On Friday, August 1, the JACK Quartet premieres Festival-commissioned works by the two outstanding talents in our 12th annual Young Composers String Quartet Project.
Tyson Gholston Davis’s work, …echoes of river and mist…, draws its inspiration from a 1992 painting, Barometer, by the American abstract expressionist Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011). In a program note, Davis writes: “As I began my sketches of …echoes of river and mist… this spring, I took many early-morning walks along the Hudson River near the George Washington Bridge and Fort Tryon Park, where I live in New York City. I noticed that the dense mist over the river during this time was extremely similar to the atmosphere of Barometer. The thickness of the mist and fog completely obscured the land across the river in New Jersey. Nothing but the river’s gray tides could be seen as they drifted toward the Atlantic. Frankenthaler’s canvas captures the essence of this phenomenon through its expansive, cloud-like shapes and sweeping motion.”
Artwork © 2025 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Ania Vu’s new work is called Unveiling. In an interview with the Festival, Vu says that, for the past six or seven years, her music “has tended to draw inspiration from poetry, time, and sounds and laws from the natural world. But regardless of the source of inspiration or topic,” she notes, “what remains constant is my awareness of music as a time-based art form: I’m always aware of form, proportions, and the psychological journey of the listener when experiencing my music.” Overall, she adds, “I strive for my music to be both intellectually and emotionally stimulating.”