Brooklyn-based Unheard-of Ensemble will host its Collaborative Composition Initiative, a workshop for emerging composers, in San Antonio again this year. The quartet will also perform compositions by CCI participants in a series of free concerts throughout the city.
The first of these performances takes place Tuesday, June 4, at the Ruby City Sculpture Garden. Other venues include Mission San José, Agarita Loft, Blue Star Arts Complex and Evergreen Garden Center.
Unheard-of Ensemble pianist and co-founder Daniel Anastasio is a San Antonio native who teaches at San Antonio College and is a member of the Agarita Chamber Players. He and clarinetist Ford Fourqurean formed Unheard-of Ensemble 10 years ago, later adding Brazilian violinist Matheus Souza and Mexican-Croatian cellist and vocalist Iva Casian-Lakoš in 2018.
Originally a commissioning project, the CCI was born soon after, providing immersive, in-person summer workshops and nontraditional performance opportunities for emerging and seasoned composers alike. This year’s participants are Zachary Bell, Jared Davis, Ancel Neeley, Joohyun Parc, Brandon Kaplan, Zachary Ritter and Hannah Cai Sobel.
Fellows were notified in February and have been working toward completing their projects ever since. “Composers write during the winter and spring. We then have an intensive week of rehearsals, recording sessions and lectures from guest faculty members,” said Fourqurean.
CCI participants are also involved in the production of local events during the week of workshops.
The first performance at Ruby City features two Texas premieres: Helix by composer NNUX accompanied by video artist Martha Maya, and Vicki Nguyen’s Ginger Flavored Bubblegum. Helix attempts to simulate a spiral, winding from precolonial times into the contemporary, contemplating the inheritance of collective trauma, while Nguyen’s work addresses systemic violence against Asian Americans, specifically the murders of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Christina Yi.
A shared work between CCI participants, guest performers and Agarita follows on June 6, at Agarita’s new space on South Alamo. Then Friday, June 7, at the UTSA Arts Cube at Blue Star Arts Complex, Prix de Rome winner Christopher Stark presents Fire Ecologies, an examination of the devastating human impact on delicate ecosystems.
“There are so many people in San Antonio who are willing to collaborate and audiences that are willing to take a chance and listen to something brand new,” said Fourqurean. “The community has been very supportive in the past, and we feel that, like last year, 2024 will be really special to us because of that warmth and openness.”
Saturday, June 8, at Mission San José, German-born composer Reiko Füting presents a rumination on a hymn and composition written during the Thirty Years War through the lens of social theorist Hannah Arendt.
The series culminates with an interactive performance at Evergreen Garden Center featuring a light and sound installation exploring the ecology of San Antonio co-created by fellows and locally based composers Miles Jefferson Friday and Pamela Martinez.
Martinez said she helped plan a field trip for fellows that includes visits to experience Stream at San Pedro Culture Park by Adam Frank and Sonic Passage on the Museum Reach by Bill Fontana, then to make field recordings to serve as inspiration for the short compositions they will present at the Evergreen Garden Center.
“Maybe they will be inspired by a bird song or perhaps just the feeling of being near living waters will be inspiration enough,” she said. “Music is very interconnected. If you play and you write, you find your people all around the country and all around the world. Creative people are always looking for inspiration, and we find it in each other.”
For a full schedule of performances and information on how to reserve free tickets, visit the Unheard-of Ensemble website.
