ReMixing New Music with Musiqa's Resident Artist Karol Bennett

Karol Bennett Performing Around the World with Musiqa

It’s an unfortunate circumstance, but an inevitable truth that during these tightened economic times, art programs are usually the first to be removed from the public school curriculum. However, supportive of artistic efforts, the Houston area is filled with organizations fighting to place the arts back into schools. Locally, nationally, and internationally, Musiqa has gained a lot of respect for its artistic vision and emphasis on education. Musiqa’s resident artist Karol Bennett seized the opportunity to be a part of these inspiring programs.

As the face of Musiqa’s educational programs, soprano Karol Bennett strives to give new music a venue of its own, especially in an environment where folk songs and contemporary classical music may not be exposed. Winner of six consecutive awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Musiqa’s educational programs give inner city school children an opportunity to visit theatre halls in Downtown Houston, learn about various composers and how they create music, and folk songs from around the world.

Musiqa’s two educational programs are offered to public school children at no cost to schools, including an in-school workshop, teacher study materials, school bus transportation and the downtown performance. Musiqa’s programs have served almost 30,000 students from over 75-area public schools, nearly all Title I qualified. Title I, which ensures that all children have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education, aims to improve the academic achievement of the disadvantaged. Musiqa also offers semester and year-long residencies at area public schools that integrate arts enrichment into the curriculum.

Around the World with Musiqa, for grades 2-4, is an interactive program that introduces students to folk songs from around the world, demonstrating how composers take the shared songs of a culture and make them come alive in an imaginative way. Musiqa ReMix, for grades 4-7, takes the students inside pieces of music to show how they are created. Both programs are highly interactive, feature a stellar cast of performers, include surtitles to help the students follow along, lighting and props for a full experience. These programs require no previous musical experience, and a CD and DVD are included for every classroom. 

Ms. Bennett grew up in Kansas where she began singing at a very young age. Whether she was humming along with the radio during family road trips or singing with her school choir, it was evident she possessed a special talent that needed to be shared.
 

Karol Bennett (left) Performing in Another Musiqa ReMix Performance

  
Coincidentally, the vice principal of her high school was a singer as well. “I was called to the principal’s office!” Bennett admitted. “He wanted to talk to me about my singing. He told me I had a beautiful voice and a lot of talent.” 

A teacher at the University of Kansas City-Missouri Conservatory got word of Bennett’s talent through her vice principal. Bennett began studying at the Conservatory from age 15 through college, where she was honored as the Kansas City Conservatory’s “Alumna of the Year” in 1996. She also studied at the Yale School of Music, where she sang with a plethora of composers. From then, her repertoire significantly expanded, ranging from Baroque music to numerous contemporary works, many written especially for her. Her oratorio and orchestral appearances include works by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Brahms, Fauré, Verdi, Mahler, Barber, Orff and Bernstein.

The New York Times hails Bennett for her “sumptuous sound, wrenching poignancy, and faultless musicianship.” Her honors include the Pro Musicis International Award, a fellowship from the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College, a Duo Recitalists Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an Artistic Ambassadorship, where she sang in Taiwan and South Korea. She has taught master classes in Russia, Mexico, Korea, Taiwan, Mongolia, and at many universities in the United States. During her time abroad, she gathered folk songs from different countries, and saw the impact of how international folk music brings communities closer together. This sparked the beginning of Bennett’s passion for folk music, a genre she believes to carry strong messages.

Bennett implements her folk fascination into Around the World with Musiqa, in which she gives young students a chance to recognize and express their voices. The education programs teach the students what folk songs are about, as well as where they originated. “We provide emotional support and a connection,” Bennett said. “When you feel a connection with a song, you can sing very well.”

 

Full body singing is one aspect Bennett repeatedly emphasizes throughout the programs. Through this particular technique, the students learn to escape their self-doubt and release the songs with ease.

“You learn to sing out and stand up for yourself,” Bennett explains. 

“By standing tall, breathing, and singing in full body, that’s how you have courage and the ability to express it.”

Bennett proudly tells the students “our voice is a vote, and your voice matters.” The programs aren’t simply about singing in tune, but singing together to form a choir. She loves telling the students to exclaim, ‘I can sing, and I have a beautiful voice!’

Karol Bennett Performing Musiqa Remix

“I feel so connected to the students and the teachers. We all support each other.” Bennett addresses the long-term impact a fine arts education makes on the students. She says they are genuinely excited to be a part of the programs.

