I didn’t know what to expect with this concert, as the tickets were purchased at random. Just before the concert a colleague had warned that the music was very strange. But it was a pleasant surprise. The music was very beautiful.
The actual program was in a different order from the published version. The show started with “a promise in the stillness”, the “Ser Aravote”. The second half then had “Superstition”, “Partita for 8 Voices” and “Quizassa”.
Ser Aravote was particularly interesting jazz piece, as it was commissioned by the Hop, and had its world premiere with this performance. The composer was also the pianist, Tigran Hamasyan. It turns out that although the vocal part was all scored, the piano part was largely improvised.
The Partita was a longer and very strange piece, written by a member of the group. It included weird sounds, phrases, notes, but was still interesting.
The last song Quizassa was fun because the Glee Club joined the group on the stage.
In the Q&A we learned that although there were 8 performers this evening, they have a roster of folks that they work with. Their core work is done when they meet every year at Mass MOCA in North Adams.