For immediate release: July 31, 2021
Kinetic Announces 2021-2022 Houston Concert Season: “A Season of Premieres”
Houston, TX — Houston’s premier conductorless ensemble, Kinetic, announces its seventh concert season, to be performed live and in person for audiences in Houston.
Titled A Season of Premieres, the 2021-2022 season centers around four concerts, and is the ensemble’s most programmatically ambitious season to date, with the premiere of three new works by acclaimed composers of our time and several noteworthy collaborations. The season begins with Two Streams on Friday September 10,, 2021, at Houston First Baptist Church — a joint season opener with Grammy award-winning Houston Chamber Choir. Together, the choir and ensemble will perform a new, full-length cantata by American composer Daniel Knaggs alongside internationally renowned mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, as well as tenor Christopher Bozeka, soprano Caitlin Aloia, and baritone Mark Diamond. Kinetic previously collaborated with Mr. Bozeka in 2018 for the performance of Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings, and Daniel Knaggs’ Two Columns at Sea was the first piece that Kinetic commissioned and premiered during its first season.
On Sunday, October 17, 2021 Kinetic will team up with Tennessee-based percussionist Brady Spitz for Sound & Color, featuring the premiere of South African composer Peter Klatzow’s The World of Joan Miro for string quartet and marimba. Mr. Spitz, Kinetic, artistic director Natalie Lin Douglas led a consortium of 14 musicians and ensembles across the United States for the commission of this work, which will receive subsequent performances by the various consortium members following its October premiere.
Kinetic will return to Montrose’s Archway Gallery on Sunday, February 20, 2022 for Timeless Stables, an evening combining art, literature, and music celebrating women artists. Curated by Kinetic cellist Bree Ahern, the event name quotes from a line of poetry by Mary Oliver, and the evening will include spoken poetry intertwined with chamber music, to take place in Gallery artist Maryam Lavaf’s featured exhibit.
The season closes on Sunday May 22 at Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston with Concerto Reimagined, a program that challenges the conventional expectations of the centuries-old classical genre. Kinetic will premiere a new work by Rice University Professor of Composition and Artistic Director of Musiqa, Anthony Brandt, in which each movement showcases a different Kinetic musician as the featured “concerto soloist.” This will be paired with the rarely performed Concerto for Strings by the Hungarian-American composer Miklós Rózsa, who is best known for his twentieth century Hollywood film scores.
After more than a year of online and recorded events, Kinetic’s 2021-2022 season signals a return towards greater normalcy for an ensemble that thrives on in-person interaction with audiences. “There is nothing like experiencing a Kinetic performance in the live setting,” states Kinetic artistic director, Natalie Lin Douglas, who is also an Assistant Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Music and Theater Arts section. “Having collectively experienced the isolating effects of the pandemic, our musicians —more than ever — have such eagerness to come together make meaningful, communicative music with each other in the ensemble setting. We can’t wait to see the Houston performing arts scene return to vibrant place in the community, and are excited that Kinetic’s 2021-2022 season will be part of this rebuilding.”
Founded in 2015, Kinetic is an ensemble of 16 young professional musicians committed to amplifying diverse, under-represented, and newly composed classical music to communities in and beyond the Houston area, through flexible chamber and orchestra ensemble performances. Since its inception, Kinetic has been gaining increasing recognition for its distinct, “conductorless” style of performing and meaningfully curated musical programs. Arts+Culture Texas Magazine praised Kinetic for its “thoughtful, incisive programming” and “visually arresting… brilliantly executed performances,” and a concert from its 5th season was described on Houston Matters as “one of the best performances I have ever seen.” An energizing contribution to Houston’s cultural landscape, Kinetic was coined by Houston Public Media as “Houston’s Indie, Conductorless Orchestra” that has “found its niche in Houston’s classical music scene.”
For more information about Kinetic, please visit: www.kineticensemble.org.