Sonic Evolution 2026
This recording is available through Society New Music on all major streaming platforms.
Program Notes:
Draper – Evolutions
Evolutions is a three-movement work that explores gradual change and the idea that something can evolve out of nothing (or out of something else). In the first movement, the instruments evolve into a groove that is then explored through a variety of musical parameters, particularly orchestration and register. In the second movement, the instruments evolve into expanding melodic waves, cascading and peaking in the middle, and then receding towards the end of the movement. In the third movement, the instruments evolve into a chorale, whose final most expressive iteration launches the ending of the entire piece.
Vazquez – Migrant
Migrant reflects on the profound human experience of migration—its promise of hope, renewal, and freedom, but also the enduring sorrow of leaving behind one’s home, language, family, and cultural roots. Having lived in New York for more than two decades after leaving my native Galicia, I have come to understand migration as both a personal and universal condition. To become a bridge between cultures is to belong to more than one place, yet never entirely to any of them. In an age of constant movement—across countries, identities, and stages of life—we are all, in some sense, migrants. This work is dedicated to that shared experience: the tension between departure and arrival, loss and discovery, and the quiet longing for a place we can truly call home.
Ernste – Chorale
Chorale was written in memory of my friend and former colleague, composer Steven Stucky. Its materials are drawn from a short piano piece of his of the same title from his 2002 collection of character pieces, Album Leaves.
The ritual actions and choreography of my Chorale center on the piano, which is used as a resonator and played from the inside by members of the ensemble—strumming, striking, pointing their instruments into the soundboard, or magnetically oscillating the strings with eBows. The pianist acts only as an operator for the pedals, or to depress the keys to allow certain strings to sustain. Stucky’s voice appears in the electronics, reflecting upon his own experiences working with “older music” and the music of others. These quotations, in turn, become my own reflection on him and on the act of quoting of his piece inside mine.
Over the course of the work, the opening chords of Stucky’s piano piece are gradually transformed into Henry Purcell’s 1695 Funeral Music for Queen Mary, a piece Steve famously orchestrated. Its appearance acts as funeral music for Stucky himself, who passed away in 2016. In the piece’s last section, ensemble members finally arrive at the march itself, walking off stage together playing the Purcell, leaving only the pianist and violist—Stucky’s own instrument—on stage for the final bars.
Ferre – Labyrinth
Labyrinth was commissioned by the Syracuse Society for New Music for performance in January 2017. I conceived the work between the dress rehearsal and concert performance of Brent Michael David’s The Purchase of Manhattan, in which I was playing for the SNM. I had a few hours to myself in the Labyrinth Room at the venue (The Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan). There, I created the source material that I intended to utilize for this work. When composing Labyrinth, I considered all the possible associations of a labyrinth. The associations for a labyrinth I chose are: sanctuary (a place to get away from it all), exhibited in the first movement to some extent in its free other-worldliness, the Labyrinth Room itself (in the chorale) where their church choir rehearses, and finally, the mythological labyrinth with a Minotaur at its center, in which it is a mad dash for survival.
Leary – Larger Than Us
Larger than Us celebrates the wonder and beauty of our universe with the goal of reminding us that humans are infinitesimally small and just a speck of time in the chronology of the universe. Thanks to the scientists dedicated to studying our past and the universe around us, the quality and detail of media captured by NASA has drastically improved in the past 20 years. “Larger than Us” is comprised of footage from deep space images taken by the Hubble Telescope, The Cassini Mission to the outer planets, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Mars Rovers. Every motion graphic and animation is generated from these images. Additional footage Includes raw images and video from the Solar Observatory, as well as 4k videos of Earth taken from the International Space Station.
Performers:
Natalie Draper – Evolutions
Lana Stafford, flute
John Friedrichs, clarinets
Noah Fields, violin
William Ford-Smith, viola
Zachary Sweet, cello
Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Andrea Scheibel, percussion
Heather Buchman, conductor
Ryan Carter – Floating Points
Sonya Stith Williams, violin
Zachary Sweet, cello
Kelly Covert, flute/piccolo
John Friedrichs, clarinet/bass clarinet
Rob Bridge, percussion
Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Heather Buchman, conductor
Octavio Vazquez – Migrant
Noemi Miloradovic, solo violin
Yurie Mitsuhashi, violin
Joseph Morag, violin
Noah Fields, violin
Drake, violin
William Ford-Smith, viola
Jon Mosbo, viola
Zachary Sweet, cello
Gregory Wood, cello
Spencer Phillips, double bass
Octavio Vazquez, conductor
Kevin Ernste – Chorale
Kelly Covert, flute
John Friedrichs, clarinet
John Raschella, trumpet
Liviu Dobrota, violin
Victoria Miskolczy, viola
Zachary Sweet, cello
Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Andrea Scheibel, percussion
Heather Buchman, conductor
Stephen Ferre – Labyrinth
Kelly Covert, flute
John Friedrichs, clarinet/bass clarinet
John Raschella, trumpet
Peter Rovit, violin
Sonya Stith Williams, violin
Josh Lohner, viola
Gregory Wood, cello
Sar-Shalom Strong, piano
Heather Buchman, conductor
Paul Leary – Larger Than Us
Kelly Covert, flute
John Friedrichs, clarinet
Tyler Ogilvie, horn
Liviu Dobrota, violin
Zachary Sweet, cello
Rob Bridge, percussion
Heather Buchman, conductor