ensembleNEWSRQ Will Perform 'Visions & Miracles' Concert in January

Chamber music ensemble ensembleNEWSRQ will continue its ninth season with "Visions & Miracles," a concert featuring five works for strings, flute, and clarinet by Han Lash, Dai Wei, Gabriela Lena Frank, as well as two composers—Anna Clyne and Christopher Theofanidis—who have received residencies from The Hermitage Artist Retreat. In their own way, each of these composers speak to the transient beauty of the things we cannot see. The concert is Monday, January 13, 7:30 p.m., at First Congregational Church, 1031 S. Euclid Ave., Sarasota. A post-concert reception will follow, offering attendees the chance to meet the guest artists. Single tickets are $30. 

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

“We’re starting off 2025 with a (mostly) string quartet program, grounding us as we go forward with the remaining four programs of the season,” says Nickson. “The composers featured in this concert build upon the classical tradition, transforming it to speak to modern experiences and concepts. In particular, Gabriela Lena Frank’s ‘Milagros’ is an incredible work, inspired by her time in her mother’s home country of Peru. Usually a religious and marvelous occurrence, a milagro here refers to the remarkable sights and sounds of daily life, both past and present, that she experiences on her frequent travels home.”

“‘Visions & Miracles’ opens with a contemplative solo violin piece by Anna Clyne, one of my favorite new works for the repertoire,” says Bennett. “Improvisatory but ultimately inspired by Bach’s solo violin partitas, Clyne wrote the work after her mother passed away and she stumbled upon a violin in an antique shop. The piece opens with a recitation of one of her mother’s poems—her voice in effect, speaking to us from the beyond.”