Formed in 1998, ETHEL is comprised of Juilliard-trained musicians who perform adventurous music of the past four decades, with an emphasis on works composed since 1995. Over the past 13 years, the Quartet has premiered more than 100 commissioned works in 11 countries and tours the world. But ETHEL, in their own words, is evolving even beyond those remarkable accomplishments. On Sunday, January 15th of 2012, ETHEL appeared as the guest ensemble on Oklahoma City University’s Distinguished Artist Series. The concert, entitled Present Beauty was given in the Petree Recital Hall at the Wanda L Bass School of Music and featured Mark Stewart’s To Whom It May Concern: Thank you; Sunrise of the Planetary Dream-catcher by Terry Riley; ETHEL’s own suite from The Hours by Philip Glass; Early That Summer by Julia Wolfe, David Lang’s Wed and The Flag Project by Huang Ruo.
A special intermission feature offers excerpts from OSHTALI, a recording made by ETHEL on Thunderbird Records featuring works by music students of the Chickasaw Nation Summer Arts Academy in 2010. Violist Ralph Farris and cellist Dorothy Lawson offer commentary about that special project, the ensemble’s philosophy and evolution, and the music of this program.
It's Present Beauty and OSHTALI with ETHEL, our program this week on Performance Oklahoma, Saturday evening at 8 here on Classical88.7-1!