Through the Eyes and Lens of the Beholder: This concert focused on a composer taking another artist’s work— be it image, music, or poetry—and refashioning it into their own music and voice. Included were the Texas premiere of Jennifer Jolley’s Recomposed Scriabin, a new arrangement for SOLI by San Antonio composer James Scott Balentine, and the world premiere of till our bodies into the night slip by Michael Matthews, a featured artist in FOTOSEPTIEMBRE 2020. Watch the performance of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Fanfare con fuoco here.

Program

Fanfare con fuoco (2002) | Aaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960)
for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Dialoghi (2006) | Steven Stucky (1949 – 2016)
for solo cello

Red (2007) | Elena Ruehr (b. 1963)
for solo violin

till our bodies into the night slip (2005/2020) | Michael Matthews (b. 1950) World Premiere
for clarinet/bass clarinet, cello, and piano

Etude, Op. 8 No. 1 | Aleksandr Scriabin (1871-1915)
for solo piano

Recomposed Scriabin (2017) | Jennifer Jolley (b. 1981) Texas Premiere
for solo piano

Double-Dog Dare (2019) | James Stephenson (b. 1964)
for solo clarinet

Asking a Shadow to Dance (2013/2019) | James Scott Balentine (b. 1947) World Premiere
for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Beethoven Reimagined: In 2012, SOLI Chamber Ensemble commissioned four composers to create a call and response to the revolutionary final movement of Beethoven’s final string quartet. SOLI revisited this fascinating journey in honor of the composer’s 250th birthday in a live online SOLI DIGITAL event. Watch the video here.

This event was dedicated in loving memory of Marjorie Lynn Mollenauer (Jan 28, 1937 – Dec 7, 2020).

Program

Grosse fuge, op. 133 (1826/2011) | Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827) | Brian Bondari (b. 1979)
for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Encounter Beethoven’s Grosse fuge  (2011) | Xi Wang (b. 1978)
for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Groove Parade  (2012) | Doug Balliett  (b. 1983)
for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Romanza-Duettino  (2012) | Dan Welcher (b. 1948)
for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Grosse fuge Fantasy (2012) | Paul Moravec (b. 1957)
for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Open Mic Night IV: SOLI’s 4th season Contemporary Classical Open Mic Night in partnership with Texas Public Radio. Closet crooners, budding impresarios, and avid weekend-warrior performers took the stage for a Livestream event with their favorite contemporary classical work on Sunday, February 28, 2021

Electrified Air: A Digital Event in collaboration with Grammy award-winning electric guitarist D. J. Sparr. This innovative evening fused the sounds of diverse contemporary music spheres – phasing, loops, and funk met rock, flavors of jazz, and contemporary classical harmonies to bring electrifying energy to the ear. Watch the video here.

SOLI’s digital event included the world premieres of three works: Hammer and Nail by Anthony Joseph Lanman, A Singing Planet by Olivia Kieffer, and the SOLI commissioned work A Bell Outside a Bell Inside a Bell by D. J. Sparr. Click here to watch a special animated graphical score of Hammer and Nail!

A special “thank you” to St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Machine Says Yes, and Zinc Media Pro for their incredible support and creative energy on this project! 

Program

Vim-Hocket, Calm (1997) | D. J. Sparr (b. 1975)
for electric violin, and electric guitar

Hammer and Nail (2016) | Anthony Joseph Lanman (b. 1979) World Premiere
for piano and electric guitar

movements from Little Black Book (2012) | Armando Bayolo (b. 1973)
for electric guitar

Pepto-Bismol Pink (2016) | Jay Mobley (b. 1988)
for clarinet and electric guitar

A Bell Outside a Bell Inside a Bell (2019-2020) | D. J. Sparr World Premiere
for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

movements from A Singing Planet (2013) | Olivia Kieffer (b. 1980) World Premiere
for electric guitar

Troica (1998) | Marc Mellits (b. 1966)
for violin, electric guitar, and piano

Our Friend Adam (2007/2020) | Ryan Brown (b. 1979)
for bass clarinet, violin, electric guitar, cello, and piano

For the End of Time: A New Beginning – a live broadcast from the Malú and Carlos Alvarez Theater at Texas Public Radio’s new studio headquarters. Listeners were able to tune in to KPAC 88.3 FM or online at tpr.org to hear the concert live on Sunday May 16. 

Highlights:

• In Spring 2020, Pulitzer prize and Grammy-award winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis dedicated a new piano piece, Elegy (for those we lost), “to the families of loved ones who passed away from the coronavirus and to the doctors, nurses, and other health-care professionals who worked so tirelessly to save those loved ones.” SOLI was honored to present the violin and piano arrangement of Elegy. Click here to read more about this stirring work.
• Olivier Messian wrote Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano while imprisoned during World War II. SOLI’s broadcast performance commemorated the 80^th anniversary of its premiere in 1941 in Stalag VIII-A, a prisoner-of-war camp in Görlitz, Germany (now Zgorzelec, Poland).