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For immediate release: May 3, 2023
World Premiere of New Large-Scale Work by Houston Composer and Winner of the Barlow Endowment Commission
Kinetic Ensemble Closes 2022-2023 Season with New Work by Award-Winning Composer Theo Chandler, Featuring Singer-Activist Alexandra Smither and Cleveland Orchestra Bassist Charles Paul
Houston, TX — Houston’s artist-led, artist-curated Kinetic Ensemble reunites three acclaimed artists for its season-closing concert, Beyond the Sanctuary Walls on Friday, May 26, 7:30pm at MATCH, featuring the world premiere of the program’s title work, “Beyond the Sanctuary Walls,” for soprano, double bass, and string orchestra by composer Theo Chandler, written specifically for soloists Alexandra Smither (soprano), Charles Paul (double bass), and Kinetic. Chandler received the prestigious General Commission from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition to create this new work, which was the result of a close collaboration between Chandler, Smither, Paul, and Kinetic’s artistic director, Natalie Lin Douglas.
At just 30 years old, Chandler has already received multiple honors besides the Barlow, including the Copland House Residency, SCI/ASCAP Graduate Commission, Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Graduate Music Award from the Presser Foundation.
In “Beyond the Sanctuary Walls”, Chandler explores themes of love, fear, and vulnerability. Referring to the “Sanctuary” as one’s “place of beauty and safety,” Chandler writes that “its very existence implies that the outside world is dangerous,” and reflects on his own desire to stay “within the sanctuary I have created,” yet resolves to risk leaving his comfort zone. “To move the walls [of my sanctuary], I have had to feel into my fears and speak them into clarity.” In five movements, “Beyond the Sanctuary Walls” considers these themes through the unorthodox pairing of solo voice and double bass, against the backdrop of string orchestra. Chandler also took on the task of writing the work’s text, sung by Smither.
This premiere is a creative reunion for Smither, Paul, and Chandler, who have formed a strong artistic bond over the years through previous collaborations. All three graduated from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and also connected as Fellows at the well-known Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2017. “I remember being so impressed by their charismatic performances,” recalls Chandler, speaking of Smither and Paul. “They both have a natural theatricality to the way they perform that resonates with my own musical sensibilities.”
Paul, a founding member of Kinetic, is one of the ensemble’s most memorable and dynamic performers; audiences were wowed by his captivating solo appearances on previous Kinetic programs, including for Clarice Assad’s “Impressions” in 2019, and in a moving music/dance collaboration with Musiqa and NobleMotion Dance in 2020. During the pandemic lockdown, Paul gave a virtual premiere of Chandler’s “Cog Prelude for Six Basses,” performing all six parts using multi-track software and releasing the video on social media. Now based in Cleveland, Paul has a flourishing orchestral career with a coveted title position in The Cleveland Orchestra, and he previously served in the bass section of the Baltimore Symphony.
Smither, well-known for her masterful interpretations of new music, has to date performed over an hour and a half of music Chandler has written for her voice, including “Summersongs” for soprano and nine bassoons, and “Two Taylor Songs” for soprano and woodwinds, which she premiered at Tanglewood. Chandler reflects that the vocal part to “Beyond the Sanctuary Walls” is intended to show Smither’s “complete range of vocal capability," and that composing pieces for Smither has been “one of the most rewarding collaborations of my career.” Smither debuted with Kinetic Ensemble in 2016 with a breathtaking interpretation of Benjamin Britten’s “Les Illuminations,” which she recently also performed with the Charlotte Symphony. A British-Canadian artist based in Houston, Smither has performed extensively across North America, including with the Boston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Tapestry Opera, and Canadian Opera Company. Outside of music, Smither is deeply invested in the local Houston community, working for Air Alliance Houston, and volunteering for Stop TxDOT I-45, which opposes the expansion of Houston’s I-45 freeway. This summer, she will prototype a new project in Santa Barbara which facilitates the creation of new songs between community organizing groups and musicians.
Complementing the premiere of Chandler’s new work on this season-closer is Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s celebrated “Serenade for Strings,” and a selection of newly adapted songs by Clara Schumann, arranged for string orchestra by Kinetic violinist Giancarlo Latta, who co-curated this program with Lin Douglas. This program demonstrates Kinetic’s commitment to showcasing emerging compositional talent and diverse classical music programming.
Kinetic’s 2022-2023 season has combined cutting-edge new music with celebrated classics for strings, featuring collaborations with an array of acclaimed guest artists and artistic partners, including with choreographer Kayla Collymore, multiple premieres by composer-in-residence Nicky Sohn, and a debut performance at Asia Society Texas. The 2023-2024 concert season will kick off in October 2023; details to be announced in July.What: Her Story, celebrating Women’s History Month with music by all female composers, including pioneering American composer Amy Beach, award-winning Gabriela Lena Frank, and the world premiere of “Home,” a new multidisciplinary concerto for violin, string orchestra, and three dancers, spearheaded by a team of three female artists: Nicky Sohn (composer), Kayla Collymore (choreographer), and Mary Grace Johnson (violinist) and inspired by clients of the Women’s Home Houston, as a way to give these women a voice and raise awareness for the important work of the Women’s Home.
