Feb. 17-18: Apollo Chamber Players Presents 'REVISED' with Poet-Activist Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton and Composer Jasmine Barnes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
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Apollo Chamber Players Presents REVISED 

Saturday, February 17, 2024 at 7:00pm at Holocaust Museum Houston
Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 2:00pm at Unity of Houston

A Collaboration with Poet & Activist Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton
and Emmy-Winning Composer Jasmine Barnes

“[Apollo is] recasting music for a diverse and multi-ethnic generation” – Strings Magazine

www.apollochamberplayers.org
 

Houston, TX (January 10, 2024) – Praised by Sonograma for their “sonic effervescence” and “dazzling expressive traces,” Houston’s Apollo Chamber Players presents REVISED on Saturday, February 17, 2024 at 7:00pm at Holocaust Museum Houston and on Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 2:00pm at Unity of Houston. A collaboration with award-winning poet, activist, and educator Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton and Emmy-winning composer Jasmine Barnes, REVISED is a genre-fusing statement on poetry, peace, historical revisionism, and Black censorship. The program features a world-premiere commission, Revise?, scored for poet, choir and string quartet with libretto by Mouton and music by Barnes.

Apollo Chamber Players will perform the piece alongside Mouton and members of Houston Ebony Opera Guild: Jolie Rocke, soprano; Jan Taylor, mezzo-soprano; Kenneth Gayle, tenor; and Antoine Griggs, baritone. The program also includes PAX (Peace), a work commissioned by Apollo Chamber Players from composer John Cornelius with Houston Poet Laureate Emeritus Outspoken Bean. String quartet works by Shostakovich, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate and Florence Price complete the program.

On the inspiration for REVISED, Apollo Founder, Director and violinist Matthew J. Detrick stated: “For too long, the Black and American Indian communities have endured censorship and revision. We hope this program provides context, meaning, redemption and, above all, hope for the future for the multicultural American experiment.”

As they prepare to introduce REVISED, Apollo will present their highly acclaimed Apollo MoonShot program with a performance at Texas A&M University on February 15, 2024, at 7:00pm. The program includes new works from GRAMMY and Pulitzer prize-winner Jennifer Hidgon, Emmy-winning Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Turkish-born composer Erberk Eryilmaz, and Prairie View A&M faculty composer John Cornelius. REVISED collaborators Outspoken Bean and Kenneth Gayle will also join Apollo Chamber Players for this performance of MoonShot.

MoonShot was first performed in March 2023, when it made a celebrated debut at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall). Brad Ross of Oberon’s Grove commented: “The audience was treated to one of the finest chamber music concerts of recent memory as the Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players made their long-awaited return to NYC Thursday evening…a glorious evening of contemporary chamber music.” Read the full review.

On the upcoming performance, Detrick commented: “Apollo is honored to showcase new works by composers who’ve helped us achieve MoonShot dreams, as President Kennedy said, ‘not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’ We recognize the inspiring multiculturalism and can-do spirit of our home, Space City Houston, along with the enduring global beauty of Texas and our great nation.”

Program Details
Texas A&M Presents Apollo Chamber Players: Apollo MoonShot
Thursday, February 15, 2024 at 7:00pm
Rudder Theatre | Houston, TX
Link: https://apollocp.org/MoonShotTAMU

Apollo Chamber Players Presents REVISED
Saturday, February 17, 2024 at 7:00pm
Holocaust Museum Houston | Houston, TX
Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 2:00pm
Unity of Houston | Houston, TX
Link: https://apollocp.org/REVISED

Program:
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton/Jasmine Barnes – Revise? – commission for string quartet, spoken word and chorus inspired by revisionism and Black censorship [World Premiere, Apollo Commission]
John Cornelius – PAX [Apollo Commission]
Florence Price – Five Folksongs in Counterpoint (Apollo discovery/premiere in 2014)
Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate – Oshta (Four)
Shostakovich – String Quartet No. 8

Performers:
Apollo Chamber Players
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, poet, activist and educator
Jasmine Barnes, composer
Outspoken Bean, poet
Kenneth Gayle, tenor
Members of Houston Ebony Opera Guild: Jolie Rocke, soprano; Jan Taylor, mezzo-soprano; Kenneth Gayle, tenor; Antoine Griggs, baritone

About Apollo Chamber Players
Celebrating its 16th season, Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players “performs with rhythmic flair and virtuosity” (The Strad) and “recasts music for a diverse and multi-ethnic generation” (Strings Magazine). The ensemble’s globally-inspired programming and multicultural new music commissions have garnered international acclaim, including sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and in Havana, Cuba, a Chamber Music America Residency Partnership award, and regular features on American Public Media’s Performance Today. Ensemble members include Matthew J. Detrick, violin; Anabel Ramirez Detrick, violin; Matthew Dudzik, cello; and Aria Cheregosha, viola.

Released on the Grammy-winning Azica Records label, Apollo’s fifth studio album, With Malice Toward None, reached No. 1 on Amazon’s Hot New Release chart, and Strings Magazine praised the album’s message, which tackles “politics, identity, and what it means to be a citizen of a nation balanced between an idealized past and a just and multicultural future.” The ensemble’s catalog of records has been featured on hundreds of radio and media stations worldwide.