“It’s an hour of release and therapy for them,” Bennett said. “It’s really healthy.”

The teachers also engage in ‘musical therapy.’ Ms. Monica Harris, an elementary and middle school music and choir teacher, opened up to her students at Billy Reagan K-8 Educational Center about her love for singing. Harris taught herself to play piano and was always self-motivated. She practiced singing in her garage and auditioned for the renowned High School for the Performing Arts in Houston, where she was accepted, even though she had no formal training. She wanted her students to understand the importance of following their dreams no matter what. “She sang for her students from the back of the hall,” Bennett said. “It was moving how beautiful her voice was.”

Having the privilege of sharing their voices and expressing their desire to sing is what makes these programs so inspiring to the students. “In this culture, there seems to be no time, no chance,” Bennett said. “People just don’t sing anymore, especially without a microphone.”

   
Bennett wants to give the teachers and students a chance to perform in the programs’ concerts. She feels it’s the best next step for the programs. “When they sing, they sing loud and full,” she explained. “It’s like they’re singing for me.” Such a feeling brings great joy to her heart-- A joy that she truly appreciates and wants to continue to share. 

Karol Bennett Performing Around the World with Musiqa

“I can’t tell you how happy it makes me feel,” Bennett expressed. “It really is a blessing.”

  
This summer, Bennett will be singing in Maine with a string quartet. She’ll also be performing internationally and doing community service concerts through Pro Musicis, a non-denominational organization in France founded by Father Eugene Merlet, for the international exchange and career development of concert artists.

As winner of the Pro Musicis Award in 1993, she has performed at nursing homes, hospitals, day care centers and a woman's prison. She’ll be performing another series of community service concerts this summer. “It’s an incredible opportunity to remember why you’re doing this,” Bennett said. “That’s what keeps it real.”

“Musicians of the highest caliber perform for people who wouldn’t normally get to hear it,” Bennett said. “It’s not only important for people hearing it, but also for the people doing it.”

Bennett plans to continue sharing her powerful gift in concerts around the world and will continue her activities with Musiqa’s education programs next fall.

Written by Mia M. Smith

Pierre Jalbert and Marcus Maroney Take Copland House

Less than one hour north of New York City is "a dwelling of particular historical interest" (The New York Post) -- the home where Aaron Copland lived from 1960 until his death in 1990. Copland is one of the most celebrated and influential American composers.

Aaron Copland was born in November 1900 in Brooklyn. He performed his first public performance as a pianist when he was 17 years old. In 1925, Copland performed his first major orchestral work, Symphony for Organ and Orchestra at Aeolian Hall. He's best known for his groundbreaking ballet scores, Billy the Kid, Rodeo, and Fanfare for the Common Man.

The Copland House serves as an artist retreat. "It's a wonderfully quiet and simple place, surrounded by trees, near the Hudson River, about 30 miles north of New York City," Pierre Jalbert said. "It's a great place for reflection and work." 

 Pierre Jalbert

Musiqa co-founder and composer Pierre Jalbert's first retreat at the Copland House was in 2000. Jalbert expected his recent time there to be quiet, productive, and free from distractions, just as he experienced it the first time around. 

"My time there turned out to be productive, but very different from my first time there," Jalbert said. "Back in 2000, I was under a deadline to finish a piece, and it was in June when the concert season is over, so I spent most of my time at the house working/composing." During that time, the concert season was in full swing, so Jalbert attended many of them and met with several people in the music industry.

Every year, about eight composers are selected to stay at the Copland House, one at a time. Its support for composers includes all-expenses-paid residencies; post residency awards and performances that further advance their work; fiscal sponsorships; and composer commissions.

"This residency is all about doing your creative work," said Jalbert. "Other residencies I've done, such as with orchestras, usually involve a busy schedule of rehearsals and concerts. There was an education component to this residency too, as I did some master classes at one of the local music schools."

During Jalbert's 2013 residency, he developed a relationship with Copland House’s Artistic and Executive Director Michael Boriskin, an internationally-active pianist and prolific recording artist, when he first stayed there 13 years ago. "They have an ensemble in residence, music from Copland House, and I've worked with the ensemble a number of times over the years,” said Jalbert. Boriskin and Jalbert are currently working on a CD project together.

Marcus Karl Maroney

Musiqa’s Artistic Board member and composer Marcus Karl Maroney also served as an artist-in-residence at the Copland House. Before his first residency in 2004-05, Maroney worked as a legal assistant at a law firm.