What: Beyond the Sanctuary Walls, Kinetic Ensemble’s season-closing concert
Who: Kinetic Ensemble, with soloists Alexandra Smither (soprano) and Charles Paul (double bass)
When: Friday, May 26, 2023, at 7:30pm
Where: MATCH (Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston), 3400 Main Street, 77002
Cost: $30 general admission; $10 student tickets at the door
Program:
Clara Schumann / Giancarlo Latta: Four Clara Schumann Lieder, arr. for strings
Theo Chandler: Beyond the Sanctuary Walls (2023—World Premiere)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings
More info: KineticEnsemble.org/events-20222023-sanctuary
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About Kinetic Ensemble
An artist-led, artist-curated ensemble of 16 string players who perform collaboratively without a conductor, Kinetic is committed to amplifying diverse, under-represented, and newly composed classical music to communities in and beyond Houston, through flexible chamber and orchestra ensemble performances. Since forming in 2015, Kinetic has gained momentum as an innovative and dynamic force in classical music and has emerged as an influential advocate for diversifying the genre’s repertoire.
Praised by Arts+Culture Texas magazine for its “thoughtful, incisive programming” and “visually arresting… brilliantly executed” performances, Kinetic has been described by Houston Public Media as “Houston’s Indie, Conductorless Orchestra” that has “found its niche in Houston’s music scene.” Kinetic has commissioned and premiered over a dozen new works by composers, held residencies at six educational institutions, presented 70+ live and virtual classical music experiences, and reached over 12,000 Houston visitors and residents with its transformative, collaboratively driven performances. More info at KineticEnsemble.org.
Theo Chandler, Composer
Theo Chandler is a Houston-based composer of concert music and stage works. Chandler is a recipient of the Barlow Endowment General Commission, Copland House Residency Award, SCI/ASCAP Graduate Commission, American Prize for Vocal Chamber Music, Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award, Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Graduate Music Award from the Presser Foundation. He has received commissions from the Tanglewood Music Center, New York Youth Symphony First Music Program, Maryland Chamber Winds, Utah Arts Festival, Les Délices, Fischer Duo, and others.
Chandler has been a fellow at the Cabrillo Festival Composers Workshop, Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Mizzou International Composers Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Copland House Cultivate, and Aspen Music Festival. His residencies include Composer in Residence for the Maryland Wind Festival, Young Artist Composer for Da Camera, Emerging Composer Fellow for Musiqa, Composer in Residence for Les Délices, and Young Composer in Residence for the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings.
Chandler holds degrees from Rice University (DMA), The Juilliard School (MM), and Oberlin Conservatory (BM), studying with Pierre Jalbert, Shih-Hui Chen, Karim Al-Zand, Anthony Brandt, Melinda Wagner, Samuel Adler, and Steven Stucky.
Alexandra Smither, soprano
From the thorniest contemporary scores to the lyricism of Mozart, soprano Alexandra Smither brings her consummate artistry and searing intellect to every engagement. Ms. Smither’s signature rapport with new music shows her as “an extraordinarily adept soprano, one who can shriek, gurgle, cackle, mutter, gesture, and declaim as well as sing beautifully.” (The Threepenny Blog). During the 21/22 season, Ms. Smither sang Iphigenia #1 in Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding’s new opera Iphigenia at MASSMoCA, ArtsEmerson, The Kennedy Center, Cal Performances at UC Berkeley, and The Broad Stage in Los Angeles, debuted with California Symphony in Katherine Balch’s Illuminate, and returned to Ars Lyrica to sing Belinda in Dido and Aeneas. The 22/23 season brought debuts with the Charlotte Symphony and Hamilton Symphony, and at the Buffalo Bayou Cistern for a co-composed work. She returned to FAWN Opera for a studio recording of Scime’s L’homme et le ciel and in May premieres a new work by Theo Chandler with Houston’s Kinetic Ensemble. She has sung with Houston Grand Opera, Boston Symphony, Tanglewood Music Center, California Symphony.
Passionate about systems change and advocacy, she works for Air Alliance Houston and is the volunteer communications director for Stop TxDOT I-45. A doctoral student at the City University New York (CUNY) Graduate Center, Ms. Smither’s dissertation focuses on historical communal song. She is a 2023 Music Academy Alumni Enterprise Awardee; in June she will travel to Santa Barbara to prototype her winning project “The New Community Songbook,” which facilitates the creation of new songs between community organizing groups and musicians.
Charles Paul, double bass
Charles Paul was appointed First Assistant Principal Double Bass of The Cleveland Orchestra in 2023, having previously served as a member of the bass section of The Cleveland Orchestra and the bass section of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared in the Boston Globe, Houston Chronicle and American Public Media’s Performance Today as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborator.
Paul performs a wide variety of repertoire, performing as a member of the Teatro Nuovo Bel Canto Orchestra, a founding member of the Kinetic Ensemble, and with Complexions Contemporary Ballet. He has premiered works of new music for solo double bass and chamber music by Doug Balliet, Erin Gee, Theo Chandler and Jon Anderson. In 2018, Paul worked with his mother Meg Paul and the Gerald Arpino Foundation in a recreation of the 1971 work for dance and solo double bass Valentine by Gerald Arpino and Jacob Druckman. Additionally, in 2018, Paul performed as a solo act on the main stage of the Detroit Music Weekend, opening for the Jackson Five.