ensembleNEWSRQ growing into eighth season with premiere works and new staff

There have been some growing pains since percussionist George Nickson and violinist Samantha Bennett started ensembleNEWSRQ, or enSRQ, eight years ago, as a way to provide opportunities for themselves and musician colleagues to explore a wide-range of contemporary classical music.

At the time, Nickson and Bennett were performing with the Sarasota Orchestra and supplementing their schedule with extra concerts. Now, they’re both based in Texas where he is principal percussion for the Dallas Symphony and Bennett performs with the Dallas Opera Orchestra.

Even with their moves and the COVID pandemic, they have kept the concert series going, but they are now getting more help with an active board and the hiring of Kate Mulligan as general manager, the first paid staff for the organization.

“Dwight Currie, our board chair, was dead set to get us to a point where we could hire a general manager,” Nickson said. “It’s great to have someone on the ground running the day to day because at the end of the day, we’re just musicians. We are not trained administrators. We now have someone with more capacity and wherewithal to make this ambitious season possible.”

The start of the company’s eighth season comes after the news broke over the summer that the New Music New College program was ending after 24 seasons.

“We didn’t know about the demise of New Music when when we were planning the season, but we always enjoyed their support and they laid the groundwork for what we do in Sarasota,” said Nickson. The group will recognize the NMNC founder Stephen Miles and his successor, longtime producer Ron Silver for bringing contemporary classical music to Sarasota on a consistent basis during a special Burgundy in Autumn brunch at 11 a.m. Oct. 22 that will help to kick off the new season.

Miles was “so excited and glad we were expanding the season,” said Bennett. Though they attracted mostly different audiences, there was some overlap. “Our groups were complementary in terms of concept. They were a presenting group and we are a producing group. It worked really well to have both organizations,” she said. “The two of us combined could offer all that perspective. We’re devastated that they’re not going to be able to realize their 25th anniversary season.”

The new season comes on the heels of the “1976” concert enSRQ presented in April at the Sarasota Opera House, which featured a large number of musicians and attracted the group’s largest-ever attendance.

“It was incredibly successful on all these fronts. It was artistically an incredible experience and our biggest audience by 100 percent. We got a lot of new people to sign up for our mailing list and we have growth in our season members even at this early point before our first concert.”

Nickson and Bennett plan to build on that momentum with a six-concert season that will include a collaboration with the Hermitage Artist Retreat for the world premiere of Angelica Negron’s Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission, and with the Ringling Museum for a weekend series of concerts that are part of the Art of Performance series.

Here is a look at what’s coming this season

‘Beyond the Veil’

7:30 p.m. Oct. 23, First Congregational Church, 1031 S. Euclid Ave., Sarasota

A program of pieces for string quartet and piano including works by Nia Imani Franklin, Julia Adolphe, Chris Rogerson and Philippe Manoury’s “Tensio,” for string quartet and live electronics. With two festival residencies at the end of the season, Nickson said the early part of the schedule is focused on smaller instrumentation chamber groups. “We haven’t done a real string quartet focus in a couple of years.”

‘Ligeti 100’

7:30 p.m. Nov. 20, First Congregational Church

The ensemble marks the centennial of the birth of György Ligeti with a performance of his “Etudes” and “Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano.” It will feature pianist Han Chen, in a return to Sarasota, who has recorded an album of Ligeti etudes and asked a variety of artists to create new works based on the composer’s own creations, including Viet Cuong’s “Wax and Wire” and Stacy Garrop’s “Slipstream.” In addition to Chen, the artists include cellist Natalie Helm and clarinetist Bharat Chandra.

‘Night and Day’

7:30 p.m. Jan. 22, First Congregational Church

The premiere of Scott Lee’s “Karst,” which was written for Bennett and Nickson, marks the first of two commissions this season. It includes string, harp and percussion pieces from Molly Herron, Sebastian Currier, Einojuhaari Rautavaara and Sam Adams.

Nickson said “Karst” was “written in dialogue with the Florida aquifer and the challenges Florida faces with climate change.” Lee teaches composition at the University of Florida, and Bennett and Nickson worked with him at Tanglewood.

‘You Are Free’

7:30 p.m. March 25, First Congregtational Church

This program features Raven Chacon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “Voiceless Mass,” along with the world premiere of a commission from Kyle Rivera, which he wrote for enSRQ artists. Rivera is a student at Yale School of Music. The concert also will feature work by Ania Vu, Shawn Okpebholo and Sarah Kirland Snider.

Arts Newsletter: Sign up to receive the latest news on the Sarasota area arts scene every Monday

Broadway, comedy, music and more: From Gipsy Kings to ‘Hamilton’ Van Wezel books favorites and new stars for 2023-24 season

Angélica Negrón world premiere

Sunset April 15, Hermitage Artist Retreat

Negrón is the recipient of the 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize in music and she is creating a site-specific work for low strings, harps, percussion and electronics designed to be performed at sunset for a specific spot at the beach at the Hermitage Artist Retreat on Manasota Key.

“She is a very cool composer and I’ve gotten to work with her because she is resident composer at the Dallas Symphony,” Nickson said. “Her inspiration is the low sounds that gravitational forces emit through the solar system that NASA is able to pick up with sound capture devices.” It will feature 16 players.

Bennett said it is the culmination of nearly two years of collaboration with Negrón, the ensemble and the Hermitage. “She knows us, and that’s fun for the composer to know the group that will be performing a new work, to know the vibe of what’s happening.”

‘Parisian Refraction’

May 9-11, Ringling Museum

A weekend of performances built around works and composers that highlight Paris, have been commissioned by groups in the City of Light or are inspired by the French capital. Maurice Cohn will conduct 19 musicians, and Nickson, Bennett, Conor Hanick and Luc Fitz Gibbon will be soloists during the weekend. The same series of concerts also will be presented in Dallas in April.

“We have six principal guest artists and 19 members of an ensemble presenting four different programs over three days,” Nickson said. “Our other programs are forward-looking, but this one is looking a bit backwards to the 20th and 21st century to show how Paris has shaped everything we’ve done so far.”

Season tickets for the first five concerts are $115. A season streaming pass for viewing at home are $45. Single tickets for the first five concerts are $25 for live performances and $10 for streaming. Ensrq.org. Tickets for “Parisian Refractions” are $30-$40, with discounts for Ringling members, and are available at 941-360-7399 or ringling,org.

Follow Jay Handelman on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Contact him at jay.handelman@heraldtribune.com. And please support local journalism by subscribing to the Herald-Tribune.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Contemporary classical music group grows into eight season in Sarasota