Tonight’s Program

Trailblazing Women

PERFORMERS

Emily Cole, violin
Shin-young Kwon, violin
Jennifer Arnold, viola
Marilyn de Oliveira, cello

WORKS

Tomeka Reid: Prospective Dwellers
Grażyna Bacewicz: String Quartet No. 4
Lisa Bielawa: The Trojan Women
Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel: String Quartet in E♭ Major

ABOUT TRAILBLAZING WOMEN

mousai REMIX returns to 45^th Parallel with Trailblazing Women — a program celebrating the power and perspective of women composers across generations. This concert honors the legacy of Fanny Mendelssohn and Grażyna Bacewicz, two influential voices of the 19th and 20th centuries whose music continues to resonate with bold individuality. Their legacy resonates alongside the voices of Lisa Bielawa and Tomeka Reid, two composers of today, whose works are rooted in storytelling, place, and purpose.

—— PROGRAM ——

Tomeka Reid (b. 1977): Prospective Dwellers

Prospective Dwellers grew out of a larger suite originally written for string sextet and percussion for the Hyde Park Jazz Festival in 2015. This movement was later adapted for string quartet. The music is dedicated to Grand Crossing on Chicago’s South Side, and more specifically to the Dorchester Projects, a cultural and residential space rooted in Black artistic life and neighborhood history.

To create the work, Reid interviewed local residents about their experiences living on and around Dorchester Street. They spoke about memory, change, pride, and concern. Their reflections shaped the emotional arc of the music. Rather than telling one single story, the piece weaves together multiple voices, suggesting conversation, tension, and collective resilience.

The title Prospective Dwellers points to a central question: who gets to belong in a neighborhood as it evolves? The music reflects both the warmth of long standing community ties and the unease surrounding rapid development and gentrification. Shifting textures, rhythmic drive, and moments of spacious lyricism mirror these layered realities.

Reid, a Chicago based cellist and composer described by The New York Times as a “New Jazz Power Source,” is known for blending improvisation, composition, and community engagement. In this work, she invites listeners not just to hear a string quartet, but to consider the living stories behind it.

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909–1969): String Quartet No. 4

Grażyna Bacewicz wrote String Quartet No. 4 in 1951 for an international competition in Liège, Belgium, where it won first prize and brought her wide recognition. Already known as a brilliant violinist as well as a composer, she had a deep understanding of how string instruments can sing, sparkle, and surprise.

The quartet has three movements and moves quickly between moods.

The first opens slowly and mysteriously, then launches into energetic motion. Folk inspired rhythms and melodies shape much of the material, giving the music a grounded, human feel even in its most dramatic moments. Bacewicz loves contrast, placing bold, driving passages next to lighter, more lyrical ideas.

The second movement is more intimate. Its main theme has the character of a lullaby, surrounded by delicate textures and shimmering colors. Even at its softest, the music feels expressive and emotionally direct.

The final movement is playful and full of momentum. Marked Allegro giocoso, it dances forward with crisp rhythms, quick exchanges between instruments, and sudden shifts in texture. The energy builds to a bright, emphatic close.

Vibrant, and full of personality, this quartet remains one of Bacewicz’s most engaging and frequently performed works.

Lisa Bielawa (b.1968): The Trojan Women

“Here is where Dawn found the lover of her bed, Made her children, Soared into the sky In a chariot of four blazing stars. But now we are nothing. Troy was golden once. And now is only dust.”
— Euripides
“In 1999 I composed a continuous score for Euripides’ tragedy The Trojan Women for a production directed by JoAnn Akalaitis. In 2000 I wrote a string quartet based on some of the musical material from that score, which was premiered in 2000 by the Miami String Quartet at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The string orchestra version was created expressly for the String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC). The special musical challenge of this project was to identify and convey, in three movements, three variegated forms of grief, each one a consequence of one woman's particular sufferings: “Hecuba,” “Cassandra,” and “Andromache.” These women lost husbands and sons in the notorious brutality of the Trojan War. Each time I revisited the piece as it evolved from music for the theatre, to string quartet, and finally to string orchestra, I was informed by a slightly different understanding of the nature of public and private grieving. Euripides’ eulogy to the fallen Troy takes its place alongside the picture of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, W.G. Sebald’s searching inquiries into the rubble of Dresden, or the jarring pictures we see daily in the media from troubled cities around the world.”
— Lisa Bielawa

Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-1847): String Quartet in E-flat major, H.277

Fanny Mendelssohn wrote her only string quartet in 1834, but the music actually began life five years earlier as an unfinished piano sonata. She later returned to those sketches, reworked them for two violins, viola, and cello, and added two new movements. The result is one of her most powerful and personal works.

You might hear hints of Ludwig van Beethoven in this piece. That influence was hard to avoid in the 1830s. What makes this quartet special is how boldly Mendelssohn stretches beyond it. The opening feels mysterious and unsettled, as if the music is searching for solid ground. When the home key finally arrives, it feels earned.

The four movements move from reflective to playful to deeply expressive, ending in a joyful, high-energy finale. Throughout the piece, you will hear a falling pattern of notes that keeps reappearing in different moods, quietly tying everything together.

During her lifetime, social expectations made it difficult for women to publish large works like this. The quartet was not published until 1988, more than 140 years after her death. Today, it stands as a vivid reminder of her imagination, emotional depth, and confidence as a composer.