“My first residency came at a point when I was deciding whether or not to continue composing, a real crisis point in my career,” said Maroney. “I was considering law school, but gave one last final “push” of applications to various organizations, including the Copland House. Fortunately, several of the applications happened to pan out, which reignited my drive to compose and teach.”

During his first residency at the Copland House, Maroney was notified that he’d been chosen as a finalist for a position at the University of Houston. However, he couldn’t go to the interview until the last week of his residency.

“Of course I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a great job at a great school,” Maroney said. On the second to last day of his Copland House residency, Maroney was travelling to a concert in New York City.  “I got the offer from David White,” he said. “It was an excellent exclamation point on a very productive residency.”

Maroney stated that during his second residency, his life was more stable, while he was “in a state of flux” during his first. Maroney feels that these two moods can be seen in the pieces he worked on during his stay.

Since Maroney went to graduate school and taught in the general area of the Copland House, the residencies gave him a great chance to reconnect with schoolmates who stayed in the Tristate area and made great strides in their careers. “In turn, they introduced me to new performers and organizations in and around New York City and New Haven, and I’ve put them in contact with individuals and organizations here in Texas,” said Maroney.

This summer, Maroney plans to travel around the country for various performances. He has two small chamber commissions to complete and several scores to edit. Jalbert will be headed to Maine for the Seal Bay Music Festival in June and to San Antonio in July for a few performances. In August, Jalbert plans to go to Tanglewood, where his son will be playing clarinet in the orchestra for the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) program. The BUTI program is recognized internationally as the premiere summer training program for aspiring high school-age musicians.

Written by Mia M. Smith

Aromas of Quelques Fleurs

Composer and member of Musiqa’s Artistic Board, Karim Al-Zand spoke to Musiqa about his latest composition titled Quelques Fleurs.

Does Quelques Fleurs have a special meaning to you, other than the translation? Why or why not?
The title, “a few flowers,” has two references. It refers to the various movements of the work, each one based on a particular flower. It’s also the brand name of the first mass marketed perfume, which appeared in 1912, and was purportedly formulated, with the essence of hundreds of different flowers.

How did you approach Quelques Fleurs?
I tried to convey in musical terms the character of each flower, in particular my associations with the scent of the flower.

What are your most significant inspirations, pertaining to composing music?
My inspirations are often extra-musical, as is the case in this piece. I have compositions that are inspired by art of various kinds, literature, dance and so forth. There are some purely musical inspirations as well, such as folk music, jazz and other works in the Western classical tradition.

What is the music of Quelques Fleurs inspired by?

Quelques Fleurs is inspired by the fragrance of flowers. Connections between sound and smell have long been a feature of both poetry and science. The vocabulary of the perfumer also relies on musical analogy: a fragrance is formed by a “chord” of three scents—a “top note,” a “middle (or heart) note,” and a “bass note.” The perfume reputedly combined 300 different floral and other scents in its formulation. My piece contains four: Rose, Lavender, Jasmine and Orange Blossom.

How would you describe the music of Quelques Fleurs?

To convey the immersive quality of the flowers’ aroma, each movement is a kind of musical “static study.” The first uses a reiterated rhythmic pattern (an ostinato); the second cycles through a harmonic progression (a passacaglia); the third employs an unchanging collection of notes (a mode); and the fourth maintains constant motion by repeating a few short motives (a moto perpetuo). The piece was written for the Beausejour Trio (Wesley Ferreira, clarinet; Julia MacLaine, cello; Stephen Runge, piano) who presented its premiere in July 2010.

 As previously described, Al-Zand’s inspiration for Quelques Fleurs is drawn from the scent of four specific flowers, Jasmine being the most “heady of floral scents,” he says. 

“[Jasmine] thrives in Texas: there are several jasmine shrubs and vines around the Rice University campus,” said Al-Zand. “As you pass one of the flowering plants in the spring, the smell is intoxicating, almost overpowering in strength. I think of the third movement as an atmospheric nocturne (jasmine blooms only at night), which tries to capture a gradual envelopment by the potent bouquet.”

For Al-Zand, the smell of roses is redolent. He stated that it reminds him of “confectionery, especially the Middle Eastern sweets” he enjoyed as a child. Many of them use perfumed rose water in their recipes.

Aside from the fragrance of flowers, Al-Zand’s music is inspired by Arabic poetry. The subjects of some of his pieces speak to his middle-eastern heritage as well.

