Kontras Quartet & Friends

Art of Elan's former ensemble-in-residence, the Chicago-based Kontras Quartet, returned to San Diego for an evening of dynamic music-making and multimedia collaboration. The program featured colorful music by some of today's most innovative composers, including Caroline Shaw, Jessie Montgomery, Javier Alvarez and Nathalie Joachim, as well as the world premiere of the string quartet "Hidden Mothers." Written by Boston-based composer Steven Snowden and commissioned by Art of Elan in 2019, this powerful piece reflects on the invisible sacrifices that mothers make on a regular basis. It was initially inspired by the Hidden Mother Photography trends of the 19th Century, where mothers were frequently disguised as furniture or other items in portraits in order to keep young children calm during the long exposure time.

Followers of the "Sounds & Swells" series (a gorgeous pairing of classical music with high-quality surfing films) were treated to the unveiling of a new project featuring the music of Felix Mendelssohn and local footage from McCracken Films and Joey Taylor Photography, dramatically captured during the bioluminescence phenomenon of March 2020.

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