KMFA'S OFFBEAT CONCERT SERIES PRESENTS CHASKI
OCEANS OF SPACE: CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF MUSIC WITH CHASKI
KMFA Classical 89.5 announces the February 2025 Offbeat Series performance of Oceans of Space: Celebrating 40 Years of Music with Chaski featuring Adrienne Inglis, Shana Norton with guest mezzo-soprano Cayla Cardiff. This Chaski 40th Anniversary event will play one-night only on February 7, 2025 in the Draylen Mason Music Studio at KMFA, 41 Navasota Street, Austin, 78702.
Hailing from Austin, Chaski is a musical duo comprised of Adrienne Inglis and Shana Norton. Their music has spanned multiple generations reinventing the sound of a classical flute/harp duo with otherworldly compositions and performances since 1985.
Known for adapting compositions traditionally written for other instruments, Chaski creates original arrangements for the flute and harp while honoring the original work. Foundational to their 40-year history, Oceans of Space will incorporate works that reflect the natural world, women composers, spoken word, new music, and drawing from and blending different musical traditions.
The program will feature instruments many audiences have never heard before in live performance: instruments to include a wide array of panpipes, flutes, and whistles; an unusual harp; folkloric percussion instruments. The instruments, the narrative, along with the video and still imagery invite the audience into an appreciation of other cultures and the natural world.
“Our goal is to immerse the audience in an unexpected and mesmerizing soundscape,” said Chaski. “To offer a mix of sounds and stories that invite listeners to suspend time and engage in the moment.”
Highlights of the upcoming Offbeat concert include "Nana’isanishinaam", an evocative piece by composer Adrienne Inglis that draws from her Ojibway heritage. The title, which means "Bring us Peace" in Ojibway, reflects a heartfelt call for healing and reconciliation. Composed in 2020 amidst the George Floyd uprising, the work emerged from an improvisation on Native American flute, blending the spirit of healing with a profound response to the tension between the Black Lives Matter movement and law enforcement. With its poignant melodies and deep cultural resonance, "Nana’isanishinaam" stands as both a musical and social statement, embodying the hope for unity and understanding.
The concert will also showcase a performance of "Yellow Birds," an original composition by Maeve Gilchrist from her suite The Ostinato Project. This enchanting piece, which alternates between a lively 6/8 and 9/8 meter, evokes the imagery of "starlings in the sky." Chaski’s arrangement of the piece offers an intricate interplay of multiple flutes, including bass and concert flutes, alongside the traditional Scottish clarsach, or lever harp. Shana will perform on a custom-made clarsach, crafted specifically for her following a visit to the Edinburgh Harp Festival, adding a personal touch to this vibrant and evocative work.
The performance series by KMFA highlights ensembles contributing to Austin’s vibrant contemporary classical music scene using KMFA’s beautiful Draylen Mason Music Studio. Through the Offbeat Series, KMFA hopes to reach not only existing fans, but also cultivate a new audience for these exciting contemporary works. Additional program details for the Offbeat Series concerts will be released at a later date.
“Offbeat leans into new works, new classical music that is accessible,” said Stacey Hoyt, KMFA Director of Events. “I was intrigued by how long Shana and Adrienne have been doing this kind of work; combining different genres, creating their own arrangements, and developing original compositions focused on women, culture and heritage. Continuing to be inspired by their surroundings, Oceans of Space is not Chaski’s swan song but rather a celebration of where they have been and how culture and heritage have shaped their repertoire.”
BUY TICKETS
Tickets include a pre-concert talk beginning at 6:00 p.m. and complimentary sips from Tito's Handmade Vodka, Milam & Greene Whiskey, and wine courtesy of Georgetown Winery and Vineyard.
CAYLA CARDIFF
Cayla started singing and poking at the piano at age two, and has been singing and poking at piano keys ever since. She earned some music degrees at UT Austin and then taught music while singing at several churches in the area including University Presbyterian, the Church at Highland Park, St. Louis King of France Catholic Church in Austin, St. Mary Catholic Church in Taylor, and is currently at Saint Mary Catholic Cathedral in Austin. After being taken in by Danny Johnson she began to focus on early music, and since has performed with the Texas Early Music Project, Istanpitta, Panoramic Voices, Inversion, La Follia, Austin Cantorum, and Tinsel. Cayla lives in Taylor where she dabbles in home improvement, civic duty, gardening, and spoiling her two wiener dogs Iggy and Ollie.
Thanks to our in-kind sponsors:
Event Details
Date: Friday, February 7, 2025
Time: 7:00 p.m. (Pre-Concert Talk at 6:00 p.m.)
Venue: Draylen Mason Music Studio
Ticket Information
Cost: General Admission: $30.00 | Student: $15.00
Presenter Details
Name: Chaski
With its eclectic, genre-bending virtuosity, Chaski reinvents the sound of a classical flute/harp duo. Adrienne Inglis (flutes) and Shana Norton (harps) performed their first concert together in April 1985, in Kerrville, Texas. Since then, they have performed across miles and miles of Texas, from sea to shining sea, and occasionally in places that require a passport.
Chaski has honed a distinctive style that fuses their roots in classical music with a whole world of flute/harp traditions. Their concerts showcase an eye-popping array of instruments and a colorful mix of musical styles. You might hear a Bolivian huayño played on panpipes, a Scottish strathspey featuring penny whistles, the premier performance of a newly commissioned work, or a spoken-word piece that flows seamlessly into its musical counterpart.
