NATCHITOCHES – Guitarist Dr. Cain Budds will perform at Northwestern State University on Sunday, February 2 at 3 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public. Budds, a professor of guitar and music theory at Louisiana Tech, will be joined by the Corrales String Quartet, which includes NSU students Cesia Corrales and Emily Owens, Northwestern State faculty member Dr. Paul Christopher and musician and strings teacher Jose Gabriel Velazquez Avila.
The program features music by Aguado, J.S. Bach, Lauro, Mangoré, Bogdanović and Boccherini.
Budds received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in classical guitar performance at Arizona State University where he was a student of Frank Koonce. While in residence there, he served as a teaching assistant and faculty associate in the internationally recognized classical guitar program. In addition to his teaching duties, he assisted in the editing of the second performing edition: “Johann Sebastian Bach: The Solo Lute Works,” by Koonce, which was recently published by Neil A. Kjos company in San Diego.
He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Illinois State University and studied at Millikin University and the Crane School of Music at State University of New York at Potsdam.
Budds is also head of the string area at Louisiana Tech University where he heads the guitar studio. He is also an adjunct assistant professor and head of the guitar studio at the University of Louisiana at Monroe and at Grambling State University. He has held several additional teaching positions including North Valley School of the Arts in Scottsdale and Southwestern College in Phoenix. He also served as a member of the music faculty at Glendale Community College from 1998-2000 and Professor of Guitar at Laredo Community College from 2002-2008.
Avila, a native of Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, began formal violin studies at age six. In 1997, he was a finalist in the Hermilo Novelo violin competition in Mexico City. In 1998, he left for Xalapa Veracruz to study at the University of Veracruz. Avila later entered la Orquesta Sinfonica Juvenil del Estado de Veracruz. In 2004, he began performing as soloist and concertmaster with la Orquesta Universitaria de Musica Popular del Estado de Veracruz. Maestro Gabriel also formed and directed the Mariachi Universitario with which he recorded two CDs and toured Mexico and northern Italy. In 2008, he returned to the Yucatan as one of the first violinists in the Orquesta Sinfonica de Yucatan.
He also participated in the Chamber Orchestra of the UADY and the Chamber Orchestra of Merida Yucatan where he was not only a first violinist but also arranger and soloist. As a teacher, Avila has taught at the music institutions CIMI, CECUNY, CEMUS, and Esperanza Azteca. He performs with the Shreveport Symphony, Rapides Symphony, Monroe Symphony, Texarkana Symphony, South Arkansas Symphony and Lake Charles Symphony. He is the strings teacher at Nugent Music Academy in Pineville.
Christopher is an associate professor of music theory and low strings at Northwestern State. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas and Panamá. Christopher has performed guest artist recitals in Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and South Korea. He has presented and performed at conferences in Alabama, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Carolina and Ohio.
Christopher’s articles have been published in the Jacques Offenbach Society Newsletter, “Strings,” “American String Teacher” and “Bass World.” He has on appeared numerous recordings as a former member of the Nashville String Machine. In addition, Christopher has recorded music by contemporary composers Don Freund, Dinos Constantinides and Mark Lee, as well as seven recordings devoted to the cello music of Jacques Offenbach. For more information visit paulchristophercello.com.
Corrales started her first viola lessons at the age of 13, at the Victoriano Lopez Music School, located in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. In 2012, she graduated from musical performance concentrating in viola as a principal instrument. She started college at Northwestern State in the fall of 2016 and is a music education student under the tutelage of Dr. Andrej Kurti. She has also been selected on the McCutcheon Honor Recital in the strings category in 2018. Corrales has participated in programs with the YOA Orchestra of the Americas and playing in orchestras such as the San Pedro Sula Symphony, Rapides Symphony, South Arkansas Symphony, Marshall Symphony, Lake Charles Symphony as well as various ensembles at Northwestern State.
Owens began playing violin at the age of four and has studied with several professors over the years. In 2017, she received her Bachelor of Music Performance degree from Baylor University. She played in the Baylor Symphony during her time there, as well as with the Waco Symphony, which included featured artists such as Yo-Yo Ma.
She recently won the state division of the Music Teachers National Association Young Artists Concerto Competition. Owens won the Rapides Young Artists Competition and soloed with the Rapides Symphony with the first movement of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. She also was selected as one of the winners of the NSU Concerto Competition and soloed with the Natchitoches-Northwestern Symphony Orchestra.
