Something to Write Home About is an era-hopping sonic thrill ride – developed in partnership between Spektral and Town Hall Seattle – that encourages audience members to encounter their past and present. Listeners progress through a series of prompts that focus attention on one’s own emotions and experiences, and then get up close and personal with the composers themselves through letters, interviews, and musical examples. Stamped postcards—designed with photography from Seattle-based artist Eliaichi Kimaro—are provided by the quartet for audience members to jot down notes and inspirations of their own. A behind the scenes look at some singularly mesmeric music, Something to Write Home About uncovers the heart and the intellect behind the music with an experience that invites the audience to do much more than sit back and relax.

Patrons who purchase their tickets before January 21 will receive their stamped postcard pack in the mail the week of the show. Patrons who purchase their tickets after January 21 will still be able to get that postcard pack, with more details to come in mid-January about how that will be done.

Program:

Tomás Luis de Victoria (arr. Spektral Quartet) – O Magnum Mysterium (1572)

Claude Debussy – String Quartet in G minor, L 85 Op. 10. (1893): I. Animé et très décidé

Samuel Adams – String Quartet No. 2: Current): II. Fast, quiet, building (2019)

Arthur Russell (arr. Katherine Young) – “I’m Hiding Your Present From You” (2013)

Franz Schubert – String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, D. 804 “Rosamunde” (1824): II. Andante

Tomeka Reid – “Prospective Dwellers” (2016)

As a self-taught artist, Eliaichi Kimaro will learn whatever medium it takes to tell the story that is emerging. Over the past 40 years, she has used writing, music, photography, film, storytelling, and now mixed media art to explore her personal and family narratives. Across every medium, Kimaro finds beauty in the rusty, weathered and worn. She loves the stories that scars hold ~ and feels compelled to take those stories of survival and turn them into something beautiful to behold.