Moores School of Music

AURA Concert: Amplified

Thursday, April 17, 2025

7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

AURA performs music that is conceptually or physically amplified in collaboration with three members of San Antonio’s Soli Chamber Ensemble: Ertan Torgul (violin), David Mollenauer (cello) and Carolyn True (piano), and guest artists Wen-Hsiu Angela Lai (flute), Yevgeny Dokshansky (clarinet), and Blake Wilkins (vibraphone).

In his 2009 Pulitzer Prize winning “Double Sextet”, Steve Reich composes for two standard contemporary sextets of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and vibraphone. As with much of his earlier music, he pairs like instruments from each sextet to create alluring and ever-expanding patterns. Reich asks for the ensemble to be amplified to ensure an appropriate balance between the sextets and to support the strings and winds against the extremely active keyboard parts.

The growth and development of a tsunami is depicted in Luke Brinkley’s “Surge,” which incorporates unusual sound effects, such as superballs being dragged along the inside of the piano, and controlled improvisation to create elaborate textures. As the winner of the 2023 University of Houston Sarofim Composition Competition, Luke was commissioned by AURA to write “Surge” specifically for this concert.

Three works on this program are from Soli Chamber Ensemble’s 30 x 30 x 30 project, which celebrates Soli’s 30th anniversary with a selection of thirty new compositions by thirty early career composers. Dianna Link’s “Blaze” seeks to represent rapidly expanding Colorado forest fires, but also the rebirth that emerges from the ashes. A sonic depiction of the many different color shades that exist with stained glass is the focus of Kevin Day’s “Glasshouse”, specifically regarding his favorite color, blue. Conner Simmons “everywhere all soaring” is inspired by a James Joyce quote, which is stretched out so that each syllable can be explored for its sonic possibilities.

Program

DOUBLE SEXTET (2007) – Steve Reich (b.1936) - 2009 Pulitzer Prize
2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 2 violins, 2 cellos, 2 pianos & 2 vibraphones

SURGE (2025) – Luke Brinkley (b.2001) - World Premiere
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano & percussion

GLASSHOUSE (2021) – Kevin Day (b. 1996)
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano & vibraphone

BLAZE (2021) – Dianna Link (b.1999)
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano & percussion

EVERYWHERE ALL SOARING (2024) – Conner Simmons (b. 1998)
soprano, 2 violins, 2 cellos, electric guitar & fixed media