Karen Cortez

Only took us a few years to get new photos 😆 📸: Enzo Amato @enzoamatophoto @photoenz

Thank you for coming out last week to witness some incredible fresh-off-the-press Aus music! We had an absolute blast playing for you all. Thank you to our dear composers @sbcaitlin @tashhgreen @jueliahh @ezrahersch @vanessa_perica and Nigel Westlake for lending your voices to our program. Without @waverleycouncil ’s Local Collaborations program, this residency and concert would not have been possible. Thank you for having us! Fantastic photos by @photoenz @enzoamatophoto 📸

And that’s a wrap! Here’s a glimpse into our two weeks at the Bondi Pavilion music studio, thanks to their Local Creative Collaboration program. We’ve been preparing two brand new works by Julia Magri and Ezra Hersch - commissioned especially for this residency! Hours of playing Australian contemporary music with swims in between - it has been absolutely delightful rehearsing new music together. Thank you @waverleycouncil and @chris.bendall for giving us this opportunity to create and collaborate!

We are so excited to be performing a free, all-Australian program here this Sunday! Bring a picnic blanket and dry off after your afternoon swim to the sound of strings 🌊 We’ve been preparing two brand new works commissioned especially for our residency with @waverleycouncil , and we are so excited for their world premieres today. Get keen for string music drawing on jazz, folk, electronic and classical influences in a brand new, all-Australian program! Don’t miss this concert: 26.04.26 | 3PM | BONDI PAVILION

When I watched it at age 7, I wanted to be Nala. When I watched it at age 18, I wanted to be the cellist in the pit instead. When I watched it at 28, there wasn’t anything left to want to be. Stat sourced from: /life-and-luxury/arts-and-culture/musicians-are-disappearing-from-our-big-musicals-20260325-p5xd0x #cello #musicaltheatre #livemusic #lionking

“Quart-Ed were fantastic in running workshops with our HSC Music 2 students, supporting the development of their String Quartet compositions. The quartet members selected a range of pieces to demonstrate effective string writing, and provided scores for the students to reference in their portfolio development. Students benefited from the encouraging, constructive feedback provided by the players as they played the students’ draft ideas and it was especially valuable to have such fabulous sight readers who were also educators to be part of this process with our students.” - Courtaney Wood, Head of Music (Academic), Reddam House Senior School @reddamhousesydney

🔥 Today is the day!! Reminding myself of reason #4 for putting on a recital in the hours leading up to tonight. 🌏 😭 Can't make it tonight? Receive access to a FULL RECORDING of our performance by being a CHEERLEADER FROM AFAR! 😍 Scroll down past ticket options to "Donations" and enjoy our performance at your leisure! /karen-s-cello-recital 📸: @j.alex.prufrock

Reason #3 is on my mind because it's our FIRST TUTTI REHEARSAL today!! Tonight I get to hang out with the incredible: - Sarah Qiu @sazza_q - Caitlin Sandiford @sbcaitlin - Connor Malanos @connormalanos - Jonathan Bruhl @bruhljonathan - Alex Paterson @j.alex.prufrock - Lauren Olofsson @lauren.olofsson - Shirahni Mudaliar @24greenbutterflies - Mina Scarratt @minathanyou Guess what! YOUR TICKET helps me to honor the time and effort these artists have put in for this performance! Book here: /karen-s-cello-recital

Reason #2 for putting on a recital: sharing some cool music! As a cellist-musician, I love: - The complexity and movement of Bach - Crazy mad cello duets - Chamber music!! - Concertos that push your boundaries - Fiddly folky thangs and improvising - Amplifying new musical voices ... and usually I don't get to do all these things in one gig. Until now!! Come see come see: /karen-s-cello-recital

Reason #1 for putting on a recital: doing something different! My performance anxiety has shaped the way I move through musical spaces, as a student, a collaborator and professional. I've found it to be very limiting! So I'm trying something different. What happens when a historically nervous performer who shies away from solo performance puts on her own solo recital? I want to find out! Do you? Join me: /karen-s-cello-recital

It is with a sense of accomplishment that I announce my recital's centre piece and the wonderful ensemble who will join me for it! A joyful and bubbling piece with a silky serene middle movement, Haydn's cello concerto in C captured my heart when I first began to consider learning a concerto. It is also commonly used for auditions, and over the years my connection with this piece’s joy began to fade as I experienced anxiety, failure and frustration. In playing this piece in a non-assessed context I hope to reengage with the heart of this piece, and I am so excited to be supported by a chamber ensemble of old and new friends who have been with me on this cello journey. Introducing my chamber ensemble: ❤️ The founding members of @quartedquartet , Sarah, Caitlin and Connor, who saw me through my uni days, helped me to learn more about myself and to lean into what I love! @sazza_q @sbcaitlin @connormalanos 😍 Our associate Quart-Ed artists Jonathan and Alex, whose involvement has allowed us to have so many more beautiful musical experiences, and whose raw musical enthusiasm have been an inspiration to me @bruhljonathan @j.alex.prufrock 🥰 Lauren, my oldest cello friend, whose love of the headbop even in the most unboppable pieces gives me the energy to love whatever music I meet @lauren.olofsson 😊 Shirahni, a new friend from @cellodreaming where I was reminded to trust myself and chase my goals @24greenbutterflies 🔥 and Mina, who played at the first iteration of my ‘Concerto Therapy’ at @stringmania with an infectious mission to just have fun on the cello @minathanyou Did you know that YOUR TICKET helps me to honor the time and effort these artists have put in for this performance? Book here: /karen-s-cello-recital