Local master programmer Phil Collins once again unleashed an evening of potent surprises. Placing the evening entirely in the expert hands of the Marea Ensemble, Collins peeled back newer edges of new music for a spellbound audience at Peace United Church last week. Crafting such tight sonic stanzas that it seemed they were breathing as one, Shannon D’Antonio and Samantha Bounkerua on violin, Rebecca Dulatre-Corbin on viola and Kristin Garbeff on cello comprise the players of this adventurous group.
They play again Saturday night (info at bottom of the story).
The New Music Works’ 2025-26 season opener began with a miniature masterwork by favorite Osvaldo Golijov, whose setting of Emily Dickinson’s How Slow the Wind set the encantatory tone for the program. White Man Sleeps, by cultural fusion superstar Irish–South African Kevin Volans, was originally commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and showed off Marea’s razor-edged, split-second dynamics. Musically and conceptually, it might well have been the highlight of the entire program.
The Volans tour de force led to three searing abstractions based on poetry by Judith Wright. Each was approached with a sense of poignant apocalypse by Schulman, whose range continues to amaze. After a chilling excerpt from The Juliet Letters by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet, and a darkly folkloric blaze from MacArthur Genius grantee Rhiannon Giddens, came a chamber suite by precocious sound explorer Alex Temple, whose autobiographical poetry might have been written for Schulman’s voice.
Temple, currently teaching composition at Arizona State University, is one of the emerging sound artists reshaping song and chamber orchestration. The evening’s final piece, Behind the Wallpaper, treated the audience to Temple’s micro-opera of ten poetry texts, her own, set to quick-change artistry—oft abstract, oft deliciously melodic—delivered by Lori Schulman’s persuasive interpretations, punctuated by very effective samples of ambient electronic soundscapes, and the dazzling performance of the four strings.
The short movements led through a surreal and painful comedy of ordinary life—part Diane Arbus, part Marcel Duchamp, with a topnote of Diane Seuss. The words, uncanny instrumentation and confident vocal patterns had the NMW audience rapt. It was an unforgettable evening of professional performance from five players at the top of their game. The bar has officially been raised for every next performance, by every music group in our region. Kudos to the Marea Ensemble, and to that wily fox of programming, Phil Collins.
Santa Cruz’s talented young musicians will perform at Youth Symphony Fall 2025 Concert, with Nathaniel Berman at the podium. The first and fourth movements of Dvořák’s New World Symphony, Jules Massenet’s Meditation from Thaïs, Stephen Schwartz highlights from Wicked, and Jean Sibelius’ Karelia Overture make up this appealing program, to be performed in the UCSC Music Center Recital Hall. Impeccable acoustics! The Nov. 23 concert begins at 3pm; tickets are $20, with discounts for seniors and students—advance purchase recommended.
Multi-genre composer Jon Scoville, one part jazz man, two parts unpredictable, is the shimmering centerpiece of a Futurespective Celebration produced by Tandy Beal & Company featuring a hip spate of local virtuosos (virtuosi, for the cognoscenti). Interpreting Scoville’s appealing body of work will be guitarist Dave McNab, frequent Tandy Beal musical director Jeffrey Gaeto, pianist Art Khu, percussionists Steve Robertson and Dillon Vado, bassist Michael Wilcox, and vibraphonist Mark Pascucci-Clifford who will all swing and wail their way through some of Scoville’s greatest hits. Friday, November 14, 6pm, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, 320 Cedar St., SC kuumbwajazz.org
The Marea Ensemble will perform The Juliet Letters, a suite of musical poetry composed by Elvis Costello and the Brodsky Quartet, with charismatic vocals by Lori Schulman intwining the strings, on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 7pm at the Mariposa Coffee Bar, 1010 Pacific Ave. SC. Procure tickets in advance for $30 or take your chances at the door.
