From ETHEL:
In celebration of the Courage, Patience and Resilience that arise in people in times of great difficulty, ETHEL, the genre-defying string quartet, joins forces with Allison Loggins-Hull, composer, flutist, producer, and Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow to the Cleveland Orchestra. Together, they have elicited brand new commissions from four brilliant composers: Leilehua Lanzilotti, Migiwa Miyajima, Xavier Musik and Sam Wu. Passionate, committed, hopeful and inspiring, each contributes to an experience which surpasses the sum of its parts. Lanzilotti was a runner-up for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize in Music.
The centerpiece of the program is Loggins-Hull’s own NEA-commission, Persist, after which the program is named. In the composer’s words, “Persist is inspired by concepts of perseverance, motivation, and positive outlook. I often find myself thinking about the efforts of my relatives and ancestors, and what they went through so that I could be who I am today: a musician, a composer, an independent woman. I imagine what their lives could have been like had they not been subjected to disenfranchisement, segregation, or slavery. When I am having my most difficult days, I remember these ancestors for clarity and perspective. I feel extreme gratitude for the fire they’ve lit inside of me and for their spirit that lives through and within me. Their guidance is with me every day”.