Musiqa announces the first concert of its 2016-17 Downtown Series, Sustained by Breath and Line, October 1 at 7:30 at Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH). The program consists of works for saxophone quartet and percussion and is presented in collaboration with the Houston Ballet Academy and choreographer Oliver Halkowich.
The centerpiece of the concert is Full Circle, a brand-new ballet score by Musiqa artistic director Anthony Brandt. The work is scored for saxophone quartet and has served as the basis for choreography by Oliver Halkowich. Halkowich, a solo dancer at the Houston Ballet for over a decade, has become beloved of Houston audiences in many major productions.
The program opens with Zack Browning’s Funk Assault, a punchy piece that allows the virtuosity of the performers to take center stage. Browning, whose work has been called “speed-demon music,” has worked as composer, conductor, and performer, most notably as trumpeter with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and as co-director of the Atlanta New Music Ensemble.
David Ludwig’s Josquin Microludes takes its inspiration from a musical style several centuries before funk: namely, the work of Renaissance composer Josquin des Prez. Commissioned by the Prism Quartet, one of the leading saxophone quartets of today, the work consists of five miniatures based on the well-known chanson “Mille regretz.” Ludwig refers to this re-composition as a “reworking… into my own new musical sculpture.” He chose to score the work for saxophone quartet in order to maintain the connection with Renaissance choral music, featuring the saxophone quartet as “its own choir of voices, sustained by breath and line.”
The saxophone quartet will also be featured in James Primosch’s Short Stories, a 2003 work which probes the more mellow, lyrical side of the ensemble while still leaving room for kinetic, angular lines. Ludwig, a recipient of grants and honors from the American Academy, the National Academy of the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation, has written works performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, soprano Dawn Upshaw, and Speculum Musicae.
Also on the program is Re-Percussion, a piece for two percussionists by the eminent Danish composer Per Nørgärd. The work, written in 1991 was one of a series of works written in collaboration with the Safri Duo. The piece evokes a sense of echo as musical ideas “reverberate” between the two musicians. Nørgärd’s style has gained an international following due to both its basis in mathematical concepts such as the “infinity series,” in which he serializes various aspects of the music; and his music’s lyricism and approachability.
Finally, Musiqa will present “Tongue and Groove,” a work for saxophone and marimba by composer Robert Paterson. The title is borrowed from carpentry and refers to a snug fit between multiple objects. Paterson writes that the title is also intended to evoke the technique of playing the saxophone, as well as “the rhythmic interaction between the instruments and … how the different lines precisely follow each other.”
On the Program
Anthony Brandt: Full Circle, ballet score for saxophone quartet with choreography by Oliver Halkowich
Zack Browning: Funk Assault for saxophone quartet
David Ludwig: Josquin Microludes for saxophone quartet
Per Nørgärd: Re-percussion for two percussionists
Robert Paterson: Tongue and Groove for saxophone and marimba
James Primosch: Short Stories for saxophone quartet
The Musicians
Dan Gelok, Soprano Saxophone
Seth McAdow, Tenor Saxophone
Mas Sugihara, Alto SaxophoneEvan Withner, Baritone saxophone
Craig Hauschildt, percussion
Jamey Kollar, percussion
Dancers from the Houston Ballet Academy