Music to celebrate the sun at Dominican

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ETHEL, a Julliard-trained string quartet, performs a blend of classical and contemporary music at Dominican University on Jan. 28.

Updated: January 24, 2012 8:59PM

“Music is music and we spread a wide net,” said Ralph Farris, violist with ETHEL, the Julliard-trained string quartet which is returning to Dominican Saturday, Jan. 28, after a sold-out performance there several years back. “We are not too worried about labels.”

For this concert Ferris and his fellow musicians Cornelius Dufallo and Jennifer Choir, violins, and Dorothy Lawson, cello, will be joined by two-time Grammy-winning Native American flutist Robert Mirabal from the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico.

“We’re playing music of the sun,” Farris continued. “It is a very life-affirming program, based on sun mythology from around the world — pagan, Western European, and especially Robert’s Native American view.”

Mirabal is a composer, painter, writer, flute-maker and performer who lives a traditional life at the foot of the Taos Mountains. He has also performed for audiences around the globe, and in turn his own compositions have been influenced by world music. He will play several Native American flutes and drums with the quartet.

“Robert is an absolutely beautiful artist,” Farris said. “He is wise, a deep thinker who is very connected to the earth. But, he added, “he is also a total prankster and lots of fun.”

Mirabal has written a choral piece based on Native American chant, which will be sung by Dominican’s Noteworthy Show Choir. Farris has contributed to the program as well, setting to music three poems by Harry Smith.

The program also includes “Solstice” by Navajo composer Jordan Begay, as well as a cheerful piece titled “Arrival” by Marcelo Zarvos. “That one is not about the sun, but it brings a brightness and warmth to the room.” the violist declared, “so we decided to play it.”

The quartet draws its repertoire for numerous sources, including Kentucky Blue Grass and Chicago Hip-Hop, and the players are not afraid to improvise and use technology, including amplification.

“But this is a full musical program with a flow to it,” Farris insisted. “Contemporary music by people we know, works by young composers.” Compositions by, for example, Don Byron and John Luther Adams, will fill the 1,200-seat auditorium.

After all, as Farris says, music is music.