Inversion Ensemble presents the world premiere of “Extinction,” a choral setting by Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis of Kim Stafford’s poem “An Extinction” for its Planet Home concert, with a soundscape by Seylon Stills. Attend the performances on Saturday, February 25, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, February 26, 2023, at 3 p.m. The Rosette 3908 Avenue B Ste 116, Austin, TX 78751. Tickets are available here.

—February 2023

Several compositions by Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis are enjoying their premieres. “Oure Light in Oure Night” (2020) for voices and nature soundtrack gets its in-person premiere in Seattle on December 1 and 7, 2022, by the University of Washington combined choirs and in San Francisco on December 9 by the San Francisco State University choir. Portia Hansen and David Utterback recently premiered “Ma’iingan” for flute and piano at Southwestern. On January 21, Inversion Da Capo premieres “Julian’s Hazelnut” for treble choir and clarinet, using the original pronunciation of Julian of Norwich’s Middle English text. See more information here.

—December 2022

Part-time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis and Shana Norton, otherwise known as the flute and harp duo Chaski, will present “Most Importantly,” a recital of music that explores the things that really matter, with soprano Maureen Broy Papovich and pianist Jeanne Dayton Sasaki. The recital’s centerpiece is the premiere of the song cycle “Most Importantly, Loves” (2021) by Inglis. The performance will be October 2 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas.

—September 2022

Part-time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis participated in “I Belong to You,” a multimedia experience presented by Inversion Ensemble and featuring the world premiere of “Motherland/I Belong to You,” an oratorio blending poetry, comic book illustration, and choral music, on June 25. The autobiographical libretto by critically acclaimed comic book author Greg Pak (The Incredible Hulk, Star Wars) explores the history, culture, and natural wonders of Texas from the perspective of a native Texan during the various stages of his life. The musical adaptation of Pak’s text by Inversion’s three founding members—Inglis, Robbie LaBanca, and Trevor F. Shaw—was sung by Inversion’s flagship choral ensemble and accompanied by guest artists Invoke (string quartet) and Ethan Shaw (steel guitarist). “Motherland/I Belong to You” will also be published as an original comic book by Pak, commissioned by Inversion, with illustrations by renowned artists Ann Smith, Dustinn Craig, Ethan Young, Sean Chen, and Shing Yin Khor. A recording of the performance may be purchased via the Inversion website

—July 2022

Part-time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s composition “El Mar” (2020) for mixed chorus and piano will enjoy its live premiere performance by the San Francisco State University Chamber Singers on May 6. The piece expresses the angst and tragedy in Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni’s “Frente al Mar.”

—May 2022

Two songs from part-time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s recently commissioned song cycle “Most Importantly, Loves” were premiered October 16–17 by soprano Maureen Broy Papovich and pianist Joseph Choi during Inversion Ensemble’s Through the Prismconcert. The Concordia Singers performed the live in-person premiere of her piece “La Ciudad Sumergida” on October 24 at the Concordia University Texas Chapel. Chaski will perform her pieces “Newt” and “A Noiseless Patient Spider” on November 21 at 2 p.m. at the Georgetown Public Library.

—October 2021

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music and flute instructor Adrienne Inglis’s composition “Santo” for treble chorus and folk percussion from her Latin American folk mass “Misa Trinitaria” was featured in Chorus Austin’s Southwest Voices: She Sings concert on April 24, 2021 (the recording is streaming until May 8, 2021). The world premiere of a commission by Inglis, “Shelter in Place” with poetry by Kim Stafford and a nature soundtrack, will be featured during the Lewis & Clark College Choirs spring concert on April 28, 2021. The Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College of the City University of New York will present Inglis’s “How Dare You” for mixed chorus, flute, and nature soundtrack with text by Greta Thunberg as part of its concert on May 13, 2021;  Inglis will perform with the QC Vocal Ensemble during the livestreamed event.

—April 2021

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s mixed chorus version of her composition “La Ciudad Sumergida” was performed by C4 and Inversion Ensembles February 4, 2021, under the direction of Perry Townsend. The nature soundtrack combines with an excerpt of the poem “Río de La Plata en lluvia” (1938) by Alfonsina Storni. The “Where Water Meets Sky” live-streamed concert may be viewed here.

