EnsembleNewSRQ's NIGHT AND DAY to Feature World Premiere of a Commissioned Work and More

ensembleNEWSRQ (enSRQ), the innovative chamber music ensemble, will continue its eighth season with “Night and Day,” a program featuring five works, including a world premiere of Scott Lee's “Karst,” a work written for artistic directors Samantha Bennett and George Nickson. The concert will also feature Molly Heron's “Ebb Tide” (2018); Sebastian Currier's “Night Time” (1998); Einojuhani Rautavaara's “Unknown Heavens” (1997); and Samuel Adams' “Sun Dial” (2021).

The concert is Monday, January 22, 7:30 p.m., at First Congregational Church, 1031 S. Euclid Ave., Sarasota. Single tickets are $25. For more information on ticket packages and single tickets, including student ticket pricing, click the button below.

Violinist Samantha Bennett and percussionist George Nickson are the group's founders and co-artistic directors.

"A program in contrasts starts off 2024 with works for strings, vibraphone and other resonant metals creating the sound world to tie it all together,” says Nickson. “We are particularly excited to be able to perform so many different premieres in a single program like this. One world premiere and commissioned work that speaks to the Florida environmental situation and four other Florida premieres!"

Bennett says she is “particularly excited to showcase our fantastic musicians, including star harpist Emily Levin, principal harpist of the Dallas Symphony. We are excited to continue the exploration of Sebastian Currier's work, his virtuosic duo for harp and violin ‘Night Time.' You may remember our April 2022 performance of Sebastian's excellent work inspired by Virginia Woolf's eponymous novel ‘The Waves,' which we co-commissioned featuring Lucy Fitz-Gibbon. A great concert this month, not to be missed!"

EnSRQ musicians performing in this concert include: Samantha Bennett and Jennifer Best Takeda, violins; George Nickson, percussion; Stephanie Block, viola; Natalie Helm and Jamie Clark, cello; John Miller, bass; Hannah Sun Ripert, piano; and Emily Levin, harp.

Composer Bios

Scott Lee:  Praised as “colorful” and “engaging” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Scott Lee's music often takes inspiration from popular genres, exploring odd-meter grooves and interlocking hockets while featuring pointillistic orchestration and extended performance techniques. He marries the traditional intricacy of classical form with the more body-centered and visceral language of popular music, crafting compositions that are both “rigorously contemporary and fully accessible” (AllMusic). The Berkshire Edge described the world premiere of his “Slack Tide,” commissioned by the Tanglewood Music Center, as having “moments both of calm and maximum tension...we've never heard anything like it.” Currently serving as the Bozeman Symphony's first-ever Composer-in-Residence, Lee has worked with leading orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Symphony in C as well as chamber groups such as the JACK Quartet, yMusic, the Da Capo Chamber Players, and pop artist Ben Folds.

Einojuhani Rautavaara: Rautavaara (1928-2016) was born in Helsinki and studied with Merikanto at the Helsinki Academy (1948-52), with Persichetti at the Juilliard School in New York (1955-56), and with Sessions and Copland at Tanglewood (1955). He first came to international attention in 1955 when the neo-classical “A Requiem in Our Time” for brass and percussion won the Thor Johnson Composer's Competition in Cincinnati. He studied serialism and soon integrated 12-note techniques, without displacing his essential Romanticism. In the late 1960s Rautavaara distanced himself from serialism and his mystical character came more to the fore in music of rich color and sweeping melodic profile, at once accessible and evocative. His operas have often explored issues of creativity and madness, such as “Vincent” (1986-87), “Aleksis Kivi” (1995-96) and “Rasputin” (2001-03). Works by Rautavaara over his final decade included the orchestral work, “Tapestry of Life” (2007), the concertos “Incantations” for percussionist Colin Currie (2008), “Towards the Horizon” for cellist Truls Mork (2008-09), and “Summer Thoughts” (2008) toured by violinist Midori.

Molly Herron: Molly Herron (b. 1978) “thinks deeply about motion, energy, and the physics of sound” (NPR). Whether writing for baroque strings, flowerpots, or newly designed instruments, her work achieves “a wonderful consideration of counterpoint and sound in time” (Seen and Heard International). Herron's work has been featured on the Bang on a Can Marathon, MATA festival, American Composers Orchestra's SONiC Festival, Fast Forward Austin, Berlin Film Festival, and Sundance Film Festival. She has written for The Orchestra of St. Luke's, Argus Quartet, Sō Percussion, Contemporaneous, and the String Orchestra of Brooklyn among many others. Her work has been supported by the DeGaetano Composers Institute, MATA, The New York Foundation for the Arts, The Brooklyn Arts Council, the Copland Fund, Avaloch Farm New Music, and Exploring the Metropolis. Herron received a Masters of Music degree from The Steinhardt School at New York University and a Ph.D from Princeton University. She is an Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at Vanderbilt University.

