Kojiro Umezaki &Hub New Music: A Distance, Intertwined

Called “contemporary chamber trailblazers” (Boston Globe), Hub New Music is a “prime mover of piping hot 21st century repertoire” (Washington Post). The Detroit-based ensemble has commissioned dozens of new works for its distinctive ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, and cello. Collaborating with Silkroad Ensemble’s “virtuosic, deeply expressive shakuhachi player and composer” (The New York Times) Kojiro Umezaki, Hub New Music invited composers of the Asia/America New Music Institute to create a distance, intertwined, a vividly colorful program in which composers Takuma Itoh, Angel Lam, SunYoung Park, Chad Cannon, and Umezaki himself reflect on concepts of musical influence and ancestry.
The title of this program is derived from the classic Noh tale Takasago, which tells the story of two trees which, despite being planted many miles apart, supernaturally collapse the distance between them to intertwine their roots. This performance at Krannert Center features a premiere by Niall Tarō Ferguson.