REVIEW: Sam Torres & Sophia Subbayya Vastek with the now ensemble
11/16/2024 at Troy Listening Room
“Vastek’s delicate, yet powerful playing softly lifted audience members up and gently eased them back down to Earth.”
By the time the music began last Saturday at the Troy Listening Room, it was standing-room only inside the venue’s charming church space. As intended, the majority of the audience was either seated in rows of folding chairs or spread out into a cozy seated area with couches towards the entrance. Hosts Sam Torres and Sophia Subbayya Vastek encouraged guests to sit, close their eyes, and really soak in the music as best they can.
This show, which included both Vastek’s solo work and a performance by the group the NOW Ensemble, was a bit different than what Torres and Vastek typically showcase at the space. The two don’t usually host chamber music, nor do they often showcase their own work in this fashion–under the stringlit rafters, it felt like an intimate and special occasion.
Vastek opened the night with music she composed on a stunning upright Kimball piano from 1902. In appearance alone, the piano is full of character and charm with a notable “giant crack” in its soundboard. What struck me most about the roughly 15 minute piece, aside from Vastek’s clear talent, care, and dedication to her craft, were all the idiosyncratic noises you don’t typically hear from just any piano. As the music swelled and quieted down, the creaking joints and taps of the instrument’s inner-mechanisms played alongside it. It was as if there were two instruments at work in one: half piano, half percussion. This duality made the atmosphere warm and haunting, like a ghost was walking up and down old wooden stairs or puttering around in another room, while Vastek’s delicate, yet powerful playing softly lifted audience members up and gently eased them back down to Earth.
The NOW Ensemble followed shortly thereafter. Their arrangement of flute, clarinet, electric guitar, double bass, and piano puts a modern spin on chamber music and their newest project entitled Communities marks their 20th anniversary performing as a group. Torres and Vastek were commissioned to write new music as part of Communities, which they workshopped together and subsequently performed for this audience.
About halfway through the night, someone graciously offered their seat to me in favor of standing. A moment later, a member of the NOW Ensemble introduced that individual as Patrick Burke, composer and founding member of NOW whose piece “Awake” they performed next. True to its name, the music begins gentle and slow with piano and flute, then builds into bright and lively intensity eventually blooming into its fullest sound with clarinet and double bass joining in. To close out the night, Vastek swapped in for Michael Mizrahi on piano for a performance alongside the rest of the members of NOW.
Vastek is a third-generation musician and recognized composer by the New York State Council on the Arts and New York Foundation For the Arts (NYSCA/NYFA). Torres, a professional audio engineer, mixes the shows for the space. Currently, he is the Director of the recording studio at Skidmore College and Assistant Technical Director at Zankel Music Center.
“We move between a lot of genres, but the overarching theme is the highest-quality listening experience,” Vastek says. “I'd say it all boils down to creating a space for intentional listening.”
You can learn more about the Troy Listening Room by following @troylisteningroom on Instagram. To learn about the NOW Ensemble, Sophia Subbayya Vastek, and Sam Torres, please visit the links below:
https://www.nowensemble.com/about
https://sophiavastek.com/about
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/troylisteningroom/1437485?