Mekong: SOUL Produced by Apollo Chamber Players

Mekong: SOUL tells three powerful and multi-sensory stories about life on the Mekong River of Southeast Asia. With music, audiences will hear the sounds of Vietnamese, Khmer, Thai, Lao, and Burmese communities. With dance, they will see the pains of departure from the homeland and the struggles faced by those torn from the river. With spoken word and moving images, all can appreciate the bonds of the mother who sustains life whether on the river or in diaspora.

With water as a universal and multicultural bond, Apollo collaborates with Houston Ballet Principal Connor Walsh and Demi Soloist Chae Eun Yang for a genre-fusing performance of Marty Regan’s Splash of Indigo. In addition, we uplift the artistry of Vietnam veteran composer J. Kimo Williams, whose work Into the Liquid reflects a life of inspiration and service.

Houston-based  Apollo Chamber Players “performs with rhythmic flair and virtuosity” (The Strad) and “recasts music for a diverse and multi-ethnic generation” (Strings Magazine). The ensemble’s globally-inspired programming and multicultural new music commissions have garnered international acclaim, including sold-out performances at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and in Havana, Cuba as well as a Chamber Music America Residency Partnership award and regular features on American Public Media’s Performance Today.

Emmy Award®-winning musician Vân-Ánh Vanessa Võ is one of the finest performers of Vietnamese traditional instruments in the world, and a rapidly emerging composer. She dedicates her life to creating music by blending the wonderfully unique sounds of Vietnamese instruments with other music genres, and fusing deeply rooted Vietnamese musical traditions with fresh new structures and compositions.