New Thread Quartet

Feature Concert Saturday, March 29 with Moanin’ Frogs, 7:00pm - 9:00pm, RECITAL HALL Mb1

Kay Rhie – Night Blooms (2019, rev. 2023) 

Erin Rogers – Foliage (2023) 

Victoria Cheah – walk for a shell (2023) 

Night Blooms is a piece dedicated to my late father. He was a writer, most active during the 1960-80’s in South Korea until the family immigrated to the States. Since the move, he had taken odd jobs until he started working for a local Korean newspaper in Los Angeles. He never returned to creative writing since the move. I don’t remember ever asking why. Spending many late hours in the quiet hospital room where he lived his last days, his breathing was very regular and even peaceful. It was then I conceived the ending of this piece.

More specifically, an image formed in my head as I was looking at some flowers during this period, especially after I found a large collection of articles and scribbles going through his medical papers –all of which were obviously possible source materials for his to-be-written stories. I witnessed bursts of desires there that I did not take notice growing up. Like the night flowers that bloom when people are asleep, I imagined that my father, like many immigrants, dreamed of beautiful “blooms” in the non-celebrated ways. I wanted to pay a tribute to those quiet hours, of un-applauded beauty.

In the beginning of the piece, fragmented gestures are driven with energy but often interrupted by silence as if it describes frustrated longings. Intermittently, longer and continuous gestures start to emerge, as if they are short-lived blossoms. The sweeping motion then evolves into yet longer melodic materials, or an elegiac dance, ending with a peaceful celebration of quietude.

This piece was originally written for and premiered by Winsor Music Trio (Gabriela Diaz, violin; Rane Moore, clarinet; and David Russell, violoncello) in 2019, and was revised for the present ensemble in 2024.

-KR

Foliage refers to plant leaves collectively. Detailed textures, smooth and jagged, protruding stems and veins, colorful hues, full-of-holes, mutant, bendable, wet, dry, crunchy, Moving vigorously, moving somewhat, completely still. Attached. Detached. Stately trees, regular trees, standing out amongst the others, part of a cluster. Growing slowly over time, cycling season-to-season, altering course with changing weather patterns. Birthing, dying annually, evolving through millennia, evolving at every moment.

-ER

The idea behind Walk for a shell piece is how actions along a path may connect you to others, whether in person, at the time, or through shared action or hope. Pilgrimage journeys, for example, that end in a final destination put time and effort to work at covering a distance in an offering of respect. Walk for a shell attempts this respect with gestures of tuning, ghosts of words exchanged, and offerings of effort.

-VC

New Thread Quartet was formed with the mission to develop and perform impactful new music for the saxophone, and to provide high level ensemble playing to feature today’s compositional voices. In 11 seasons, the quartet has commissioned and premiered over 45 new works by composers such as Amy Beth Kirsten, Richard Carrick, Ben Hjertmann, Ebun Oguntola, Scott Wollschleger, Kathryn Salfelder, Taylor Brook and Emily Koh.

Based in New York City, New Thread has performed at Carnegie Hall, Roulette, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Morgan Library, Bang on a Can Summer Festival Benefit, and Monadnock Music. The quartet has performed, toured and recorded more than 30 important works for saxophone quartet including Kati Agócs’ Hymn in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall; Marilyn Shrude’s Evolution V and energy flows nervously… in search of stillness, as part of a 75th Birthday Celebration Concert at the Dimenna Center featuring Lost Dog Ensemble and the Momenta Quartet; Erin Rogers’ Urban Composites at the World Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews, Scotland; and the premiere recording of Elliott Sharp’s seminal work Approaching the Arches of Corti for 4 soprano saxophones, recorded with Grammy-winning engineer, Judith Sherman, now available on New World Records. New Thread released its debut album Plastic Facts in 2018 on New Focus Recordings and in 2020 recorded three works on [word]plays, an album by Emily Koh now available from Innova Recordings.

New Thread has a track record of working closely with composers in a workshop environment during the formation of new works. The quartet strives for multiple performances of newly commissioned works in an attempt to bring new music to different audiences as often as possible. New Thread’s annual self-presented Explorations Series showcases works by emerging composers, adding exciting new voices to the saxophone canon.

New Thread has conducted masterclasses, residencies, and performances for student saxophonists and composers at Peabody Conservatory, University of Virginia, Berklee Conservatory, Bronx Community College, Aaron Copland School (Queens College), Montclair State University, and New York University. A strong community supporter, New Thread attends NASA Regional and Biennial conferences across the US. The quartet encourages young composers to create new works for saxophones through an open submission policy, conducting reading and feedback sessions throughout the year. New Thread is a presenting partner of Composers Now.

Ensemble members are Jonathan Hulting-Cohen (soprano saxophone), Noa Even (alto saxophone), Erin Rogers (tenor saxophone), and Zach Herchen (baritone saxophone).