“My father’s LP records of Arabic music playing in our living room,” Al-Zand said. “Though we never really knew what the words meant, my siblings and I would occasionally join in with a catchy song. I recall only tiny snippets from these tunes. I quote one memorable fragment in the first movement, “Attar of Rose.” The movement represents a kind of perfumed nostalgia, a fragrant musical trace.”

The Boston Globe has called Al-Zand’s music “strong and startlingly lovely”. His music has been successful throughout Canada, the U.S., and abroad. Al-Zand is the recipient of several national awards, including the Sackler Composition Prize and the ArtSong Prize.

Quelques Fleurs will be featured in Musiqa’s Word Play on Saturday, April 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Zilkha Hall. 

Thank you, Karim, for taking the time to speak to Musiqa about Quelques Fleurs.

Written by Mia. M. Smith 

The Mystery of the Sphinx, Musiqa's Latest One-Act Play

 

Anthony Brandt took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with Musiqa about his latest musical composition, which is featured in Sphinx, a play directed by Leslie Swackhamer.

Artistic Director and co-founder of Musiqa, Anthony Brandt composed the music for Sphinx, a one-act play by 2012 Blackburn prizewinner Jennifer Haley. The play is a first-time collaboration for Musiqa with Haley. 

Sphinx explores the relationship of a couple during different periods in their life. The play shows the couple's relationship evolving over time from their late teenage years to their mid 60's. The first scene displays the conflict and insecurities of the couple’s frayed bond. Joshua Estrada and Jen Lucy, who happen to be married, play the main characters.

Sphinx explores the eternal mystery between a man and a woman through the riddle of Oedipus: “What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening?” In Greek mythology, the Sphinx sat outside of Thebes and asked this riddle of all travelers who passed by. If the traveler failed to solve the riddle, the Sphinx would kill the traveler. If the traveler answered the riddle correctly, the Sphinx would destroy herself. Oedipus solved the riddle, and the Sphinx destroyed herself.

“Sphinx was a really interesting thought experiment writing it, because theater music is often mood music,” said Brandt. Haley and Brandt wanted the music to be a character in the play. Brandt thought carefully about the story’s meaning and wanted the music to tell the story of the play as well. His concept was that overture is the sexual attraction between the main characters of the play, and it dissolves in the course of the piece, as they get older. 

“It keeps trying to put itself back together again, and it’s always there,” said Brandt. “The beginning of the music has an unusual 6-5-4 pattern. At the very end, when the characters wonder ‘are we meant to be together or not?’ the pattern reverses to 4-5-6.” This was Brandt’s way of “leaving it all hanging.” The music creates an emotional response. The couple wonders if they should stay together by denying who they are, or come together by becoming who they are meant to be. This is an active search throughout the play.

“The jazz music wants to flow, but the characters are in conflict. The music tries to sustain the tension until the end. It never cadences until the final question is answered,” Brandt said.

The world premiere of Sphinx debuts on April 6 at 7:30 p.m. at the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts in Zilkha Hall.

The featured composers, artists and works include:

Rob Smith: Las Pilas

Karim Al-Zand, Quelques Fleurs

Roshanne Etezady, Mother-of-Pearl

JacobTV, Garden of Love

The featured artists include:

Tali Morgulis, piano

Johnny Salinas, saxophone

Barrett Sills, cello

Yung-Hsiang Wang, violin

Ivo van der Werff, viola

Michael Webster, clarinet.

Thank you, Anthony, for speaking with Musiqa about your latest work. 

Written by Mia M. Smith 

Rob Smith, Director of the University of Houston AURA Contemporary Ensemble

Rob Smith took some time to speak with Musiqa about his latest work entitled Las Pilas, a new string trio, which will premiere at Musiqa's Word Play on April 6, 2013, at 7:30 p.m. at the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall. Smith directs the Aura Contemporary Ensemble and teaches composition and music theory at the University of Houston. 

Rob Smith is a composer and a member of Musiqa's Artistic Board. Las Pilas, a string trio, will be performed on Friday, April 5 at Jan R. van Lohuizen and Sandra L. Tirey's home, which they call Geezerville. The new string trio was commissioned by Jan and Sandra. Las Pilas is based on a sense of community and building relationships, the concept of Jan and Sandra's home. They wanted to build a home where they could comfortably live the remainder of their lives. Geezerville was built next to some of Jan and Sandra's best friends. They combined their backyards to create a communal area. The interior of their house also has an emphasis on communal spaces. Essentially, Jan and Sandra created an ideal place for people to meet and mingle.

"[Las Pilas] is not about the physical things that help people who are getting older. It's really about choosing the people you want to spend the rest of your life with," Smith said. 

