Including New Music and Video Art Reflecting on Hurricane Harvey, Musiqa Presents Eclectic Show

Including New Music and Video Art Reflecting on Hurricane Harvey, Musiqa Presents Eclectic Show

A still from Carrie Marie Schneider's video

THIS WEEKEND, HOUSTON’S intrepid new-music-presenting organization Musiqa continues to stretch its programming ambitions with New Dimensions in Sight & Sound (Apr. 29 and 30 at MATCH), an eclectic concert of works by composers Sky Macklay, Du Yun and Ryne Siesky — and a new music and video collaboration between Musiqa 2022 Emerging Composer Commission winner Sam Wu and socially engaged multi-disciplinary artist Carrie Marie Schneider.


It’s a challenging, provocative program, and includes several Houston-based artists.

Wu is currently pursuing his DMA in composition at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and Schneider has been an active part of Houston’s socially engaged art and performance world for some time now. Their collaboration, Weather Models, was commissioned by Musiqa.

The piece features an onstage, kinetic video installation by Schneider. The footage, recorded from 2017 to 2021, finds Houstonians creating miniature, symbolic weather events inside fish tanks and other containers with plastic dolls and other objects — a sort of hands-on therapeutic activity to address the trauma of Hurricane Harvey and climate change.

The music Wu has composed for Weather Models will “underscore the elemental nature of the subject matter,” says a Musiqa rep, and includes a part for a mezzo-soprano singing text created in collaboration with Schneider and inspired by “early language development.” In performance, the projected surface Schneider has created will rise and fall in time with the music.

Rounding out the program is Macklay’s Many Many Cadences, Du Yun’s i am my own achilles’ heel, and Siesky’s /ˈɪn/bluːm/, which was also commissioned by Musiqa. The featured musicians include violinist Mary Grace Johnson, who recently led Houston’s Kinetic Ensemble in a powerful performance of Nicky Sohn’s Home, and mezzo-soprano Jillian Krempasky.

Art + Entertainment
‘Natural Passion’ Makes Fourth-Gen Houstonian Sarah Callaway Sulma a Realty Star

AS A FOURTH-generation Houstonian, Sarah Callaway Sulma has a unique and invaluable view of the city. Her deep seated connection to Houston led her down the path to becoming one the city's most well-respected, and renowned real estate agents. Sarah's natural passion for the real estate industry from a young age led her to where she is today. "I know that it sounds cheesy, but it is the truth! I wanted to be in real estate from a young age," Sarah shares. "The late-great restaurateur, Tony Vallone, put me together with real estate legend, Martha Turner, and Martha put me together with Cathy Cagle. The rest is history-13 years of success and counting!" Now with over 13 years in real estate and $55M+ in residential real estate sales, Sarah brings a rare combination of knowledge, skill, and advocacy to each one of her clients.

Keep ReadingShow less

THE MEANING OF “cool” evolves. In the ’50s you might have thought greasers were cool, with their leather jackets à la Danny Zuko. In the ’70s, a long-haired activist or a Studio 54 reveler in Halston. In the ’80s, a Wall Street master of the universe?

Keep ReadingShow less
People + Places

Axiom Quartet (photo by Pin Lim)

THE NOT-SO-simple question “If someone knocks on your spiritual door, will you let them in?” is the inspiration for Open Source, a dramatic new song cycle for string quartet and voice by Houston composer Karl Blench and librettist Jacqui Sutton.

Keep ReadingShow less
Art + Entertainment