In Situ: Third Sound

In November 2015, newly formed chamber ensemble Third Sound made its debut with a residency at the Festival de Música Contemporánea de La Habana (Havana, Cuba), presenting a program of contemporary American music in partnership with the American Composers Forum (ACF). ACF and Third Sound held a national call for scores to select the music to be presented and received over 400 submissions; ten works were chosen, and all ten composers traveled to Havana as part of the artist delegation. The program of their music, presented in Havana’s eighteenth-century Basílica Menor de San Francisco de Asís, offered a unique snapshot of the vitality and diversity of the contemporary American musical landscape.I Care If You Listen wrote of the ensemble’s festival performance, “Third Sound played with a level of commitment, joy, and ensemble cohesion that belies the short time they have worked together.”The concert moreover represented an historic occasion: against the sociopolitical backdrop of normalizing relations between the United States and Cuba, Third Sound presented the first concert entirely comprising contemporary American music, and with all composers in attendance, to take place in Cuba since before the Cuban Revolution. Following up on its Havana residency, Third Sound brings selections from its festival program to National Sawdust—music by Kati Agócs, Michael Harrison, and Spencer Topel—alongside music by Elliott Carter, Patrick Castillo, and Toru Takemitsu. The evening will also feature the premiere screening of a short documentary film on the Havana residency by filmmaker Zac Nicholson.