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Everything is Bigger in Texas: San Antonio’s SOLI Chamber Ensemble Matches High Ambition with Huge Results

There were two wonderful opportunities over the past month for chamber music fans in Texas to experience fantastic performances of master works by leading contemporary American composers. The pair of concerts were on May 8 and 9 in San Antonio, and were presented by veteran new music group SOLI Chamber Ensemble. SOLI is a contemporary music quartet based in San Antonio, Texas, and is comprised of clarinetist Stephanie Key, violinist Ertan Torgul, cellist David Mollenauer, and pianist Carolyn True. They presented a youthful, energetic, and bold program of five works on May 8 at Trinity University’s Ruth Taylor Recital Hall. The program was repeated the following night at the McNay Art Museum, in the Leeper Auditorium. Of the five works performed over the two evenings, two pieces were premiere performances of specific arrangements, and one was a world premiere of a brand new collaborative work by composer Steven Mackey and video artist Mark DeChiazza.

SOLI Chamber Ensemble

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Asphalt Orchestra at the Met Museum

To celebrate the renovation of the Metropolitan Museum’s New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts, Asphalt Orchestra—”Not your mother’s marching band” (The Philadelphia Inquirer)—performed in the American Wing’s Charles Engelhard Court.

The performance featured a world premiere arrangement by Ben Holmes of the Hymns Cavalry by Daniel Read and Sons of Sorrow by William Hauser from the distinctly American shape note singing tradition, inspired by field recordings from the 1940s-1960s; Carlton by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, a work commissioned by Bang on a Can for the Asphalt Orchestra; an arrangement by Stephanie Richards of the Laneville-Johnson Union Brass Band’s Wild About My Daddy; and an arrangement by Peter Hess of Frank Zappa’s Zomby Woof.

The program was choreographed specifically for the Engelhard Court by Mark DeChiazza and Susan Marshall (note that this edited video does not fully reflect the choreography).

■ Asphalt Orchestra http://www.asphaltorchestra.com

■ Bang on a Can http://www.bangonacan.org

■ Metropolitan Museum http://www.metmuseum.org