A "pila" is a public space in rural Central America, where people wash their clothes and socialize. Smith's wife, a pediatrician, spent a great amount of time working with the people of Guatemala, where some of these pilas are located. After discussing the meaning and importance of his latest work with his wife, he decided to entitle the string trio Las Pilas.

"The sense of community is what's so wonderful about the culture in Guatemala. The people are very kind to one another, and there's a real ability to communicate with other people. My wife believes this is because of the pilas. I find it very intriguing," Smith said.  

The music of Las Pilas is highly energetic and upbeat. Smith also added a lyrical melody, which is presented separately and at the end of the work, the upbeat material and lyrical melody is combined.

Las Pilas is symbolic of everything we go through in life, and at the end, we try to put it all together,” Smith said. Jan and Sandra wanted the music to be celebratory, so he used a pentatonic scale, which made the music sound similar to a folk song. Smith wanted to use a simple, melodic structure to give the “feeling of home.”

Smith grew up in Syracuse, New York, where he began playing the trombone in middle school. His grandmother, among several of his family members, was involved in music as well. She sang 30s Jazz standards and was offered a record contract.

The world premiere of Las Pilas, along with Quelques Fleurs for clarinet, violin and piano by Karim Al-Zand, will be performed at the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall on April 6. The concert also features works by two contemporary composers: Roshanne Etezady and the Dutch composer JacobTV, whose piece is accompanied by a film by visual artist Amber Boardman, as well as the play, Sphinx, by Blackburn prize winner, Jennifer Haley, with incidental music by Musiqa's Artistic Director, Anthony Brandt. 

Thank you, Rob, for taking the time to speak to Musiqa about your latest work, Las Pilas.

Written by Mia M. Smith

 

Questions for Blake Wilkins, University of Houston Percussion Ensemble

Blake Wilkins took some time to speak with Musiqa about the music in Percussive Illusions, Musiqa's collaborative concert with Aurora Picture Show on January 12 at the Hobby Center. The University of Houston Percussion Ensemble will perform a wide variety of percussion pieces by composers as varied as John Cage, Musiqa's Marcus Maroney and Anthony Brandt and Thierry De Mey and Lukas Ligeti. Aurora Picture Show will present a trio of percussion-related contemporary films.

Q: In the past century, percussion has evolved dramatically. How would you describe the music the ensemble will perform in this concert?

A: The music for Percussive Illusions represents the full breadth of diversity that the concert percussion ensemble offers: John Cage's Third Construction uses traditional, exotic, and unconventional un-pitched instruments, while the works by Anthony Brandt and Marcus Maroney highlight the ensemble as a "symphonic" medium – a veritable orchestra made up of pitched percussion instruments (marimbas, vibraphones, glockenspiels, and so forth). I think that concert patrons who have yet to experience an ensemble like ours will be astounded by the diversity of music they will hear!

Q: What pieces, in your opinion, are the most interesting or challenging works in the concert?

A: Each work has its own unique character. Thierry De Mey's Table Music is surely one of the most curious. The work is played entirely with the hands (that is, no sticks or mallets) on three small tables of graduated size.  It is a visually stunning piece! On the other hand, Cage's Third Construction uses so many curious sounds – tin cans, a conch shell, various shakers, wooden claves. Perhaps Marcus Maroney's Pantheon is the most challenging, because it also requires the players to sing.

Q: Could you give me an overview of the instruments played in a percussion ensemble?

A: The larger works – Anthony Brandt's My Best Eleven and Marcus Maroney's Pantheon – are dominated by keyboard percussion instruments, and this really serves as the core of the Moores School Percussion Ensemble's standard repertoire. These insruments include marimbas (we use as many as five on this concert), vibraphones (as many as four), xylophones, glockenspiels, and chimes. Lukas Ligeti's Pattern Transformation uses only two marimbas, and Cage's Third Construction uses a wide variety of drums, shakers, metallic sounds, lion's roar, and even a conch shell.

Q: What is unusual about the percussion instruments you will use?

A: We will use many unusual instruments, such as the conch shell and tin cans in Third Construction. But many in the audience will be most fascinated by the unusual ways some of our instruments are played. For instance, in Pantheon, Marcus Maroney calls on the players to use double bass bows on various instruments, which create a wonderful ethereal sound.

Q: From your perspective as director of an award-winning percussion ensemble, what is unique about this group?