—February 2021

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis received an American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Plus Award for concert performances in 2020. In addition, her composition “La Ciudad Sumergida” premiered on November 2, 2020, performed by the commissioning choir, Ramona M. Wis and the North Central College Women’s Chorale of Naperville, Illinois. Under the direction of Adrienne Pedrotti Bingamon, Inversion Da Capo recorded “La Ciudad Sumergida” for a December 19, 2020, release on Inversion’s YouTube channel.

—December 2020

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis virtually rehearsed two of her recent compositions, “La ciudad sumergida” (The Submerged City; 2020) and  “Oure Light in Oure Night” (2020), which were both composed for remote online choir performance, with North Central College’s Concert Choir and Women’s Chorale. Commissioned by Ramona M. Wis and the North Central College Women’s Chorale of NapervilleIllinois, “La ciudad sumergida” for four-part treble chorus with nature soundtrack captures the mood of a river, a city, the cloudy sky, and the poet’s own profound melancholy. The text is an excerpt of “Río de La Plata en lluvia” (1938) by Alfonsina Storni. The sound of rain creates the ambiance of a misty day on the river and the sensation of cathartic crying from great sadness and pain. The city’s reflection on the river’s surface gives the illusion that the city is submerged in the water, and the reflection of the clouds hovering low over Río de La Plata looks like gray heliotrope flowers. The apocalyptic images of a submerged city and of tears overflowing from the chalice-sky eerily foreshadow rising sea levels due to anthropogenic global warming.

—November 2020

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s composition “Newt” enjoys its world première YouTube performance, with Southwestern Part-Time Assistant Professor of Applied Music Jessica Gilliam-Valls on double bass, on August 21, 2020. C4 will also present the first public performance of Inglis’s compositional setting of text by Julian of Norwich, “Oure Light in Oure Night,” for voices with a nature soundtrack of nighttime Hill Country birds and insects on its the remote livestream, titled Night/Light,on August 27, 2020. Inversion Ensemble will present “El Mar,” Inglis’s setting of poetry by Alfonsina Storni for mixed chorus and piano, as part of its Aether: Waterconcert on August 29, 2020. In July, Inversion Ensemble presented all 38 seconds of her composition “Heels,” with soprano Adrienne Pedrotti Bingamon, as part of its Quarantunes project.

—August 2020

Cargill Endowed Chair and Associate Professor of Education Alicia Moore and Margarett Root Brown Chair in Fine Arts and Professor of Music Michael Cooper collaborated with pianist Lara Downes to produce a crowdsourced recitation of the Civil Rights “Credo” of W. E. B. Du Bois for the podcast We Need Gentle Truths for Now, hosted by Alexandra Juhasz. Seven SU faculty and staff (Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis, Associate Professor of Music Jason Hoogerhyde, Professor of Music Kiyoshi Tamagawa, Professor of Music Lois Ferrari, Sarofim School of Fine Arts Coordinator Olivia Wise, Assistant Dean for Student Multicultural Affairs Terri Johnson, and Associate Professor of Communication Studies Valerie Renegar), three current students (Alexis Lemus ’22, Grace Sexton ’22, and Shelby Avants ’21), and six alumnae (Erin McHugh ’09, Isabel Tweraser ’19, Julia Fowler ’15, Katiebeth Brandt ’19, Kinley Johnson ’17, and Sara Watson ’13) participated in the recitation, along with 25 other participants Black and white, ages 5 to 81, from the Americas and Europe, representing four native languages. The podcast is available here. The recitation is also available as a YouTube video titled “Testimony: A #BlackLivesMatter Manifesto after the Credo of W.E.B. Du Bois,” here.

