Lisa Coons: The Space Between (2019)
with director and choreographer Mark DeChiazza

(West Coast Premiere; second performance of the work)

Composer Lisa Coons uses her own experience of social silencing as a springboard for The Space Between, a fully staged, choreographed work for Spektral Quartet that unravels the social hierarchies of human interaction, and ultimately, invites musicians to explore the roots and motives of communication through the spectacle of music and theatre. Choreographed by director and designer Mark DeChiazza, the work is seamlessly interwoven in a style unique to Coons, and organically mixes moments of improvisation with written material: a musical gesture might be the start of a conversation between musicians that is mirrored through physical movement. Or, a physical movement might disrupt, provoke, or engage the music of another player. The simple act of watching the violist of a string quartet cradle the head of the cellist, or of one violinist muting the performance of their fellow violinist is also shocking, and through the unexpected drama created by physical interaction, Coons and DeChiazza compel both the performers and the audience to consider the ways in which we navigate communication, conflict, and connection.

$10 Youth, $20 Students, $40 Adult
(Classical Cabaret, Assigned Seating)
Presented by the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts

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The Chicago-based quartet actively pursues a vivid conversation between exhilarating works of the traditional canon and those written this decade, this year or this week. Spektral is known for creating seamless connections across centuries, drawing in the listener with charismatic deliveries, interactive concert formats, an up-close atmosphere and bold, inquisitive programming, including their Grammy-nominated collaboration with Miguel Zenón, Yo Soy la Tradición.