SOLI Chamber Ensemble brought their 30x30x30 Project to Trinity on Feb. 15 and 16 for a two-day showcase featuring workshops and performances. The project commemorates SOLI’s 30th anniversary, which they celebrated last year.
Over the past 30 years, SOLI has commissioned hundreds of works from composers in pursuit of their mission to promote new music. For their anniversary, however, SOLI took a different approach. Rather than commissioning works, the ensemble issued an open call for scores, receiving nearly 300 submissions. From this pool, the team selected 30, giving the project its name 30x30x30: 30 years, 30 composers, 30 works.
When asking for submissions, SOLI emphasized their desire to work with newer composers. Carolyn True, member of SOLI and professor of music at Trinity, discussed working with new composers.
“We are really trying to promote people that are emerging,” True said. “And it’s not connected with age per se, because there may be a 50-year-old who is just starting down this road.”
SOLI set very few parameters regarding the style of submissions. The SOLI ensemble is composed of a pianist, cellist, violinist and clarinetist, but the ensemble did not restrict the submitting composers to those instruments. The result is a collection of 30 works that span a vast range of influences and styles — from solemn Greek Orthodox funeral chants to surrealist jazz.
Erin Pake, junior music and Spanish double-major, interned at SOLI this past summer. As an intern, Pake was responsible for creating the project’s website and interviewing each of the 30 composers.
“What a gift to be able to ask any of the questions you want to ask,” Pake said. “Plus, it’s me as someone who is a composer myself and a musician. A lot of times you play pieces, and sometimes you get a little bit of information on the background, but very rarely do you get the chance to pick the mind who wrote it.”
That collaboration between musicians and composers is a central tenet of SOLI’s philosophy.
“We can’t ask Mozart, you know?” True said. “All we have are the dots on the page that Mozart wrote … but there are millions of ways to interpret one little black dot on the page. That’s the beauty of a live musician.”
With their 30x30x30 Showcase at Trinity, SOLI sought to open up the conversation to an even larger audience. Eight of the project’s 30 pieces were highlighted throughout the weekend in workshops open to all. Each workshop began with a performance of the piece before transitioning to an open dialogue between the musicians, audience members and, if present, the composer themself. The workshops ended with a second performance of the piece — this time implementing feedback.
Samuel Cornett, first-year English major, attended workshops on both days. He is a pianist and a student of True.
“I think [the workshops] helped me realize all the different kinds of considerations that need to come into making a composition — writing-wise, artistically, how it translates for performers,” Cornett said. “I liked hearing all the evocative stories and ideas and concepts provided.”
The February showcase was not the end of the 30x30x30 Project. SOLI has upcoming performances across the country and will be holding a second showcase at Trinity in May. Even as they reflect on the last 30 years, SOLI remains focused on the future.
“I think the things that I’m the most proud of are all the pieces that [SOLI has] caused to be created and all the performances we’ve given,” True said. “We’ve just gone wild with it. It’s really fun. So the most exciting thing is, now, what’s next? And so we keep dreaming and keep seeing what’s next on the horizon.”
