MUSIQA Presents LOOKING BACK IN TIME at the Match

Musiqa, two-time winner of the Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, presents Looking Back in Time, the second installment in its 2017-18 Music+ concert series. The ambitious program consists of three major works by members of Musiqa's artistic board: Karim Al-Zand's Visions from Another World, Anthony Brandt's Maternity, and Pierre Jalbert's Transcendental Windows. All three works will be performed by Houston's newest chamber orchestra, Loop38. The program also features a reading by neuroscientist and bestselling author David Eagleman.

Visions from Another World, by Karim Al-Zand, is a 2008 work for chamber orchestra inspired by illustrations created by the nineteenth-century artist J.J. Grandville. Grandville's 1844 collection of illustrations Un Autre Monde (Another World) explores, in the artist's own words, "transformations, visions, incarnations, ascensions, locomotions, explorations, peregrinations, excursions, metamorphoses, cosmologies, phantasmagories..." The composer selected three of these evocative illustrations and brought them to life, exploring their wild flights of fancy by utilizing the variegated colors of the chamber orchestra.

Pierre Jalbert's effervescent Transcendental Windows was commissioned by David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony in 2000. The work is inspired by the Tiffany windows in First Presbyterian Church in downtown Albany, specifically the window depicting the Sea of Galilee. Each of the nine movements (played without pause) explores a different aspect of these windows, from the swirling colors depicting the water to the "Confetti Glass" depicting an explosion of bright colors.

Anthony Brandt's 2011 work Maternity is set to a libretto by neuroscientist and bestselling author David Eagleman, based on the latter's story "The Founding Mothers," which traces a maternal line back through history all the way to the moment when "gender split into being." Brandt and Eagleman are the co-authors of The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World, recently published by Catapult (US) and Canongate (UK). Maternity was commissioned by River Oaks Chamber Orchestra and features acclaimed soprano and Musiqa resident artist Karol Bennett.
The chamber orchestra Loop38 will make their Musiqa debut with this program. The ensemble made an auspicious entrance into Houston's music scene last season, with a series of performances at MATCH, the Turrell Skyspace, and Rothko Chapel. Conductor Jerry Hou will direct.

The performance of Maternity will be preceded by a reading by Dr. Eagleman. Musiqa's Looking Back in Time Saturday, January 13, 2018 MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main Street Houston, TX 77002 7:30 PM - Performance $20 - $55 Student, senior and military discounts available ON THE PROGRAM: Karim Al-Zand: Visions from Another World for chamber orchestra Anthony Brandt: Maternity for soprano and chamber orchestra Pierre Jalbert: Transcendental Windows for twelve players.

ABOUT MUSIQA
Musiqa is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. Founded in 2002 and led by four composers, Musiqa aims to enrich and inspire the community through programs that integrate contemporary music with other modern art forms. Musiqa celebrates modern creative arts through interdisciplinary concerts that highlight modern music and its connections to literature, film, dance, art, and more. With its innovative collaborations and educational programming, Musiqa strives to make modern repertoire accessible and vital to audiences of all ages and musical backgrounds.

Major support for Musiqa is provided by Houston Endowment, Inc., the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance, The National Endowment for the Arts, the Powell Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Texas Commission on the Arts, R. Stan and Reinnette Marek, the Cullen Trust for the Performing Arts, the Brown Foundation, the Albert and Ethel Herzstein Charitable Foundation, Mid-America Arts Alliance and the Kinder Morgan Foundation.