PARISIAN REFRACTION Festival presented by DSO, SMU and enSRQ
April 23 – 28, 2024
PARISIAN REFRACTION is a micro-festival of recent masterworks for soloists and ensemble. This four part festival is an exploration of works and composers that embody the City of Light, have been commissioned by groups in Paris, or are deeply inspired and affected by the French capital. PARISIAN REFRACTION showcases and highlights the similarities and global differences of musicians who have been changed by Paris. For more information, visit Parisian Refraction — enSRQ
Programme 1: Soloists and Sinfoniettas | Apr. 23 at 7:30PM
In the festival’s opening program, four unique soloists take turns highlighting the extraordinary sonic capabilities of their instruments in recent works by Unsuk Chin and the late, great, Kaija Saariaho; both of whom hold extensive ties with Paris and French musical life. Soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon shines in bringing to life seven scenes from the fairy tales The Endless Story by Michael Ende and Alice through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Samantha Bennett, violin, leads us into the entrancing world of Saariaho’s Graal Theatre, inspired by the eponymous book of Jacques Roubaud. Finally, Conor Hanick and George Nickson join forces to highlight the surprising breadth and combination of sounds in Chin’s Double Concerto for piano and percussion. Maurice Cohn, DSO assistant conductor, leads all works on this program.
Programme 2: Conor Hanick; Solo Piano Recital | Apr. 24 at 7:30PM
Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old whose “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master.” (New York Times) Join us as Conor performs Otte’s Book of Sounds, “one of the most remarkable creations in contemporary piano music, a work which has lost none of its beauty, innocence and power since it was written”. Essentially contemplative, it “lets sounds be sounds” (John Cage), and gives them room to breathe.
Programme 3: Samantha Bennett and Lucy Fitz Gibbon in Recital | Apr. 25 at 7:30PM
Utilizing forty excerpts of diary entries and writings from Franz Kafka, Kurtag’s Kafka Fragments is a deeply wrought and emotional hour-long journey for violinist and soprano. Drawing inspiration from Kurtag’s meetings in Paris with the art psychologist Marianne Stein, this work covers a vast array and scope of the human experience, at times haunting, tender and vivid. Noted for her “dazzling, virtuoso singing” (Boston Globe), Lucy Fitz Gibbon is a dynamic musician whose repertoire spans the Renaissance to the present and has been a recently featured performer at Marlboro and Tanglewood. Samantha Bennett, hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a violinist “requiring no caveats, full of subtlety and poise,” is both a member of the Dallas Opera violin section and a leading interpreter of contemporary works, having worked extensively with today’s leading composers and as Co-Founder and Artistic Director of ensembleNEWSRQ.
Programme 4: Plucked and Struck | Apr. 28 at 7:30PM
The Parisian Refraction festival culminates in a presentation of two examples of the most ambitious and shattering works of the 20th century. Two titans of musical thought and sonic invention converge on this program, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez: each changed the course of musical history in their own unique way. This program highlights music for instruments that are exclusively plucked and struck; harp, piano and percussion. Emily Levin, Principal Harp of the Dallas Symphony and SMU faculty, leads a spellbinding account of Freude by Stockhausen (both singing and playing harp), while George Nickson, Principal Percussion of the Dallas Symphony and SMU faculty leads Boulez’ trail-blazing tour de force, Sur Incises, for 3 harps, 3 pianists and 3 percussionists. Amongst the most virtuosic and sonically ambitious works ever conceived, Sur Incises proves a fitting end to this festival of deep sonic exploration.
Caruth Auditorium – SMU Meadows School of the Arts
6101 Bishop
Dallas, TX 75205
ensembleNEWSRQ is one of many cultural institutions in the artistically rich community of Sarasota, Florida, but is the only local organization whose mission is exclusively oriented toward commissioning and producing the work of living composers. Since our inception in 2015, we have presented over 200 works, 14 commissions, 10 world premieres, 18 North American premieres, and over 100 Florida premieres from a wide-ranging and ever-increasing demographic of outstanding composers. Our commitment continues in 24/25, not only by presenting such works, but by finding and reaching new audiences and educating the next generation of music enthusiasts and concert goers.
