APERIO, Music of the Americas, in collaboration with Rothko Chapel, proudly presents “Elemental Soundings: Asian Influences in American Music.” This concert of contemporary chamber music, featuring the works of Bright Sheng, Tan Dun, Steve Reich, and others, will take place Thursday, November 12, 2009 at 7 p.m. in the Rothko Chapel, 3900 Yupon St. in Houston’s Museum District.

Over the past 50 years, leading American composers such as John Cage, Lou Harrison, George Crumb and many others have been deeply influenced by Asian music, poetry, and folk traditions. At the same time, many gifted Asian composers have established major careers in the United States. Both sets of composers have continued to draw on the richness of Asian cultures, creating a musical dialogue between East and West that speaks to the human spirit—our connection to nature, to each other, and to our real or imagined homelands.

Inspired by this musical conversation, Aperio brings together an emotionally direct program that celebrates the composers’ complex palette of sonority and the engaging simplicity of their music. The program will feature two Houston premiere performances of works by composer Thomas Osborne, currently on the composition faculty of the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. In Songs of a Thousand Autumns Osborne sets the poetry of Sei Shonagon and Ono no Komachi to music that evokes Gagaku—the ancient court music of Japan. In his meditative piece for percussion and piano, Like Still Water, Osborne employs innovative techniques to draw unexpected sounds from familiar sources, creating an ethereal sound environment.

Many other pieces on the program include unconventional sound combinations, achieved by combining rice bowls, baking pans, vibraphone, and tambourines with “classical” western instruments, or by preparing the piano with metal tacks in the hammers. Another piece is performed entirely by strumming the strings inside the piano case with amplification. Whatever the techniques used, the music is astonishingly beautiful.

Works featured include Steve Reich’s Nagoya Marimbas; Lou Harrison’s Varied Trio for violin, piano, and percussion; Tan Dun’s Dew-Fall-Drops; and Bright Sheng’s My Song, in addition to the two Houston premieres by Thomas Osborne.