The Aurora Borealis Duo — featuring soprano and UB faculty member Tiffany Du Mouchelle and percussionist Stephen Solook — will perform in concert April 9 at UB.

The concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall, North Campus.

Aurora Borealis has premiered more duo and chamber works for voice and percussion than any other duo of this instrumentation. The duo commissions works that focus on expanding the repertoire of voice and percussion composition, specifically exploring new dimensions of the relationship between these two instruments.

They will perform the following program at UB:

“Lohn” by Kaija Saariaho (for solo voice and electronics)

The world premiere of “Sonic Etudes” by UB MM student Emily Barger

(for soprano and vibraphone)

“Bird Songs” by Susan Botti (for solo singer with a bird’s nest of percussion)

“The Mussels” by Carolyn Chen (for voice and percussion)

Tickets are $10 and can be purchased through Ticketmaster, at the Center for the Arts box office from noon to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, and at the Slee Hall box office an hour before concert time. UB students with a valid ID receive one complimentary ticket and may pick it up at the box office right before the concert.

Director of the vocal performance program in the Department of Music, Du Mouchelle is a recipient of the prestigious Richard F. Gold Career Grant for American Opera Singers and has been praised for her musical versatility, an electric stage presence and exceptional dramatic sensibilities. She is known for exploring new and challenging repertoire, ushering the voice to new realms of musical styles and languages including classical, world, contemporary, cabaret, and theatrical works in more than 100 different languages.

Solook is a critically acclaimed percussionist and interpreter of contemporary music. He has worked with Pulitzer Prize-winning composers Paul Moravec and Roger Reynolds, Chinary Ung, Bruce Adolphe and David Loeb. In 2021, he was a finalist for Artist of the Year from Art Services Inc. Spark Awards, received top awards in The Vibraphone Projects composition competition and received a New York State Council on the Arts Individual Award to create a large composition for speaking vibraphonist.

Du Mouchelle and Solook founded Aurora Borealis in 2004 when they were asked to collaborate on a performance of Roberto Sierra’s “Invocationes” for voice and percussion at the Mannes College in New York City. Since then, they have performed across the globe from New York to Los Angeles, Egypt, Cameroon and even the remote villages of Papua New Guinea.

To support both voice and percussion equally and make percussion more than just an accompaniment, the duo formed close relationships with many American composers, primarily through commissioning new works that highlight both voice and percussion.