Musiqa to Bring TIME IN MOTION to The Hobby Center, 3/22

Musiqa, winner of the 2013 Chamber Music America/American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music, presents its spring concert, Time in Motion, at the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall on Saturday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. In collaboration with NobleMotion Dance and Houston Cinema Arts Society, Musiqa's concert features an eclectic program that explores the concept of time in new music and how it integrates with elements of movement in dance and film.

Time in Motion spotlights cutting-edge musical works by several of the most innovative composers of this generation, including Mason Bates, Guillaume Connesson, Marc-André Dalbavie and Marc Mellits, a performance by Houston's groundbreaking modern dance company NobleMotion Dance set to music by Musiqa composer Pierre Jalbert and a screening of the film "Big Bang Big Boom" by Blu, presented by Houston Cinema Arts Society. The works include the mini-symphony "The Life of Birds" by Bates, Connesson's "Techno-Parade," Dalbalvie's "Quatour" and "Spin" by Mellits, and the premiere of NobleMotion Dance's "Harvest," with music by Pierre Jalbert.

The concert's musicians are Leone Buyse, flute; Ingrid Gerling, violin; Tali Morgulis, piano; Ab Sengupta, viola; Julia Sengupta, cello, Kirsten Yon, violin and Michael Webster, clarinet. The NobleMotion Dancers featured are Jesus Acosta, Laine Dornbos, Tristin Ferguson, LaRodney Freeman, Danielle Gonzaba, Rachael Hutto, Shohei Iwahama, Jennifer Mabus, Travis Prokop and Brittany Thetford.

Mason Bates (b. 1977) is an American composer of symphonic music. Distinguished by his innovations in orchestration and large-scale form, Bates is best known for his expansion of the orchestra to include electronics. His music fuses innovative orchestral writing, the rhythms of electronica and techno, and imaginative narrative forms brought to life by cutting-edge sound design.He has worked closely with the San Francisco Symphony and currently holds the position of composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony. Raised in Virginia, Bates graduated from the Columbia University-Juilliard School Exchange Program, where he studied with John Corigliano, David Del Tredici and Samuel Adler. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a Ph.D. in composition in 2008 and was a DJ and techno artist in Oakland. He has worked closely with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and John Adams. In 2010, Bates was commissioned to write for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011. The piece is a mixture of acoustic and electronic elements and features sections for improvisation.

Guillaume Connesson(b. 1970) is a French composer. He studied the piano, music theory, music history and choir conducting at the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt and composition with Marcel Landowski from 1989 to 1995. He studied orchestral conducting at the Conservatoire National de Région de Paris. As a composer, he has been influenced by composers of the early symphonic tradition, modern composers such as Steve Reich and John Adams, movie composers such as Bernard Herrmann and John Williams, as well as the funk style of James Brown. From 2001 to 2003, he was composer-in-residence at the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, for which he wrote the vocal symphony "Liturgies de l'ombre" and a symphonic poem. He is currently composer in association with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. His music has been performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Since 2009, he has been composer-in-residence at the Orchestre de Pau, Pays de Béarn. Connesson teaches orchestration at the Conservatoire National d'Aubervilliers-la Courneuve.

Marc-André Dalbavie (b. 1961) is a French composer. Showing musical talent at an early age, he attended the Conservatoire de Paris where he studied composition with Marius Constant and orchestration with Pierre Boulez. In 1985, he joined the research department of IRCAM where he studied digital synthesis, computer-assisted composition and spectral analysis. In the early 1990s he moved to Berlin. Currently he lives in southern France and teaches orchestration at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. In 1994, he was awarded the Rome Prize as well as one of three Siemens Music prizes. In 1998, the Cleveland Orchestra appointed him the composer-in-residence (a Daniel Lewis Fellow) for two years. In 2004, he was made a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Pierre Jalbert (b. 1967) is a member of Musiqa's Artistic Board and a Professor of Music at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.

Marc Mellits (b. 1966) is an American composer and musician. Born in Baltimore, he studied at the Eastman School of Music, the Yale School of Music from 1989 to 1991, Cornell University from 1991 to 1996 and Tanglewood in 1997. Mellits's music has been performed throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. His music is influenced by minimalist and rock music, and has been identified with the post-minimalist stylistic trend. He often composes for electric guitar and other amplified instruments. In 2004, Mellits received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Award. He has produced several commissioned works, including pieces for the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Bang on a Can All-Stars and Kronos Quartet. Mellits is a founding member of Common Sense Composers' Collective, which focuses on new and alternative ways of collaborating with performance ensembles. Mellits is the artistic director and keyboard player in his ensemble, the Mellits Consort. He lives in Chicago and teaches composition at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

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