ensembleNEWSRQ Reveals YOU ARE FREE Program Set For Eighth Season

ensembleNEWSRQ will continue its eighth season with “You Are Free,” a program featuring five works, including Raven Chacon’s 2021 Pulitzer Prize-winning “Voiceless Mass” (This performance marks one of the inaugural presentations of this piece to the public.) The concert also presents the world premiere and enSRQ commission of a work entitled “ZvasAna,” by Kyle Rivera, which was written for enSRQ artists this year. The program also includes works by Ania Vu (“Five in One,” 2018), Shawn Okpebholo (“Distance;” 2016); and Sarah Kirland Snider (“You Are Free,” 2016). The concert is Monday, March 25, 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, visit www.EnSRQ.org. 

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

"Raven Chacon's ‘Voiceless Mass’ is one of the most important new works of the 21st century,” says Bennett. “Chacon is the first Indigenous composer to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music, specifically for this piece. Though 'mass' is referenced in the title, there are no human voices, rather chords and intervals held by strings and winds. Chacon wanted the piece to consider the futility in giving voice to the voiceless, when ceding space is never an option for those in power."

"Chacon's work invites the audience to contemplate the spaces in which we gather, the land upon which these buildings sit, and the history of these spaces. It is a mesmerizing, haunting, and visceral work,” says Nickson.

EnSRQ musicians performing in this concert include: Samantha Bennett and Jennifer Best Takeda, violins; George Nickson, percussion/conductor; Natalie Helm cello; Betsy Hudson Traba, flute; Conor Hanick, piano; Sam Nelson, pipe organ; Jonas Benson, viola; and Marcelina Suchocka and Scott Crawford, percussion.

Get Sarasota Emails & Offers

Get the latest news, discounts & more