On Thursday, November 21st, contemporary/avant-garde music collective Mothership Ensemble will present the first concert of their 2013-14 concert season at Decca. The program will feature both newly-composed works and 20th century classics performed by some of the most versatile and enthusiastic players in the Louisville area.

The centerpiece of the program is Louis Andriessen’s raucous, 20-minute epic Workers Union (1975), written for “any loud-sounding group of instruments.” The composer describes the piece as a political metaphor that features “a combination of individual freedom and severe discipline... it is difficult to play in an ensemble and to remain in step, sort of like organizing and carrying on political action.”

Mothership will also present the world premiere of Louisville composer Chris Kincaid’s sensuous and atmospheric Full Sunlight, written for bass flute, viola, cello, and electronic sounds. The work is inspired by the poem “Full Sunlight” written by Louisville-born poet Conyer Clayton. Kincaid was interested in how “much of the poem is portrayed as a still shot, a moment in time that is filled with so much. The music is not exactly frozen in time, but instead takes place in time that slowed almost to a standstill.”

Ensemble director and cellist Jon Silpayamanant will performer in almost every work on the program, including two pieces written specifically for him by Louisville-based composer Rachel Short. Mayaplis, for solo cello and electronics, depicts the immersive, electrifying, and overwhelming experiences of being in a large city. Short’s Lucid Themes, originally written for multimedia duo Camera Lucida, features gorgeous video projections by artist Roxell Karr in a lively duet with Silpayamanant.

The Mothership Ensemble is a new music collective based in the Louisville area, founded by Rachel Short and Jon Silpayamanant in 2012. They seek to increase the performance and awareness of contemporary music in Louisville through unique programming in unconventional venues. The group constantly seeks and commissions new music from young and local composers while continuing to present essential, yet underrepresented works of the 20th and 21st centuries. Mothership maintains an “open” membership, welcoming anyone in the community that interested in performing contemporary music to join them.