—July 2020

Part-Time Professor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s composition “Fireflies” will enjoy its world-première performance by Inversion Ensemble and Part-Time Assistant Professor of Music Matt Teodori at 7:00 p.m. on February 29, 2020, , at the Concordia University Chapel and at 3:00 p.m. on March 1, 2020, at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas. Commissioned by Inversion Ensemble, “Fireflies” (2019) for mixed chorus, piano, and percussion evokes the vivid imagery of Margaret Noodin’s bilingual poem “Fireflies,” from her 2015 book Weweni: Poems in Anishinaabemowin and English.Honoring the composer’s Ojibwe ancestors, the piece sets the poem’s English text, including the Anishinaabemowin word for fireflies (Waawaatesiwag). Moments of musical and whispered aleatory capture visions of fireflies on a summer night. Colorful augmented sixth chords and lush harmonies kindle visions of love and nature amid the dreamy mixolydian modality and lilting ¾ time.

—February 2020

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s composition Wren, for mixed chorus and flute, will enjoy its world premiere performance by Inversion Ensemble on September 28, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. at the Wesleyan at Estrella in Georgetown and September 29, 2019, at 3:00 p.m. at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas. Inversion Ensemble will also perform Wren at its Sarofim Music Series concert on October 22, and the Southwestern University Chorale will perform it during their fall concert on November 2. Commissioned by Inversion Ensemble, Wren sets Robert Macfarlane’s acrostic poem of the same name for mixed chorus and flute. With quick harmonic changes, syncopations, and melodic gestures, the composition captures a sense of the charming poem as well as the actual Eurasian wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) found year-round throughout the U.K. Macfarlane’s poem “Wren” comes from his 2017 illustrated poetry book, The Lost Words, which conjures pictures of the wild things and untamed spaces that get shortchanged in modern urban life.

—September 2019

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s composition Metamorphosis, for solo flute, solo harp, and string orchestra, will enjoy its world premiere performance by Chaski and the Balcones Community Orchestra on September 22, 2019, at 4:00 p.m. at the Lakeway Activity Center in Lakeway, TX. Commissioned by the Balcones Community Orchestra, Metamorphosis honors the life and work of pioneering entomologist, naturalist, and artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647–1717). Merian carefully documented in illustrated detail the life cycle of so many insects; accordingly, Metamorphosis musically follows a butterfly from egg and larva to pupa and adult.

—September 2019

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s composition “The Song of the Harp Seal” will enjoy its world premiere performance by Inversion Ensemble Coda August 10–11, 2019, in Georgetown and Austin, TX. Composed especially for Inversion Ensemble Coda, “The Song of the Harp Seal” sets to music Gillean McDougall’s poem of the same title and was commissioned by the composer for this project. For treble chorus and harp, this work tells the story of a mother harp seal and her pup forced south of their usual arctic range by the climate crisis. The pup ingests plastic pollution which contributes to her death near the shores of the Isle of Skye. Scottish legend mixes with modern tragedy as mermaids beckon in Gaelic to the harp pup and summon the audience to remember the harp seal. Inversion Ensemble’s project “Aether: Earth—Conservation/Nature” features guest conductor Cina Crisara and Chaski harpist Shana Norton.

—August 2019

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s composition “The Rage and Reconciliation of King Lear” will enjoy its world première performance by Inversion Ensemble June 1–2, 2019, in Austin, TX. Commissioned by Jonathan Riemer in memory of his father, Rev. Dr. Milton H. Riemer, the work for mixed chorus, bassoon, and piano weaves passages from Shakespeare’s King Lear with the signature phrases of Rev. Dr. Riemer. Rev. Dr. Riemer’s words bring insight and reflection to the poignant narrative of a parent–child relationship and mental illness. Inversion Ensemble’s project “Heroes/Monsters: Songs of Legends and Beasts” features bassoonist Nathan Koch and pianist Austin Haller.

—June 2019

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s work “Innocent Blood” was nominated by the Austin Critics Table for Best Original Composition/Score for 2018–19. Her work was part of the Inversion Ensemble’s concert I, Too, Sing America: Songs of Our Shared History, which was also nominated for Best Concert/Opera Performance.

