Duke Arts Presents: Akropolis Reed Quintet

Described by BBC Music Magazine as a 'sonically daring ensemble', the Akropolis Reed Quintet has commissioned more than 150 new works by living composers, blazing a bold trail for chamber music written for their distinctive instrumentation: oboe, clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and bassoon.

Two new works sit at the heart of this program. Omar Thomas's Moods and Attitude draws on the rhythms and colors of jazz, while Derrick Skye's A Soulful Nexus blends Persian classical stylings, Balkan vocal ornamentation, and the groove-based rhythms of electronic dance music.

The program is framed by two orchestral works, reimagined for reed quintet by Akropolis's saxophonist, Raaf Hekkema. Gershwin's An American in Paris brings another dose of jazz-inflected energy to the concert hall while Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin, written during the First World War, looks to the past. Drawing on French Baroque forms, each movement dedicated to a friend of Ravel's lost in the war, blending elegance with quiet grief.

Program:
Maurice Ravel: Le Tombeau de Couperin arr. Raaf Hekkema
Omar Thomas: Moods and Attitudes
Derrick Skye: A Soulful Nexus
George Gershwin: An American in Paris arr. Raaf Hekkema