There won’t be a soul in Leo Rich Theater when Arizona Friends of Chamber Music hosts the world premiere of new work by Grammy-nominated composer Christopher Cerrone.
But when Boston’s Hub New Music quartet performs “New Addresses” on Saturday, Jan. 16, in a virtual concert, hundreds if not thousands of people could tune in.
That’s one positive thing about the COVID-19 pandemic; there are unlimited seats in the virtual realm, opening up the potential for people from around the globe to tune in and get acquainted with an arts organization they would likely never be exposed to.
Saturday’s performance, being streamed through the Friends website at arizonachambermusic.org, marks the Tucson debut of the seven-year-old Boston-based Hub New Music quartet. The group, founded by flutist Michael Avitabile, has been making a name for itself since debuting in 2014 as the Boston Young Composers Project, a group of 11 musicians whose goal was to champion mostly local composers.
The group changed its name and streamlined to a quartet, but its mission is still the same: “Forge new pathways in 21st century repertoire” including through its ambitious commissioning projects.
“New Addresses” is the latest of those commissions, done in partnership with Friends of Chamber Music Denver and Boston’s Ashmont Hill Chamber Music.
In a note posted on Arizona Friends’ website, Cerrone said his three-movement work was inspired by a collection of poetry by Kenneth Koch of the New York School that are addressed to a specific person or object.
“Each of the three interconnected movements in ‘New Addresses’ (is) inspired by one of the poems from the eponymous collection,” Cerrone wrote. “The first, ‘To Breath,’ features the insisting chuffing of the flutist. The second, ‘To My Heart at the Close of Day,’ evokes, via a long violin solo, the protagonist’s melancholic mood at dusk. And the last, ‘To ‘Yes,’ is a rhythmic, energetic march that insists — affirmatively — on the same note.”
The 37-year-old composer, who lives in Brooklyn, New York, dedicated the piece to Hub.
Cerrone was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2014 for his first opera, “Invisible Cities.” He has written two more operas, but he is mostly known for his wide-ranging catalogue of orchestra, vocal and chamber music works that go back to 2006 when he was still a student.
Critics have often praised his works for balancing lushness and austerity, with “immersive textures and telling details, dramatic impact and interiority.”
In addition to Avitabile, Hub New Music features Alyssa Wang on violin, Jesse Christeson on cello and Nicholas Brown on clarinet.
Admission to Saturday’s concert is free, although donations to Arizona Friends are encouraged. Details: arizonachambermusic.org