Sebastian Currier: (b. 1959) Heralded as "music with a distinctive voice" by the New York Times and as "lyrical, colorful, firmly rooted in tradition, but absolutely new" by the Washington Post, Sebastian Currier's music has been presented at major venues worldwide by acclaimed artists and orchestras. With works spanning across solo, chamber and orchestral genres, Currier's works have been performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Kronos Quartet. “Waves,” Currier's new work for soprano, chamber ensemble, video and electronics, based on Virginia Woolf's “The Waves,” was premiered by the Network for New Music in Philadelphia in February 2022, then brought to Sarasota by ensemblenewSRQ in April 2022. Currier has received many prestigious awards including the Grawemeyer Award (for the chamber piece Static), Berlin Prize, Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has held residencies at the Institute for Advanced Studies, as well as the MacDowell and Yaddo colonies. Sebastian Currier is published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Samuel Adams: Samuel Adams (b. 1985) is an American composer whose music weaves acoustic and digital sound into “mesmerizing” (New York Times) orchestrations. Sought after by orchestras and contemporary ensemble alike, he has received commissions from a broad range of organizations and has collaborated with performers and conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Robertson, MTT, violinists Anthony Marwood, Jennifer Koh, Karen Gomyo, and pianists Emanuel Ax, Sarah Cahill, David Fung, and Joyce Yang. The 2023-24 features several world premieres, including “Eden Interstates,” a work for organ and ensemble commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic for organist James McVinnie. Adams was Mead Composer In Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2015 to 2018 and in the 2021-22 season was the Composer in Residence with Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow and lives and works in Seattle, WA.

The 2023-2024 Season Continues with:

Night and Day: January 22, 7:30 p.m. enSRQ premieres Scott Lee's “Karst,” written for Artistic Directors Samantha Bennett and George Nickson, the first of this season's two commissions. Devoted to the joyous interplay of dynamic contrasts, “Night and Day” includes string, harp and percussion pieces from Molly Herron, Sebastian Currier, Einojuhaari Rautavaara, and Sam Adams. First Congregational Church, 1031 S. Euclid Ave., Sarasota. 

You Are Free: March 25, 7:30 p.m. Raven Chacon's Pulitzer Prize-winning “Voiceless Mass” anchors this program of powerful works for mixed instrumentation. The concert also presents the world premiere and enSRQ commission of a work by Kyle Rivera, which was written for enSRQ artists. Rivera is an up-and-coming composer, who is currently a student at Yale School of Music. The program also incudes works by Ania Vu, Shawn Okpebholo and Sarah Kirkland Snider. First Congregational Church, 1031 S. Euclid Ave., Sarasota. 

Angelica Negron: A World Premiere: April 15 at sunset. enSRQ is the presenting partner for the world premiere of a new work by Angélica Negrón, the winner of the 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize, presented by the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Angélica Negrón's newest, site-specific work for a unique ensemble of low strings, harps, percussion and electronics. Hermitage Artist Retreat, 6630 Manasota Key Road, Englewood.

The Ringling's Art of Performance Series presents: Parisian Refraction: May 9-10, 7:30 p.m.; May 11, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Led by Samantha Bennet and George Nickson, this adventurous four-part series explores works and composers that either embody Paris, have been commissioned by groups in the city, or are deeply inspired or affected by the French capital. Performances showcase and highlight both the similarities and differences of musicians who have been changed by the City of Light. Performers include Maurice Cohn, conductor (assistant conductor, Dallas Symphony and music director, West Virginia Symphony); Lucy Fitz Gibbon, soprano; Conor Hanick, Han Chen and Ryan McCullough, pianos; and Mike Truesdell on percussion. Tickets for “Parisian Refraction” can be purchased at Ringling.org or by calling 941-360-7399. Single tickets for “Parisian Reflection” go on sale September 1.
 

About ensembleNEWSRQ:

Founded in 2015 by violinist Samantha Bennett and percussionist George Nickson, ensembleNEWSRQ (enSRQ) is a versatile chamber music ensemble in Sarasota, FL, dedicated to playing and advocating for the music of contemporary composers. Through thoughtfully curated and innovative programs, enSRQ demonstrates how contemporary music is a reflection of our world and cultural experience. The ensemble strives to manifest the creativity of the current generation and inspire audiences to participate in musical culture in a profound way.

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