A: While percussion ensembles such as ours exist at universities throughout the country, our group is singular in commissioning some of our country's most notable composers to create new works expressly for our group. The nature of these works is also unique: I have strived for many years to encourage works that treat the ensemble as a true orchestra capable of conveying music that emphasizes a traditional "symphonic" mindset.

Q: When did you start in percussion and what drew you to this area of music?

A: I have been in percussion since I was in junior high. Perhaps I was first drawn to it because both my older brothers had played drums, although only I really did anything with it. Percussion instruments are some of our oldest instruments, and I think there is something visceral and almost primal about playing them – the physicality, the choreography...playing these instruments speaks to my core!

Musiqa: Thank you, Blake, for this great overview of the concert.

Musiqa's Artistic Director Anthony Brandt on Deep Sky Objects

Anthony Brandt, Musiqa's Artistic Director, took the time to answer some questions about Musiqa's season opening concert, Deep Sky Objects, which will take place at the Hobby Center on September 22.

Could you please explain the theme of the concert Deep Sky Objects and the artistic elements of music, poetry and dance it weaves together?

In Deep Sky Objects, as in all Musiqa concerts, contemporary artforms mix. Our guest composer Sebastian Currier, author Sarah Manguso and choreographer Tina Bohnstedt and the dancers of Houston Ballet II are coming together with us to create a truly special evening highlighted by exceptional, world-class performances.

Musiqa received a grant to commission the musical work Deep Sky Objects* as a world premiere. Why did Musiqa select Sebastian Currier to create the commission?

Several years ago, Musiqa performed Sebastian’s Verge on one of our Downtown Series concerts. As our Artistic Board weighed whom we wanted to approach for a commission, we were all drawn to Sebastian’s electrifying writing.

Sebastian is an internationally acclaimed composer. What are some of his accomplishments in the world of music?

There isn’t a Nobel Prize in Music Composition but the closest thing is the Grawemeyer Award, an annual international award. Sebastian won the Grawemeyer in 2007, joining a very elite group of composers. His work has been championed by the violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter and the Berlin Philharmonic. Sebastian has written for some of the world’s great ensembles; we’re thrilled he’s written a piece for us.

About Sebastian's collaboration with Sarah Manguso for the libretto; have they worked together before?

Sebastian and Sarah are longtime friends but this work represents their first collaboration. They so much enjoyed working together on this piece that they collaborated again on Sleepers and Dreamers, a work for orchestra and chorus that was recently premiered to great acclaim in Chicago.

A noted author and a poet, Sarah wrote the lyrics for Deep Sky Objects as a tale of intergalactic romance. Can you tell us a little about the story?

After 35 years of traveling through space, Voyager 1 is about to become the first human-made object to leave our solar system. The distance it has traveled is unimaginable—it will take it another 10,000 years to reach the nearest star. Sarah’s poetry movingly captures the immensity of these distances and the questions we all ask when we contemplate it. The libretto begins close to Earth—with satellite, clouds and storm—and gradually moves further and further away, eventually reaching out to the far corners of space.

What is it about the instrumentation and vocals of Deep Sky Objects that make it unique?

To suggest a dialogue between the earthly and the celestial, Sebastian had the interesting idea of juxtaposing soprano voice and piano quintet—an ensemble rooted in the classical tradition—with electronic samples inspired by 1950s science fiction soundtracks. The synchronization of live and electronic is quite intricate and the blends it creates very unique.

The second world premiere on the concert is a ballet commissioned from the Houston Ballet. Ballet master Tina Bohnstedt is choreographing the dance to two works by Sebastian Currier. What will the audience be able to expect?

The dance will be brilliant, and we have the special privilege of having the composer present at the premiere. Tina has chosen two movements from Sebastian’s Quartetset for string quartet: Divided and Scatter-brained. The Houston Ballet’s Nathan Haworth is doing the lighting.

The concert also features Secret Alchemy by Musiqa composer Pierre Jalbert and works by contemporary composer Lera Auerbach. How do these works reflect the theme of the concert?

Musiqa’s Pierre Jalbert has written a substantial body of chamber music: he received the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's prestigious Stoeger Prize for Chamber Music several years ago, among his many other awards. His Secret Alchemy likens the creative process to the methods of a medieval chemist. Lera Auerbach is a dynamic, Russian-born composer whose music has been performed by the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra and numerous ensembles worldwide. Selections from her fiery and evocative violin and piano preludes open the concert.

Thank you, Tony, for this insightful commentary on Musiqa's upcoming concert.

*This commission has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.