Future Echoes: Elisabeth Hetherington and the ADAM Quartet

This new work by Vinthya Perinpanathan, commissioned by Elisabeth Hetherington and the ADAM Quartet, is scored for soprano, string quartet, and electronics.

Schönberg’s String Quartet No. 2, with which this work is paired, departed from musical tradition to explore new avenues of musical expression. In a similar vein, Perinpanathan has incorporated electronics to further challenge tradition. She also draws on her own practice of cross-cultural composition to express new ideas musically. Specifically, she focuses on nature and the folk tradition as a way to trouble the binaries that exist between the acoustic and the electronic, between Europe and South Asia, and between Sinhalese and Tamil traditions. The work instead emphasises the potential for unity between these dichotomies, and the cultural heritage we share as a species.

In detailed conversation with the composer, the creative writer Abíọ́dún Abdul was commissioned to author a poem to be set to music. Together, text and music mirror the structure of Schönberg’s quartet; in Perinpanathan’s work, the voice also enters in the third movement, singing a Sri Lankan kavi-inspired melody. But here, the text is rather autobiographical, expressing the optimistic and romanticised worldview of a protagonist referred to as ‘mountain child’. ‘Vinthya’, in Sanskrit, means ‘mountain’.

Though she takes much inspiration from Schönberg, Perinpanathan diverges from the otherworldly imagery of his quartet by offering a grounded, Earth-centred reflection on his ideas. This is achieved primarily through electronic samples taken from the composer’s time spent in nature during field research trips to Sri Lanka. It is through this integration of European tradition with instrumental and conceptual innovation that Perinpanathan has in this work attempted to capture some of the musings which guide her creative work. Those centre around the natural world, unifying humanity, and the concepts of home and identity.

The premiere performance will be held on Wednesday 28th January 2026 during Amsterdam’s String Quartet Biennale at the Muziekgebouw.