NTQ presents Explorations Vol. 5: New Thread @ 10 Years, featuring works by Martin Bresnick, Malaika Paralkar, Noah Meites, Elori Saxl and Om Srivastava.
NTQ presents Explorations Vol. 5: New Thread @ 10 Years
September 16, 2022 @ 7:30pm
Tenri Cultural Institute
43A West 13th Street, New York, NY
Tickets – $10 online and at the door
Program
Martin Bresnick – Mending Time, co-commissioned *
Malaika Paralkar – Haze at the Edge of the Sky
Noah Meites – Fracture Mechanics, world premiere, written for NTQ
Elori Saxl – Private Life
Om Srivastava – KRIYA, world premiere, co-commissioned #
* Co-commissioned by New Thread Quartet in a consortium led by PRISM Quartet with support from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.
# Co-commissioned by New Thread Quartet and Palmetto Quartet
New York’s most adventurous saxophone quartet celebrates 10 years of excellence-driven performance with five boundary-defying new works by American composers. Explorations Vol. 5: New Thread @ 10 Years evokes an expansive range of voices and techniques, including driving unison lines, microtonal harmonies, extended sonic palettes, complex rhythmic interplay and poetic inspirations. Following an 18-month hiatus for Covid-19, New Thread returned to the stage with renewed vigor in Spring 2022, debuting 3 exciting new programs and a new Soprano chair.
The program begins with decorated composer Martin Bresnick’s Mending Time. Co-commissioned by New Thread, Prism, and a consortium of 18 other saxophone quartets, Mending Time is a 4-movement work inspired by Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall,” a poignant work for the current political climate. Malaika Paralkar’s Haze at the Edge of the Sky plays with micro-tunings and decorative sonic effects. A flutist and composer from the Philadelphia area, Paralkar blurs color and key in this short work for saxophones, combining trills, multiphonics, and singing to create textural drones. In Fracture Mechanics, from LA-based composer Noah Meites, cascading unison lines with competing articulation patterns interrupt whirring multiphonic sustains, exposing cracks in the ensemble-as-machine as it drives and ultimately falters, while Elori Saxl’s Private Life explores a deeper drone world using only tenor and baritone saxophones. KRIYA, a New Thread co-commission from composer Om Srivastava, is heavily inspired by rhythms from the North Indian tabla tradition. Sanskrit for “action,” KRIYA refers to a set of practices regarding breath control techniques in yoga, in this case testing the players in passages of lengthy, sweeping lines, and guiding the listener through a wild adventure.
