On Monday September 30, 2013, I had the pleasure of attending a jazz concert organized by the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music at their Moores Opera House. The performance was by the talented AURA Contemporary Ensemble, which was giving their first concert of the season titled Borderlines. In my opinion, the Aura Contemporary Ensemble treated us to an evening of music that confronted and transcended borders under the able directorship of Rob Smith with the help of Assistant Director Michelle Perning Blair. The group consisted of a gifted trio: composer Daniel Asia, saxophone Dan Gelok, and bass-baritone Timothy Jones. I found it breathtaking the combination of bass-baritone and chamber ensemble during Daniel Asia and Timoty Jone’s duet performance of the Amichai Songs, which are an expert combination of bass-baritone, clarinet, flute, cello, piano, and violin. Composer Dan Asia showcased his skills in his delivery of poetry by Yeluda Amichai, an Israel poet, which gave us an intriguing experience of one man’s perspective of the present Israeli experience.
The solo soprano saxophone performance of The Alex Set by composer Asia went beyond the delimitations of its initial theme to bring the heights of register, rhythmic density as well as volume. I was further impressed by Aaron Copland’s Short Sympthony that was arranged to create a Sextet (piano, string quartet, and clarinet) so that the piece would consist more performances. Listening to the performance left me convinced that the symphony defied the limits of orchestral performers in terms of rhythmic abilities through its complex syncopations.
It is also my belief that performances by Sydney Hodkinson, Doris Constantinides and Hannah Lash expanded beyond their initial boundaries of their initial material. Hodkinson melodically begun with remnant fragments of a completed piece when performing Skitter (flute, harp, viola). Similarly, I enjoyed Hannah Lash’s creative expansion of the introductory octave C’s with extra motoric process when delivering C (piano and vibraphone). Constantinides impressed me and indeed the entire audience with his ability to work entirely from the eight note during performance of his Genteel Dialogue that made expert use of the harp and percussion. The curtain to the program was respectfully brought down by a performance of the beautiful and moving Canto (solo alto saxophone) by Elliot Del Borgo. The overall feeling in the end was that the concert was worth every cent of the $7 entrance fee I had paid.
