Nova Linea Musica (NLM) has a mission as an incubator for music and for giving a platform to those who bring that music to the world. Wednesday, March 12, was an evening of extraordinary talent playing world-premiere commissions and compositions called Letters from Home. Performers included Black Oak Ensemble, a string trio led by NLM Artistic Director Desirée Ruhstrat on violin. Also performing was the saxophone quartet ~Nois.
Violist Doyle Armbrust hosted the pre-concert conversation and is also the founder of the Society of Disobedient Listeners, a group of people who attend NLM concerts and are primed to hear the music in a new way and then spread the gospel of the avant-garde brewing in Chicago. Armbrust opened the conversation with the themes of a leap of faith and taking chances to describe the composers and musicians for that evening.
Composer Stacy Garrop was on the panel to discuss her leap of faith from a tenured professor at Roosevelt University to a full-time composer. Armbrust mentioned opportunity cost, which is: What opportunities are you sacrificing to do what is in front of you or playing it safe? Once she left her tenured job, Garrop's composing bloomed. Grants were given, and commissions were ordered. It was almost overwhelming, but there was also demand for Garrop's talent and her way of inserting the unexpected into a composition, such as strings and saxophones.
That fearlessness resulted in a lovely piece based on a Hungarian-Romani folk song: "Jarba Mare Jarba." It is about people estranged from their homeland and longing to be there no matter what awaits them. The world is now rife with people longing for a homeland or a time when home was the anchor, no matter how bad things were.
I was curious to see how two seemingly disparate sounds could balance, but the Black Oak Ensemble and ~Nois played a gorgeous and emotionally moving piece. Saxophones are reed instruments that sound as delicate as an oboe or as rough as a sizzling Charlie Parker bebop adventure. On the other hand, we are geared to hear strings in traditional compositions, which are beautiful, but this was no mothballs and lorgnettes chamber concert. The music and the players were outstanding.
Black Oak Ensemble played a world premiere commission from British-Belizean composer Errolyn Waller titled "Making Hay." The other commission and premiere was from Conrad Tao, who joined the panel to discuss his project and how it came from a place of working out anger, "A Series of Interdependencies" for violin, viola, and cello was written in 2016. Violist Aurelien Pederzoli joined the panel to discuss his journey to playing the viola and the adventure in learning to transpose the music into a clef that he could understand. Pederzoli was given a few days to learn it and transposed a complex piece on the score paper with notations and symbols.
~Nois played the works of contemporary new music composers, all well-known in music circles. "Shakespeare's Jesters for Saxophone Quartet" by Augusta Read Thomas opened the set. All of the compositions are related to emotions, and, as Garrop mentioned, changing the way we hear music. Shelly Washington's "Eternal Present: 1 Now" was zen, and tenor sax player Julian Velasco mentioned ecclesiastical as a descriptive for some of the pieces.
Composer Christian Quiñones' "High Tide" was a synesthetic ride of being drawn into a current. I could visualize the ocean in Quiñones, native Puerto Rico. I remember seeing my feet in the water, which doesn't happen in Lake Michigan. I visualized people body surfing on the waves and sliding onto the shores of Luquillo Beach.
Velasco spoke of being a Mexican American and the music of Arturo Márquez. Nois played "Danzón No. 5: Portales de Madrugada" which translates as Port of the Sunrise or Dawn. Nostalgia and longing come to all sentient beings. NLM has created a space to encourage those who take that leap of faith and is a point of pride for Chicago as the cradle for new music.
NLM has musicians in residence who imbue the notes with their energy. The physicality of playing with passion involves tapping on the body of the instruments combining percussion and bowing, or the tongue slap adding percussion to a woodwind. NLM Executive Director Michelle Mohammadi ensures focuses on diversity. It is important to reflect the music, language, and traditions of Chicago. Visit their website https://www.novalineamusica.org
Nova Linea Musica plays at Guaneri Hall, 11 East Adams in Chicago's Loop Neighborhood. You can find the music calendar and more information on the musicians and composers that play at Guarneri.
The Black Oak Ensemble are Desirée Ruhstrat, violin, Aurelien Pederzoli, viola, and David Cunliffe, cello.
~Nois Quartet: Julian Velasco, Soprano saxophone; Charlie Chadwell, alto saxophone; Jordan Lullof, tenor saxophone; and Janos Csonos, baritone saxophone.