Celebrating 20 Seasons with Two World Premiere Commissions
As Mill City String Quartet celebrates its 20th Anniversary Season, we reflect on the forces that root us in our identities and the hope that enables us to rise together.
The program begins with Debra Kaye's Rising Up, a work the composer describes as beginning "in a low place" before searching for hope. It serves as an invitation to imagine healing even before we fully understand the depth of our wounds.
That hope is challenged by Dmitri Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 8, one of the twentieth century's most powerful musical responses to war, oppression, and authoritarianism. Written amid political violence and personal anguish, the quartet stands as both lament and witness, reminding us of the human cost of injustice.
From that place of remembrance, we turn toward renewal with the world premiere of a new work by Marie Herrington, co-commissioned by Mill City String Quartet and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain. Inspired by traditional Ukrainian folk songs and dedicated to Helen and Richard Bochonko, the work celebrates the enduring strength of cultural memory. Folk melodies become vessels of identity, carrying stories of home, family, and perseverance across generations, even in times of displacement and war.
The evening culminates in a powerful world premiere by Daniel Bernard Roumain, commissioned in celebration of Mill City String Quartet's twentieth season. Roumain's new work explores how communities respond to trauma; not by facing it alone, but by gathering in solidarity, listening deeply, and choosing one another. His generosity in co-commissioning Herrington's work reflects the very spirit of this piece: artists supporting artists, communities lifting one another up, and hope made tangible through collaboration.
Rooted and Rising celebrates the stories we inherit, the communities that sustain us, and the enduring power of music to transform grief into connection. As Mill City String Quartet marks twenty seasons of championing underrepresented voices, this program looks both backward with gratitude and forward with hope, reminding us that we are strongest when we are deeply rooted in our shared humanity and committed to rising together.
This is a ticketed event. Check Minnesota History Center | Minnesota Historical Society for ticket details.