—May 2019

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s composition “Asleep in a Blanket Spun of Energy” enjoyed its world premiere performance by Inversion Ensemble on March 2 and 3, 2019, in Austin, TX. Honoring Inglis’s Ojibwe ancestors, the work for mixed chorus and Trevor Shaw’s electronic track evokes the vivid imagery of Margaret Noodin’s poem “We Are Returning Always.” The piece sets all of the English text and a few key words of the Anishinaabemowin text from the bilingual poem, which beautifully captures a glimpse into the natural and celestial wonders of the Ojibwe world. The music reflects a taste of the syncopated embellished singing, pentatonic melodies, and steady drumbeat characteristic of Ojibwe music. The electronic track provides both a compelling rhythmic foundation and fantastical sonic representations of the moon, nebulae, supernovae, the aurora borealis, and the forests of the Ojibwe lands.

—March 2019

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’s composition “Innocent Blood” was part of the Inversion Ensemble’s “I, Too, Sing America” performance, which was just selected by The Austin Chronicle as one of  Robert Faires’s Top 10 Dance and Classical Joys of 2018. Faires  describes the performance as “a history lesson through choral music, speaking to struggles present and past (e.g., witch trials in Adrienne Inglis’s forceful “Innocent Blood”), with the choir’s united voices ever a symbol of e pluribus unum.”

—January 2019

Part-time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’ composition “Innocent Blood” will soon enjoy its world première performance by Inversion Ensemble. Mary Esty, the composer’s eighth-great-grandmother, was falsely accused of witchcraft and hanged September 22, 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts. Using poetry, court records, Mary’s petition from prison, and Puritan hymns, “Innocent Blood” tells her tragic story in this work for mezzo-soprano soloist, chorus, flute and bass flute, and organ. The performance will be hosted Oct. 6, 2018, at 7 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas, and Oct. 7, 2018, at 3 p.m. at Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas.

—October 2018

Part-time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’ composition “El sol” for SATB chorus, harp, and Venezuelan cuatro enjoyed its world première performance June 2, 2018, in Austin, Texas, with Inversion Ensemble and harpist Shana Norton. “El sol” (The Sun), sets Sonnet XXXIII by Luis Martín de la Plaza to a Venezuelan joropo for SATB chorus, harp, and cuatro. Luis Martín de la Plaza (1577–1625) grew up in the small southern Spanish town of Antequera. A gifted poet as well as a priest, he wrote this Petrarchan sonnet in classical style. The octave (the first eight lines) presents a violent thunderstorm with dark clouds that hide the sun, fierce winds that fight with the sea, waves that batter the rocky coastline, and hail that blankets the fields. The sestet (the final six lines) turns the narrative to the sun’s breaking through the clouds, calming the sea, hushing the wind and thunder, painting the clouds gold, and adorning the fields with fragrant flowers. One is left to wonder whose eyes are so beautiful as to make the sun’s dawn envy their colors. The sonnet’s rhythmic and vivid imagery lends itself to a Venezuelan joropo, a creole dance and musical style derived from Spanish, African, and indigenous sources. The SATB choral parts indulge in some cross rhythms and playful polyphony over a typical joropo rhythm on the harp and Venezuelan cuatro.

—June 2018

Part-time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’ composition “Cochineal” for SATB chorus and electronic dance track enjoyed its world première performance Feb. 10, 2018, with Inversion Ensemble. Inglis’ son, Walter Torres, a PhD oceanography student at Duke, created the electronic dance track. Inversion Ensemble performed “Cochineal” Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018, at Wesleyan at Estrella and Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018, at Westminster Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall. “Cochineal” combines earthy and electronic sound to set to music the ancient Andean recipe for dyeing alpaca wool with cochineal, an insect full of carminic acid that feeds on prickly pear cactus. The recipe depicts the synthesis of insects, alpaca wool, minerals, water, fire, sun, time, and a couple of unusual ingredients to create colorful beauty. Using Andean harmonies and scales, the music captures the grandeur of the Andes mountains and the artisanal tradition of hand-crafting colorful yarn from local natural ingredients. The electronic track features compelling dance rhythms produced from original sound design and processing with software instruments Serum, Alchemy, Sylenth, and Massive among others. “Cochineal” is the first musical collaboration between Adrienne Inglis and Walter Torres.

