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    A Classical Feud

    Winds of change: Upsets shake up the Texas Music Festival, prove blowing doesn't suck

    Joel Luks
    Jun 12, 2013 | 12:34 pm

    It's a cold, harsh, cruel world out there for woodwind players. Being pit against string instruments in classical music competitions . . . you might as well call it quits.

    Be it the repertoire, the virtuosic prowess, the showmanship, the flair or simply that one has to breathe every now and then to keep sounding, those who huff, puff and flutter to make music typically don't stand a chance when compared to those who fiddle and vibrate.

    But not at this year's Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artists competition — winds were a changing.

    The 24th annual feud, a part of the Immanuel & Helen Olshan Texas Music Festival, produced unexpected, yet well deserved results. Three wind players took the top three spots, a testament that just because you blow, it doesn't mean you suck — comparably speaking (have a sense of humor, will you?).

    What started with more than 40 entrants in two different categories — string (violins, violas, cellos and double basses) and everything else (woodwinds, brass and percussion) — came down to six finalists for the concluding round at the University of Houston on Sunday. The event, open to Texas Music Festival orchestral fellows, offers cash prizes and solo opportunities alongside local, national and international notoriety.

    "If you play Mozart honestly, with ease, if you concentrate on bringing out the natural phrases and lean on the leading tone — you can never go wrong with Mozart."

    It was Wichita-native, bassoonist Jessica Findley, 21, who earned the highest honor from a panel of judges that included Houston Symphony associate principal viola Joan DerHovsepian, Shepherd School of Music clarinet faculty Richie Hawley, Houston Symphony cellist Anthony Kitai, Enso Quartet violinist Maureen Nelson, Houston Symphony trumpeter Anthony Prisk, Moores School of Music director David Ashley White and this reporter. Findley wowed with a spirited, elegant and witty interpretation of Mozart's Concerto for Bassoon in B-flat Major.

    "I think of the Mozart concerto as an old friend that I keep on coming back to again and again," Findley says of the piece that also helped her win the concerto competition earlier this year at the University of Kansas, where she just finished her junior year. "If you play Mozart honestly, with ease, if you concentrate on bringing out the natural phrases and lean on the leading tones — you can never go wrong with Mozart."

    Findley will take the spotlight in this weekend's concert run — at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion on Friday and at the Moores Opera House on Saturday — accompanied by the Texas Festival Orchestra led by maestro Horst Förster, founder and conductor of the Leipzig Academic Orchestra. Complementing the playbill are Richard Strauss tone poem Don Juan and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 in E Minor.

    Förster plans to invite the young bassoonist to perform the elegant score with his ensemble in the Grand Hall of Leipzig Gewandhaus.

    Clarinetist Julian Hernandez, 22, an El Paso-resident who's working on a master's degree at the University of Michigan, took second place. A silky, colorful timbre and perky articulation supported well crafted phrases in his rendition of Carl Maria von Weber's Concertino for Clarinet in C Minor. The third place and the People's Choice award went to a DMA student of Houston Symphony principal flutist Aralee Dorough.

    Caity Piccini chose the first movement of Carl Nielsen's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra for the final round, impressing listeners with a luscious, sparkly and cantando voice rich with harmonic overtones.

    Violinists Caroline Cox and Siyu Zhang, and double bassist Nathan Varga represented their instrument family extremely well. And as this competition encourages young classical music stars to refine their audition skills, this judge says everyone's a winner.

    The six finalists of the 2013 Texas Music Festival Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition are, from left, Siyu Zhang (violin), Caroline Cox (violin), Nathan Varga (double bass), Caity Piccini (flute, third-place winner), Julian Hernandez (clarinet, second-place winner) and Jessica Findley (bassoon, first-place winner).

    Texas Music Festival young artist competition June 2013 musicians
      
    Photo by Susan Farb-Morris
    The six finalists of the 2013 Texas Music Festival Cynthia Woods Mitchell Young Artist Competition are, from left, Siyu Zhang (violin), Caroline Cox (violin), Nathan Varga (double bass), Caity Piccini (flute, third-place winner), Julian Hernandez (clarinet, second-place winner) and Jessica Findley (bassoon, first-place winner).
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    Movie Review

    28 Years Later revives zombie franchise for new generation

    Alex Bentley
    Jun 20, 2025 | 5:00 pm
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later
    Photo by Miya Mizuno
    Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Alfie Williams in 28 Years Later.

    The 2000s brought two of the best zombie movies ever made in 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later. Both films, despite being made by different filmmakers, featured intense action with fast-moving zombies, harrowing sequences, and real emotional connections with their main characters. Now the original director and writer — Danny Boyle and Alex Garland — have returned with the first of a possible three sequels, 28 Years Later.

    The rage virus from the first two films that turns humans into insatiable monsters has successfully been contained to the United Kingdom, and one group of survivors has managed to band together on a small island off the coast of England. We’re introduced to the group through Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his wife, Isla (Jodie Comer), and his son, Spike (Alfie Williams).

    Isla is sick with an unknown illness, while Jamie is set to take the 12-year-old Spike on his first trip to the mainland to hunt zombies. That trip not only gives Spike an education as to the different types of feral zombies that now populate England, but also a clue that other people have survived there. When he discovers that one of them may be a doctor, he makes plans to take his mother there in hopes of finding a cure for whatever ails her.

    While the first two films were notable for their brisk pace that kept the potency of the stories high, Boyle and Garland almost go in the opposite direction for much of this film. The first 90 minutes are relatively slow, with only a couple of sequences that raise the blood pressure. The final half hour or so go a long way toward filling that void, so it’s clear that the filmmakers were biding their time for the story to come in the sequel. A bit more balance in this film would have served them well, though.

    What they do show involves some weird, wild stuff that is objectively upsetting, even for fans of the genre. The zombies have evolved in strange ways, giving them a variety of body shapes and abilities to suit the environment in which they live. These storytelling choices may thrill some and have others scratching their heads. Another human character living on his own (played by Ralph Fiennes), appears to have gone the way of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, with a revelation that is bone-chilling.

    Boyle, who’s directed everything from Trainspotting to Slumdog Millionaire, doesn’t have a signature style, and he makes some choices in this film that test your patience. He occasionally employs an odd technique in which the film stutters, for a lack of better term. It’s a bit jarring, especially since it doesn’t seem to improve the storytelling. He also inserts scenes from older films involving medieval warfare that emulate the bow-and-arrow weaponry used by characters in this film, but the exact connection he’s trying to make is unclear.

    The young Williams has a lot put on his shoulders in the film, and he proves to be up to the task of carrying the story. He isn’t precocious or annoying, instead reacting almost exactly like you’d expect a boy of his age to do when faced with extreme situations. Taylor-Johnson and Comer are good complements for him, drawing him out with their polar opposite characters. Fiennes makes a huge impression in the final act of the film, while Jack O’Connell makes a very brief appearance, teasing a bigger role to come.

    It’s difficult to fully judge 28 Years Later because it’s designed to only give you part of the story; part 2, The Bone Temple, is due in 2026, while a third film will follow if the first two do well. This film has its moments and winds up on the positive side of the ledger, but it’s also a frustrating experience that could have used a more stand-alone story.

    ---

    28 Years Later is now playing in theaters.

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