AURA Contemporary Ensemble

If you can’t make it in because of the rain, watch us on the livestream! 50 minutes of exciting new music!

University of Houston Moores School of Music Situated in one of the largest and most diverse cities in the nation, the Moores School of Music prepares students for success in performance, education, and scholarship. Our students and faculty engage with some of the world’s most prestigious performance organizations, including the Houston Gran...

☄️ “Return of the Comet” (1986)
by James Sellars

American composer James Sellars contemplates the heavens and the celebration of a comet’s reappearance in Return of the Comet, for string quintet, winds, and synthesizer. When composing the work, Sellars sought to create music that had the immediacy of pop culture, but without the potential banality or commercialism that comes with it. To do this he incorporated familiar materials and tropes, but in unexpected ways, challenging our perception of what direction he is approaching us from.

Brenna Barrera, flute/piccolo
Nathan Vilhena K**k, clarinet (A, E-flat, B-flat & bass)
Marco Tulio Hernandez, violin 
Davi Buczynski da Silva, violin
Daniel Castorena, viola 
Benjamin Serur, cello
Elijah Dycus, double bass 
Alisiya Boiko, keyboard
Rob Smith, conductor

📍 Moores Opera House
🗓️ May 1 | 7:30 PM

JAMES SELLARS was an imaginative and original composer, outspoken commentator on music and art, and demanding but inspiring teacher of hundreds of students. We will be performing one of his most significant works, RETURN OF THE COMET, a exhilarating, virtuosic, postmodern romp. This work successfully achieves his goal of creating a work that generates a sense of immediacy with the audience while avoiding banality and schlock on one side and kitsch and commercialism on the other.