Habari Gani! This luminous opener owes its name to the Swahili greeting exchanged during the celebration of Kwanzaa. The ideals of unity and fellowship form the essence of this orchestral showpiece, where rhythm and dance lithely soar throughout. Featuring the number five in its meter and in its use of the pentatonic scale, Habari Gani springs forward like chatter of the latest news in a sub-Saharan community. On the score, the composer offers: “What’s the news? The news is joyful, exuberant, and wondrous.”
 
African American composer and cellist Quenton Blache is based in Los Angeles and holds degrees in cello performance and in composition from University of Southern California Thornton School of Music as well as a minor in Chinese. His prolific compositional output is distinct beyond the concert stage and extends to scoring numerous short films and documentaries. A prize-winning cellist, and participant in previous Sphinx Virtuosi tours, he returns to USC this season as a featured soloist with the Thornton Symphony. Current projects include pursuing a master's degree in screen scoring and competing in national level chess tournaments. Habari Gani fuses the composer’s Cameroonian ancestral roots and character to form an electric string orchestra debut.

— Maïthéna Girault