A (Flute) Rhapsody and a Remix with Allison Loggins-Hull

For laureled American composer-flutist Allison Loggins-Hull, writing music is not a rarefied, solitary exercise but one that has profound connections to lived experience. Her body of work, she said in a recent interview, is “very much inspired by real life, real things, real people, real events, real history.” Together with unusual instrumentation that often incorporates electronic sounds and modern techniques, this grounded approach yields unique forms and moods. Seattle audiences will have a few opportunities to experience Loggins-Hull’s sonic innovation this summer with the West Coast premiere and Seattle Symphony co-commission of Rhapsody on a Theme by Joni, performed by Principal Flute Demarre McGill with the orchestra in the Ravel Boléro program (June 19, 21 & 22); and in this season’s last Octave 9 Series presentation, Remix, which finds Loggins-Hull herself performing some new versions of her own works joined by a string quartet of Symphony musicians (June 20).  

Loggins-Hull is among a new wave of composers bridging the gap between the classical establishment and more popular genres. “I really pride myself on the versatility of my resume, and that’s important to me as a musician,” she said. In addition to Flutronix, her genre-blending electro-acoustic flute duo with composer Nathalie Joachim, she has collaborated with such artists as Frank Ocean and Hans Zimmer. She has also accompanied fellow flute powerhouse Lizzo, performing with her at the GRAMMY Awards and even leading a “flute army” at the rapper-singer-flutist’s MET Gala performance in 2023.  

On the more traditionally classical side of things, Loggins-Hull has kept extremely busy. She is currently finishing a productive three-year tenure as The Cleveland Orchestra’s Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow, during which she penned a number of new commissions and got involved with the wider community through student workshops and performances. She expressed gratitude for the chance to engage with Cleveland locals: “I've had the ability to not just write for the orchestra, but to be embedded and get to know the culture there.” 

She has created music for the chamber orchestra Alarm Will Sound, known for premiering works by some of today’s foremost composers. Alarm Will Sound honored Loggins-Hull with a Matt Marks Impact Fund award, meant to encourage what it describes as “risky,” “groundbreaking and unconventional” musical projects. Loggins-Hull has also taken up her post as the latest Resident Artistic Partner at the New Jersey Symphony, where she is currently working with celebrated conductor and the Seattle Symphony’s incoming Music Director, Xian Zhang.  

Along with her daring instrumentation, cross-genre chops and ability to create richly beautiful musical narratives, Loggins-Hull possesses a passionate commitment to exploring contemporary and historical society and experience. “I feel that not just classical music, but any type of art, any type of medium, any type of expressive, creative output should be reflective of the now, what’s going on in the world around us,” she explained. 

For Loggins-Hull, given the weight of the “historical element of the field,” it may be even more urgent for classical music than for other forms “to have balance and representation of what’s going on in the world currently, especially the larger the institution you are and the larger your audience.” Her contemplations of motherhood and Black American stories have given her oeuvre a moving relevance to today’s audiences. For example, her song cycle co-written with Toshi Reagon for Alarm Will Sound, called Love Always, was inspired in part by her need to explain the police shooting of Michael Brown to her young son when he began asking questions about it.  

Loggins-Hull’s music stirringly expresses the emotions of contemporary life. For her piece co-commissioned by the Seattle Symphony — which debuts here around the centennial of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue — she took on the challenge of expressing euphoria in our complicated times. She drew inspiration from her collaborator, flutist/singer/artist Alex Sopp, and another extraordinary woman artist: songwriter Joni Mitchell. “[Sopp’s] musicality has always reminded me of Joni Mitchell — the way in which she sings, the way in which she thinks about harmony.” For her Rhapsody on a Theme by Joni, Loggins-Hull “decided to lean into these women artists as my muses, to come up with material that felt genuinely jubilant to me.”  

Seattle audiences can also hear Loggins-Hull and Seattle Symphony musicians perform some of her chamber compositions at the intimate Remix concert in Octave 9: Raisbeck Music Center. The program will include a rearrangement of her Rhapsody as well as of her piece Homeland, plus original versions of several other pieces she composed over the past few years.  

These pieces hold a special relevance for the present moment. Homeland, written in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria’s devastation of Puerto Rico, is a haunting flute solo exploring themes of home, loss and hope during natural or human-caused crises. In its original form, the piece poignantly questions patriotism and belonging through a distorted echo of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Ban, a stormy piece for string quartet and flute, expresses angst over the censorship of literature. Hectic rhythms and uncharacteristically harsh cries from the flute emphasize the conflict arising from attempts at suppression — a fitting reaction to the 2023–2024 school year, during which American districts banned 4,000 individual titles. Persist, a chamber work commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts, is a paean to the strength of Loggins-Hull’s ancestors throughout times of slavery, segregation and continuing forms of oppression. Passages of atonality contrast with moments of lyricism and gentleness, while tenacious rhythms convey endurance through generations of hardship.  

While possessing her own highly distinctive voice, Loggins-Hull derives creative energy from the musicians, composers and communities with which she works. Through this approach, Loggins-Hull is reshaping the role of composer as an artistic partner and voice for collaborators and audiences alike. 

Music Director Designate Xian Zhang is generously sponsored by Dr. and Mrs. Charles and Lisa Simonyi and an anonymous donor.