Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

The Agarita Chamber Players are known for their collaborations with other artists who add another dimension to their concerts.  Dancers, poets, storytellers, lighting artists and even a chef have partnered with them over the years.

For their upcoming concert on Saturday, the adventurous quartet has paired up with glass artist Gini Garcia whose amazing blown glass creations have earned a national reputation. But it’s one thing to invite a dancer to perform to music, and another altogether to incorporate glass sculptures with the music in an organic, meaningful way.

“The concert is inspired by Gini Garcia and her process in creating her glassworks,” said pianist Daniel Anastasio who is the artistic director of the group. “Marisa (Bushman, violist) came up with the idea for this collaboration because she knew Gini’s store and Gini personally. Gini is known as a supporter of classical music here in San Antonio and she has created works for music lovers around town. Marisa is always on the lookout for great artists in the community and Gini is a standout.

“At first when Marisa came to me to suggest this collaboration, I’ll admit, I was intimidated,” continued Anastasio. “Glassblowing and music didn’t seem to mix at all. It’s a very unusual pairing. I struggled at first to come up with an idea that would highlight her art while staying true to what we do.”

He eventually found a way by hiring a lighting artist and a visual artist to create “projections of her art through lighting.” Early in the process Garcia revealed to Anastasio that she liked to think of her art as a lens, a light filter. But what you’ll see at the concert will not be light spectra generated by light effects on stage. To create clearer images, the crew decided to opt for videos that could be manipulated in post- production to enhance clarity.

Ultimately, however, concerts are about music, and this one, sounds very promising. The four Agarita players – Anastasio, Bushman, Ignacio Gallego and Sarah Silver Manzke – will be joined by two exceptional guests, flutist Jessica Petrasek and percussionist Joseph Petrasek, both of whom are highly respected musicians. Joseph is the principal percussionist for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, while Jessica is the acting principal flutist of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra.

The concert will open with a piece, appropriately titled “Spark,” by Paul Kerekes, a contemporary composition for piano and percussion. This will be followed by a Duo for Viola and Vibraphones by another living American composer, Kenji Bunch. The program also includes, “Fuga y Misterio” by Piazzolla; a sonata for cello and piano by Rachmaninoff; a solo flute piece, “Vermont Counterpoint,” by Steve Reich, and the Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano by Nikolai Kapustin.

The entire ensemble will play together for the closing, “Naryana’s Cows” by Tom Johnson. This is a “minimalist” style composition based on the 14^th century problem posed by the Indian mathematician Naryana. Expect to be challenged!

Anastasio admits that programming was a challenge for him this time. “It really took me a while to figure out how to artfully combine the music and the art, and not just force it to happen,” he noted. “And I think that what we’ve come up with is very organic and it’s going to be the kind of show that gives people a taste of the art inside Gini’s work and glassblowing in general.

“But there will be questions. We wanted it to be less of an informative event about glassblowing and more about the impact of the art.”
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Feb. 5 at 7 p.m.; live and in-person; Warehouse on Burleson, 221 Burleson St., 78202; free. To reserve seats email agaritachamberplayers@gmail.com; masks are required.