A Clearing — Music in the Garden

SOLI opens its season on the road, carrying seven American works up the I-35 corridor. Each is a signal, and everything depends on who receives it. Some cross great distances: the personal stories in Ethan Wickman’s Relics from the Borderland, passed through generations before reaching him; and one familiar tune, sent to three composers in turn, returns as ebullience, as hope, and as the resolution only dissonance can offer a country still striving toward a more perfect union. Others travel no further than a single listener. Edna Alejandra Longoria follows the marigold scent that guides her abuelo’s spirit home; Jessie Montgomery listens to sadness instead of trying to fix it. And each performance highlights a different work by Elliott Miles McKinley, exploring his thirty years of conversation with SOLI’s musicians.