Texas New Music Ensemble comes to UHCL Bayou Theater

The Texas New Music Ensemble (TNME) performed at UHCL’s Bayou Theater Saturday Oct. 21. The performance consisted of five newly commissioned works by local composers in Houston. The concert included duos, trios and quartets featuring many classical and new instruments.

TNME was invited to perform at UHCL by Bayou Theater manager Alex Malone, who heard about the group from a longtime patron.

“I did some research about who they are, their mission and why they perform the music they do,” Malone said. “I also learned that Chad Robinson, their founder, is a Clear Lake resident and having a local connection is always great.”

Chad Robinson is a Clear Creek High School alumnus and was quite happy to return to the area he grew up in.

“Our main goal was to bring our concerts down to the Clear Lake area and give that community a chance to hear some of the great composers based right here in the Greater Houston area.” Robinson said.

Robinson composed one of the pieces, “Quartet”, that was performed that night.

The concert featured a diverse set of original songs, beginning with the composition “Two Places” by Karl Blench. The piece was a two-part composition, with the first part being “A Peaceful Place” and “A Dark Place.” Blench described the song as being inspired by the feelings people often go to when “stuck in that familiar Houston traffic.”

“My mother would tell me ‘Just go to your happy place’,” Blench said. “And with that, I had finally gotten my idea for my next piece.”

The next song, “Lotus City Song Book, Volume 2,” was the most experimental piece of the night. The music combined bass clarinet by Amy Glover with computer created music along with pre-recorded vocals by the piece’s composer Hugh Lobel.

“Machina” by John Kiefer was a trio composition, performed by Amy Glover on clarinet, Amanda Chavis on flute and Patrick Moore on cello. Kiefer described the piece as one meant to give the effects of going through a machine, hence the title.

Following the intermission, the concert was concluded by two pieces: “Sonatina “a 2”” by Alejandro Basulto-Martinez and “Quartet” by TNME founder Robinson.

Basulto-Martinez noted how important it was for his piece to strike a chord with his audiences.

“For me, it is important to connect emotionally with the people that are playing and listening to my music,” Basulto-Martinez said. “I try to create music that is engaging, exciting, that talks to everybody regardless of their background, but at the same time, speaks of how I am. If the performers can connect with the emotions in the music and transmit those emotions to the audience, that is for me a successful performance.”

Robinson wanted to make his piece unique and felt it was the right piece to be performed at Saturday’s concert. Robinson himself was also proud of his piece and more than satisfied by the quartet that performed his composition.

“I was inspired by the string quartet, but I wanted to make it different somehow, so I instead chose to write for a mixed quartet,” Robinson said. “I was absolutely thrilled with the performance. The players didn’t miss a thing; they never do.”

Every piece was greeted with applause from the audience. The performers were happy with how their performance of the composer’s work turned out, with many simply glad to be able to share their music. The performers then met and talked with audience members after the concert.

“We had a great crowd, and I was thrilled to see them there and happy to have the opportunity to speak with them some time afterwards,” Robinson said. “When the Astros have a game scheduled for the same night, you always get a little nervous and think that maybe not that many people will show up. I was glad to see we had a great crowd.”

Violinist Eugeniu Cheremoush expressed similar sentiments after the show.

“I think I leave it up to the audience when it comes to my goal,” Cheremoush said. “My goal is to make people feel. There’s always room for improvement and as long as the message comes through, that is what matters.”

Cheremoush emphasized the importance of he and his contemporaries performing for the sake of contributing to the music world.

“Bach was lost for years before he was rediscovered and found to be one of the pillars of classical music,” Cheremoush said. “So maybe in one of these performances, we’ll find anew pillar for classical music 200 years from now.”

The concert was one that left the performers happy with how it turned out, and Robinson spoke Saturday’s concert was just the beginning of the ensemble’s season and expressed interest in returning to his hometown again in the future.

“This year we will have six concerts in the Greater Houston area, as well as concerts in Ft. Worth, Austin and Nacagdoches.” Robinson said. “I definitely feel like we accomplished that goal and we look forward to coming back soon.”