AURA Contemporary Ensemble
AURA performs chamber music from the last two decades, blending multimedia, theater, and collaborations with dancers, actors, and writers. The ensemble champions new works, commissions compositions, and pushes the boundaries of 21st-century performance.
Under the direction of Rob Smith, AURA is dedicated to the performance of chamber music composed in the last two decades. Members of the ensemble become well acquainted with contemporary music repertoire, techniques, and styles. AURA seeks to identify and establish new and innovative means of performing chamber music in the twenty-first century by using theatrical lighting, video, projections, and electronics in their concerts, and through collaborations with actors, authors, dancers, and visual artists.
AURA has frequently collaborated with dancers, including two programs with the Psophonia Dance Company, where the musicians equally share the stage with the dancers, and concerts with the Sandra Organ Dance Company and the UH Dance Ensemble. For AURA’s “With Words” series, they commissioned student and faculty authors from the UH English and Hispanic Studies creative writing programs to compose poems and short stories, which are read by the authors prior to the performance of the music that inspired their writing.
In 2018, AURA collaborated with aHouston actor Susan Koozin to create the program “Murder Mystery”, which featured poetry, monologues, and an original short play interspersed amongst the musical selections. In early 2020 they collaborated with actors from Texas Southern University for “Haunted”, a hybrid of chamber music and theater built around a short story commissioned from author Brendan Stephens.
In the 2020-2021 season, AURA moved online to perform for a global audience through their video series “One on One”. Through elaborate and highly creative videos, AURA musicians performed exciting new solo works and interviewed the composers that created them. The series features composers from Albania, Australia, Columbia, Costa Rica, France, India, South Korea, United Kingdom, and the United States and can be viewed on YouTube here.
The ensemble has commissioned numerous works and annually performs new compositions by the undergraduate and graduate student winners of the annual Louisa Stude Sarofim Composition Competition for UH students. In addition to performing at the Moores Opera House, the ensemble frequently performs in numerous off-campus venues, such as the Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston (MATCH) and the Archway Gallery.
Performers are selected in April for the following academic year and admission is by audition. Interested students should contact the director for audition information.
Rob Smith, Professor and Coordinator of Composition; Director of AURA Contemporary Ensemble