Origin Stories

Folk fusions of culture and migration

Even as borders are built and broken, music has the power to connect cultures. “Origin Stories” explores the mingling of cultures in a program featuring the premiere of Anthony Brandt’s “Songs from the Source: Nine African Folk Songs,” for soprano and ensemble. Musiqa travels to Cuba as Tania León retraces her Havana roots in “A la par,” and to the north, in Pierre Jalbert’s “Crossings,” which imagines the cultural and emotional upheaval his French-Canadian ancestors faced as they migrated to the U.S. Plus, the program includes a reading of new work by acclaimed Houston poet Sarah Cortez.

7:00pm – Pre-concert talk
7:30pm – Performance

General Admission: Pay-what-you-wish

ON THE PROGRAM

Anthony Brandt: Songs from the Source: Nine African Folk Songs, for soprano and ensemble – world premiere Pierre Jalbert: Crossings for chamber ensemble Tania León: A la par for piano and percussion Barbara White: Learning to See for chamber ensemble

ARTISTS

Jerry Hou, conductor

with
Karol Bennett, soprano
Wesley Ducote, piano
Amanda Galick, flute
Barrett Sills, cello
Michael Webster, clarinet
Blake Wilkins, percussion
Melissa Williams, violin

ABOUT SARAH CORTEZ

Sarah Cortez, a Councilor of the Texas Institute of Letters, Fellow of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, and Fellow of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, has poems, essays, book reviews, and short stories anthologized and published in many regional and national journals. Winner of the PEN Texas Literary Award, her debut poetry collection is How to Undress a Cop. Her books have placed as finalists in the Writers’ League of Texas awards, Los Angeles Book Festival Awards, and the PEN Southwest Poetry Awards.

An anthologist of eight volumes, she has won the Southwest Book Award of the Year and the Skipping Stones International Honor Award among others. Her most recent anthology is Vanishing Points: Poems and Photographs of Texas Roadside Memorials combining the stunning photographs of Texas roadside memorials by photographer Dan Streck and poems. This book has already been named a 2016 Southwest Book of the Year, won an International Latino Book Award, and won the prestigious First Place in Editing from the National Federation of Press Women. Ms. Cortez is a recent finalist for Texas poet laureate.