Today.
 

 

An advocate of new music, Dr. Thomason has premiered several works for solo viola, chamber ensemble, and orchestra, most recently recording new chamber music for the MSR Classics recording label; "Winning Works of the 2010 Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition." She has studied at Vanderbilt and Indiana Universities, and recently earned her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). At CCM she served as a teaching assistant to Masao Kawasaki and Catharine Carroll, as well as holding several other teaching appointments. Principal mentors and teachers have included Masao Kawasaki, Catharine Carroll, Atar Arad, Mimi Zweig, and Kathryn Plummer.