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TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Most recently, the Van Cliburn Concert Hall, located in the TCU Music Center, hosted its first performance in the spring of 2022 after supply chain issues delayed construction during the COVID-19 lockdown. (Kyle Cornelison)
TCU's recital season operates because of the people behind-the-scenes
By Caleb Gottry, Staff Writer
Published May 5, 2024
TCU has three concert halls with full schedules in April. These are the people that help make it all work.

    Professor plays in concert tour to benefit Haiti music education

    Professor+plays+in+concert+tour+to+benefit+Haiti+music+education

    Cara Pollard, an adjunct professor in TCU’s School of Music, plays trumpet in the Imbroglio Sextet.

    She organized a concert tour benefitting a music camp in Haiti called École de Musique Sainte Trinité. The tour will be April 3-11 with performances in Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston, Austin and New Orleans.

    The Imbroglio Sextet formed while Pollard was volunteering at a music camp two years ago.

    “We were working at a music camp together and just kind of hit it off,” Pollard said.

    The result of the sextet is a blend of two violins, a viola, clarinet, trumpet and cello.

    Many of the music in the program contains Haitian influences due to the conductor Sydney Guillaume’s Haitian roots. Guillaume wrote most of the pieces for the program.

    The principal piece of the program is called “Imbroglio,” written by the conductor of the sextet, who is also a composer.

    Pollard said the name of the piece inspired the group’s name.

    “The word ‘Imbroglio’ means a complicated situation that can be hard, but also has a silver lining,” Pollard said.

    The program will also contain the premiere of a short film produced by Rush Olson.

    The film will show while the sextet performs an original piece called “4 Movements for a Film Projector” by Brandon Brown.

    Pollard said vintage film footage was strung together to create a short film that accompanies the music really well.

    “He took really old footage that is public domain and pieced it together,” Pollard said. “It’s great! It goes really well with the music.”

    Pollard said that after tour expenses are paid, all the proceeds from ticket sales will go to the camp in Haiti to provide instruments and other music supplies.

    She said she encourages any audience member to donate music materials at the concert and in turn will offer free admission.

    “If you bring a used instrument or any kind of music supplies to the concert, you get in free,” Pollard said.

    Pollard said that the students in Haiti are lacking proper supplies.

    “It’s really hard for them to get anything over there; there are very few music stores there,” Pollard said.

    Pollard said the purpose of the sextet is to bring more opportunities and resources to music students in need.

    “What we’re really trying to do with this tour is to make aware what a need there is for music in places like this,” Pollard said.

    Pollard said students are welcome to attend the sextet’s open rehearsal Thursday at 8 p.m. in Ed Landreth Hall.

    The sextet is composed of four players from Spain including clarinet player Salvador Contreras, violin player David Otto, viola player Lucia Nuin and cellist Javier Navascues.

    Katie von Braun from San Francisco plays violin for the group and Cara Pollard plays the trumpet.