Now approaching their 40th anniversary season, Chaski shares programs from their time-tested repertoire, from newly written music, and from their own fresh settings of traditional tunes. The duo’s engaging musicality connects with audiences young and old, in venues from concert halls to coffee shops.
Venue Details
Address: 41 Navasota Street
City: Austin
State: TX
Zip: 78702
Program
Chaski
Adrienne Inglis, flute, D whistle, flauto traverso, bass flute, low D whistle, Native American flute, sikus, quena
Shana Norton, clàrsach, accordion
with mezzo-soprano Cayla Cardiff
A Noiseless, Patient Spider, poem by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Deep Blue for flute and piano (2012) by Ian Clarke (b. 1964)
Nead na Lachan (The Fox Hunter’s Jig), traditional Irish slip jig
Nead na lachan sa mhúta
‘s cuirfidh mé amach ar an gcuan thú
Haigh dí didil dí didil dí
Haigh dí dí dil dero
Haigh didil didil dí didil dí
Dí dí didil dí dero
Béarfaidh mé currach is criú dhuit
‘s cuirfidh mé amach ar an gcuan thú
Ceannóidh mé slat agus d’rú dhuit
‘s cuirfidh mé amach ar an gcuan thú
The duck’s nest in the moat
And I will send you out on the bay
(nonsense syllables)
I’ll get you a curragh and crew
And I’ll send you out on the bay
will buy you a rod and line
And I will send you out on the bay
My Luv’s Like a Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns (1759-1796)
O my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June;
O my Luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.
As fair are thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my Dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my Dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
And fare thee weel, my only Luve!
And fare thee weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile!
Yellow Birds (2019) by Maeve Gilchrist
Ardoch House by Miss Magdalena Stirling (1765–1846)
Perthshire Hunt Reel by Miss Magdalena Stirling (1765–1846)
Kleier (The Bells) for solo harp by Kristen Noguès (1952-2007)
Feathers (2023) by Adrienne Inglis and Shana Norton
Nana’isanishinaam (Bring Us Peace) (2020), based on an Ojibwe prayer improvisation on native American flute by Adrienne Inglis
El choclo (The Corn Cob) (1903) Argentine tango by Ángel Villoldo (1861-1919)
Alfonsina y el mar (Alfonsina and the Sea) by Ariel Ramírez (1921-2010) and Félix Luna (1925-2009)
Por la blanda arena que lame el mar
Su pequeña huella no vuelve más
Un sendero solo de pena y silencio llegó
Hasta el agua profunda
Un sendero solo de penas mudas llegó
Hasta la espuma
Sabe Dios qué angustia te acompañó
Qué dolores viejos calló tu voz
Para recostarte arrullada
En el canto de las caracolas marinas
La canción que canta en el fondo oscuro del mar
La caracola
Te vas, Alfonsina, con tu soledad
¿Qué poemas nuevos fuiste a buscar?
Una voz antigua de viento y de sal
Te requiebra el alma y la está llevando
Y te vas hacia allá, como en sueños
Dormida, Alfonsina, vestida de mar
Through the soft sand that licks the sea
Her small footprint never returns
A path of only sorrow and silence reached
To the deep water
A path of only silent sorrows reached
To the foam
God knows the anguish that accompanied you
What old griefs silenced your voice
To lie down lulled
By the singing of the seashells
The song that sings in the deep darkness of the sea
The seashell
You leave, Alfonsina, with your loneliness
What new poems did you seek?
An ancient voice of wind and salt
Breaks your soul and it is taking it away
And you go to there, as if in a dream
Asleep, Alfonsina, dressed in sea
Pájaro chogüí (The Chogüí Bird) (1945), a Paraguayan galopa by Guillermo Breer (Indio Pitaguá) (1913- 1987)
Cuenta la leyenda que en un árbol
se encontraba encaramado un indiecito guaraní,
que sobresaltado por un grito de su madre
Y desde aquel día se recuerda al indiecito
cuando se oye como un eco a lo chogüí,
ese canto alegre y bullanguero
del gracioso naranjero que repica en su cantar.
Salta y picotea las naranjas
que es su fruta preferida, repitiendo sin cesar.
Chogüí, chogüí, chogüí, chogüí,
cantando está, mirando allá,
llorando y volando se alejó.
Chogüí, chogüí, chogüí, chogüí,
que lindo va, que lindo es
perdiéndose en cielo guaraní.
And since that day the little Indian is remembered
when it is heard like an echo to the chogüí,
that happy and boisterous song
of the funny orange tree that chimes in his singing.
He jumps and pecks the oranges
which is his favorite fruit, repeating endlessly.
Chogüí, chogüí, chogüí, chogüí,
is singing, looking there,
crying and flying he flew away.
Chogüí, chogüí, chogüí, chogüí,
how beautiful it is, how beautiful it is
getting lost in the Guaraní sky.
Titicaca, a Bolivian tinku by Edgar “Yayo” Joffré (1937-2022)
El cóndor pasa (The Condor Passes) (1913) by Daniel Alomía Robles (1871-1942)
Alma llanera (Soul of the Prairie) (1914) Venezuelan joropo by Pedro Elías Gutiérrez (1870-1954) and Rafael Bolívar Coronado (1884-1924)