Different Trains

Chamber Music Concert

Thursday, March 20, 2025 / 7 p.m.
Wasserman Projects, 3434 Russell St, #502, Detroit, MI 48207

The American Romanian Festival celebrates its 20th-anniversary season with an evening of works centered around travel that’s sure to cure the wanderlust in us all. First on the program is a recently commissioned piece by Ionica Pop, Impresii din România, that reflects the joy of celebration and the need for human communion and peace through music. In The Seven Dreams of Frida Kahlo for Clarinet and String Quartet, composer Ovidiu Marinescu takes us on an imaginary journey of dreams, from Mayan ritual dances to mariachi music to bebop jazz—which Frida Kahlo heard in New York in her travels with partner Diego Rivera—to an Arabic dream and pagan dance with Russian flair. Lastly, Steve Reich’s Different Trains for String Quartet and Pre-Recorded Performance Tape expresses the basic idea that carefully chosen speech recordings can generate musical materials for musical instruments. The piece is inspired by the composer’s childhood: When he was only 1 year old, Reich’s parents separated. His mother moved to Los Angeles while his father remained in New York. He traveled back and forth by train frequently between New York and Los Angeles from 1939 to 1942, accompanied by the governess. Different Trains is a reflection of Reich’s realization that as a Jew, had he been in Europe during those years, he easily could have been riding a very different kind of train.

Concert Program

Ionica Pop (b. 1967)
Impresii din România (2024)
••• Commissioned by the American Romanian Festival. •••

Ovidiu Marinescu (b. 1965)
The Seven Dreams of Frida Kahlo for Clarinet and String Quartet (2023)
I. Prologue
II. New York
III. Mayan Ritual Dance
IV. Amor. Bésame—Homage to Consuelo Velasquez (1940)
V. Caravan
VI. Trotsky: Love, Death and Punishment
VII. Black Angel

INTERMISSION

Steven Reich (b. 1936)
Different Trains for String Quartet and Pre-Recorded Performance Tape (1988)
I. America—Before the War
II. Europe—During the War
III. After the War
(Played without pause)