A passionate advocate for contemporary music and underrepresented composers, Apollo successfully concluded a bold initiative to commission 20 new multicultural works by the end of the last decade. 20x2020 features a diverse roster of the world’s leading composers and instrumentalists including Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Pamela Z, Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, Hector del Curto, Vân Ánh Võ, and Tracy Silverman. The ensemble’s community partners include schools and universities, at-risk youth centers, refugee and veterans service organizations, and public libraries.

Apollo’s community partners include schools and universities, at-risk youth centers, refugee and veterans service organizations, and public libraries. The ensemble’s vanguard Library Voyage project is the first of its kind in the nation. Apollo was founded in 2008 by violinist and music entrepreneur Matthew J. Detrick and violinist Timothy Peters Learn more at www.apollochamberplayers.org.

About Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton
Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton is an internationally known writer, librettist, educator, activist, performer, and Poet Laureate Emeritus of Houston, Texas. Previously ranked the #2 Best Female Performance Poet in the World (PSI), she has earned multiple honors for her poetry collection, Newsworthy, which garnered a Pushcart nomination and was named a finalist for the 2019 Writer’s League of Texas Book Award and an honorable mention for the Summerlee Book Prize. A German translation under the title "Berichtenswert" was released in summer 2021 by Elif Verlag.

Her most recent choreopoem, PLUMSHUGA: The rise of Lauren Anderson, debuted at Stages Houston and was mentioned in The New York Times Fall Preview. She collaborated with composer Jasmine Barnes on an opera, She Who Dared, which was workshopped by the American Lyric theater in May 2023. Her memoir, Black Chameleon (Henry Holt & Co, 2023), explores the use of modern mythology as a path to social commentary.

About Jasmine Barnes
Jasmine Arielle Barnes is an Emmy Award-winning composer and acclaimed vocalist who has performed and seen her works performed worldwide. Her music has been described as “precisely imagined” (The Washington Post), “refreshing.. engaging… exciting” (San Francisco Classical Voice), “memorable” (Houston Press) and “the best possible blend of Billie Holiday and Claude Debussy” (The Boston Globe). She is a multifaceted composer who embraces myriad composing styles using a variety of instrumentation, and specializes in writing for the voice.

A full-time composer, Barnes is managed by UIA talent for her composition work. She is a resident artist for Opera Theater of Saint Louis’s New Works Collective. In addition, she has held residencies with American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program and All Classical Portland, and served as a composer fellow at Chautauqua Opera. Barnes has been selected for commissions by numerous organizations including the New York Philharmonic and Juilliard Pre College, The Washington National Opera (in celebration of the Kennedy Center's 50th anniversary), Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival and School, Baltimore Choral Arts, Aural Compass Projects, Resonance Ensemble, Tapestry Choir, CityMusic Cleveland, LyricFest Philadelphia, Burleigh Music Festival, Symphony Number One, Baltimore Musicales, and Anima Mundi Productions, among others.

About Outspoken Bean
The New Jersey born, San Antonio raised, H-Town based military brat Outspoken Bean was introduced to the arts and world cultures at a young age and has never let go of these vibrant influences. “An energetic pioneer for poetry, in all its different sizes and shapes, Bean is dedicated to making sure that poets get heard,” Emily Hinds of Arts and Culture Magazine wrote. “Bean” uses poetry to engage different mediums and institutions to create new and compelling art, becoming the first poet to perform on Houston Ballet’s main stage with the ballet’s production “Play.” He has also been commissioned to write and perform a national campaign on diversity for Pabst Blue Ribbon and VICE, besides creating/producing his own festival Plus Fest: the EVERYTHING plus POETRY Festival. In 2008, Bean helped develop Texas’s largest youth poetry slam organization and slam team, Meta-Four Houston, with Shannon Buggs and DiverseWorks.

Bean made his Carnegie Hall debut in March 2023 with Apollo Chamber Players, performing the ensemble’s commission PAX in the world premiere of the Apollo MoonShot program.

About Kenneth Gayle
Tenor Kenneth Gayle’s national credits include performances with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Ravinia Music
Festival, Grant Park Music Festival, Seattle Opera, Seattle Symphony, Opera Omaha, Omaha Symphony, Opera Idaho and Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival. A Seattle native and Houston resident, he has also appeared with the Houston Ebony Opera Guild, Mukuru: Arts for AIDS Series and Three Mo’ Tenors, and in the Southwestern premiere of the chamber opera “Fragments from Augustine the Saint” at Rothko Chapel.

Gayle’s Houston-based producing/performance credits also include performances benefitting The Houston Women’s Home, AIDS Foundation Houston, Legacy Community Services, The Montrose Counseling Center, The Parish School, and Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston, among many others. In 2019 he served as Interim Music Coordinator for Unity of Houston. Over recent years, he has also served as Producing Director for Music Doing Good, and Program Director for Music Doing Good with Instruments. His recent credits as a featured soloist include Foundation for Modern Music (Founders Concert) and The Greenbriar Consortium (Das Lied von der Erde), as well as Houston Ebony Opera Guild and Apollo Chamber Players.

*Photo Credits: Apollo Chamber Players by Ben Doyle, Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton by Paula N. Luu/Houston Creative Space, Jasmine Barnes courtesy of the composer.

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