BY JOSEPH ASQUITH, LEAD WRITER (UK)
The driving momentum of new music is the uncanny way different genres, artistries, and cultures cross-pollinate to produce new types of aural flavours. Often, this process is subtle and unconscious. In other cases, experiences such as concerts will allow us to witness this interplay of genres in real time. This is exactly the ambition of the Solem Quartet, which will collaborate with composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson as part of the Beethoven Bartók Now series.
Beethoven Bartók Now is a series of concerts that aims to reimagine the compositional styles of Beethoven and Bartók by mixing it with those of contemporary composers. The Solem Quartet have commissioned other composers Aaron Parker, Jasmine Morris, David John Roche, Edmund Finnis and Bushra El-Turk, who have reproduced some captivating material. Ayanna Witter-Johnson, who trained as a cellist and composer in both Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London and Manhattan School of Music in New York, was particularly drawn to the way Bartók’s works were fundamentally based on European folk traditions. With Jamaican heritage and a passion for Jamaican folksong, Ayanna approached Island Suite in a comparable way to Bartók.
Ayanna, aside from being a highly regarded composer and virtuosic instrumentalist, is a superlative storyteller. This is key to her composition Island Suite. She includes vocal song and poetry, inspired by the works of poet June ‘Binta’ Breeze and writer Benjamin Zephaniah, which ruminate on the varied landscape, local stories, and culture. To accompany this, melodic motifs that reference folksong of Jamaica are cleverly and elegantly interwoven into the string quartet, in a fashion akin to how Bartók would embellish folk motifs of Eastern Europe into his compositions, such as in Romanian Folk Dances. This experience poetically encapsulates, and welcomes its audience into, the heartening connection that Ayanna passionately shares with her listeners.
“I have long admired the innovative and expansive Solem Quartet, and it was an honour to be commissioned to compose a special piece for their Beethoven Bartók Now series, Ayanna Witter-Johnson says. “I composed Island Suite taking inspiration from the wonderful folklore of my Jamaican heritage and it will be exciting to perform it together at Wilton’s Music Hall!”
Ayanna Witter-Johnson’s Island Suite will be performed by the Solem Quartet in the Beethoven Bartók Now series at Wilton’s Music Hall in London, 7.30pm July 20.
Read Joseph Asquith’s review of Ayanna Witter-Johnson’s recent performance at the Purcell Sessions, Southbank Centre.
Images supplied. Featured image credit Nic Howe.