—February 2018

Part-time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis’ composition “Letters to Faith” made its world premiere June 3 at Austin’s new choral collective Inversion Ensemble. The eight-voice a cappella choral work sets to music two letters written by Inglis’ grandparents to their daughter, Faith Inglis, while she was a student at Pomona College. Faith’s parents wrote these letters to comfort and encourage her after a poor showing on an exam, but unwittingly revealed amusing and poignant family characteristics.

—June 2017

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis recently participated as a flutist, singer, and featured composer in the inaugural concert of Inversion Ensemble, a choral collaborative dedicated to the presentation of new choral works. The Feb. 25 concert in Austin included Inglis’ compositions “In Heaven and on Earth” for chorus, flute and clàrsach, and “On the Mystery of the Incarnation” for chorus and strings.

—March 2017

Part-time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis toured Texas and California with flute/harp duo Chaski for its “Oceans of Space” program in July. The concerts featured ocean-themed music and raised funds for ocean conservation. Chaski performed its own commission, Brandon Nelson’s “Manannán mac Lir” and Inglis’ “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” along with classical, Sephardic, Celtic, and Latin American folk music.

—August 2016

Professor of Music Lois Ferrari hosted the 2016 SU Conductors’ Institute from Jun. 23 - 25. Associate clinician for the workshop was Peter Bay, Music Director of the Austin Symphony. Bay and Ferrari coached ten participating conductors, including recent alum Mattie Kotzur ’16, in Igor Stravinsky’s Octet and L’histoire du soldat. Performers included the following part-time faculty: Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis, Instructor of Applied Music Daniel Chrisman, Assistant Professor of Applied Music Jessica Gilliam-Valls, and Assistant Professor of Applied Music Kyle Koronka. Sir David Whitwell gave a lecture on score memorization. The Institute concluded with a public concert presentation in which all ten participants conducted movements from these two chamber works.

—July 2016

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis toured five counties in rural Texas with flute/harp ensemble Chaski in May 2016. This tour was made possible by a rural outreach grant provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts. Chaski presented six performances of the program “Exploring the Folk Music of Latin America” to audiences in Lampasas, Eastland, Mills, Brown, and San Saba counties.

—June 2016

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis performed a world premiere performance of a work commissioned for Chaski. Brandon Nelson composed “Mannanán mac Lir” for flute and lever harp. Flutist Adrienne Inglis and harpist Shana Norton of Chaski performed the premiere March 3, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Chaski will include the piece in its Oceans of Space II tour this summer

—March 2016

Part-Time Instructor of Applied Music Adrienne Inglis performed a world premiere performance of a work commissioned for Chaski. Brandon Nelson composed “Mannanán mac Lir” for flute and lever harp. Flutist Adrienne Inglis and harpist Shana Norton of Chaski performed the premiere March 3, 2016 in Austin, Texas. Chaski will include the piece in its Oceans of Space II tour this summer.

—March 2016

Flute instructor Adrienne Inglis toured with Chaski to Hot Springs, Ark., November 20-23, to perform Latin American folk music as well as two of Inglis’ compositions. Chaski and the Hot Springs Music Festival Chorus, under the direction of Lynn Payette, presented the Arkansas premiere performances of Inglis’ “Misa trinitaria” and “In Heaven and on Earth” and received a standing ovation.

—December 2014

Flutist and flute instructor Adrienne Inglis, with mezzo-soprano Shaunna Shandro and harpist Shana Norton, performed the American premiere of three works by British composer Rosemary Duxbury on May 4, 2014, in Austin, Texas: The Nightingale, Songs of the Mysterious, and The Dawn Princess. The world premiere of Inglis’ composition, In Heaven and on Earth for SATB chorus, flute, and lever harp, was presented September 28, 2014, by the Westminster Presbyterian Church Sanctuary Choir with director Rick Colvin, flutist Adrienne Inglis, and harpist Norton, in Austin, Texas.

—October 2014