Seeing rising threats to the freedom of expression, the Houston-based Apollo Chamber Players commissioned composers to make a statement. The result? "Ban: Stories of Censorship," an album of works by Marty Regan, Jasmine Barnes & Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, Mark Buller, Erberk Eryilmaz, Allison Loggins-Hull, Paul Miller (AKA DJ Spooky) & Homayoun Sakhi — most of whom are composers with strong Texas connections.
Matthew Detrick, violinist and founder/director of Apollo, joined us to talk about the project and listen to clips together. He believes the time turned out to be perfect, even more timely than they'd expected in planning it. "Apollo's mission and our vision is to create cultural harmony through musical exploration. We've commissioned over 60 new musical works in the last ten or eleven years. But the journey to cultural harmony, if it can ever be attained, must include resistance against people and forces that may be antithetical to democracy, decency, and human rights."
They've been focusing on censorship and democracy for the last two seasons now. Says Detrick, "I have a young son, and I want to be able to tell him when he's an adult that I tried everything I could do to help move the needle and save democracy, and hopefully connect people with dialogue through music and art."
One piece, "The Book of Names," by Marty Regan, commemorates the Japanese American internees in World War II, in part by speaking their names out loud. Apollo reached out to iconic actor, author, and activist George Takei to add his powerful personal narrative to the piece — the result is a throat-catching highlight of the album, with Takei's octogenarian voice reflecting wisdom, weariness, and steel determination to see justice through. Detrick hopes that "listeners around the world for decades to come will be moved by this piece and his story."
Twelve tracks in all, it's a Silk Road market of styles and musical heritages, all brought together by the single vision of standing up against censorship. Detrick points out that, right now, there are countries where police go door-to-door making sure that no music at all is played in homes. "We want to make sure we never go down that road." It's safe to say we're in good hands with a group like Apollo shining the spotlight on the issue, and making beautiful music in the process.
The album, released on the Azica Records label, is available on all the streaming platforms, and more information is available at apollochamberplayers.org.
Disclosure: TPR receives a small percentage of any purchase made using the Amazon links on its site.
