I am lost to the world...

Bela Bartok String Quartet No. 6

Solo selections by Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ TBD

John Dowland/Arr. Vo Flow My Tears
Gustav Mahler/Arr. Vo Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen
Henry Purcell/Arr. Vo The Cold Song

In 2025 as part of their Kaisahan Initiative the Arneis Quartet launches a collaboration with Vietnamese musician Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ, known for her boundary-breaking performances that blend the wonderfully unique sounds of Vietnamese instruments with other genres, and fuses deeply rooted Vietnamese musical traditions with fresh new structures and compositions.  This multi-performance collaboration explores music reflecting on the repercussions of war in the 20th century and beyond, with a special focus commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

Arneis offers a first musical reflection on war and the refugee experience via a performance of Bela Bartok’s String Quartet No. 6.  Bartok wrote his sixth and last string quartet in 1939 as the beginning of World War II shook Europe to its core.  Via his involvement with the League of Nations as a committee member he bore early witness to deteriorating human rights on the continent paired with rising nationalistic tensions, tragedies that still plague our global community to this day.  These conditions led Bartok to become a refugee in the United States.  

Vo will then introduce the audience to a sound world combining traditional Vietnamese instruments with the Western string quartet via her original compositions and arrangements of songs by John Dowland, Gustav Mahler, and Henry Purcell.  This instrumental combination will be featured in a Fall 2025 production of The Odyssey, exploring the personal and spiritual journeys of the Boat People escaping war and abandoning their lives in the search for freedom with an alien and unknowable future.