I Know What My Heart is Like
Takin’ Souls features mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen and bassoonist Darrel Hale. Their collaboration began with a shared passion for exploring the rich possibilities at the intersection of classical and contemporary classical music. Megan and Darrel first joined forces in a recital of new music alongside Elena Lacheva and Stephanie Gustafson Amfahr, featuring works by Alec Wilder, William Winstead, Mara Gibson, Hannah Rice, and Jenni Brandon. This collaborative experience catalyzed the formation of Takin’ Souls, allowing Megan and Darrel to delve deeper into the nuanced interplay of their respective instruments.
Megan Ihnen’s versatile and expressive mezzo-soprano voice, coupled with Darrel Hale’s brilliant and lyrical bassoon playing, creates a distinctive listening experience that honors and expands traditional chamber music paradigms. Their repertoire is characterized by a commitment to the works of living composers, reflecting their dedication to contemporary music and its evolving landscape.
The duo frequently collaborates with harpist Stephanie Gustafson Amfahr, enriching their sound world and broadening their artistic reach. Takin’ Souls is not only committed to exceptional performance but also to the advancement of new music through commissions and premieres. Their thoughtful approach to music-making ensures that each performance is meticulously crafted and intellectually engaging, making significant contributions to the field of contemporary classical music.
Program announced from stage featuring selections from the following works:
Washing Water Buffalo in the Ocean (2020) Gregory W. Brown (b. 1974)
White Ash (2019) Mara Gibson (b. 1972)
The Wind Will Takes Us (2019) Niloufar Iravani (b.1990)
Millay Songs Dana Kaufman (b.1992)
Figs from Thistles: First Fig
I think I should have loved you presently (Sonnet IX)
Ebb
Afternoon on a Hill
Figs from Thistles: First Fig Reprise
Everybody’s a Picasso Eric Malmquist (b. 1985)
Aurora (2019) Hannah Rice (b.2000)
Bound III (2015) Garrett Schumann (b.1987)
The Centipède – Le Mille-Pattes (2013) David W. Solomons (b. 1953)
Megan Ihnen is a New Orleans–based mezzo-soprano praised for her “impressive set of pipes” (Take Effect). She treats the voice as both ritual and instrument, moving fluently among contemporary classical chamber works, experimental and graphic scores, live electronics, and site-responsive performance while remaining tethered to the tactile presence of the acoustic body. “Her voice seems to emerge from the waves of the ocean,” writes Giorgio Koukl for EarRelevant.
Ihnen has inspired over 100 works specifically written for her voice. Appearances include International Contemporary Ensemble, Fifth House Ensemble, Great Noise Ensemble, and festivals such as Houston Grand Opera’s Religare series, where she performed John Cage’s iconic 4′33″, Tuesdays @ Monk Space, Access Contemporary Music’s Thirsty Ears, and NEXTET. Her multi-album Sleep Songs commissions wordless lullabies from living composers, she performs works for voice and bassoon in Takin’ Souls with Darrel Hale, and her duo Neonautica’s touring show Black Meridian weaves voice, saxophone, and electronics into a meditation on cosmic distortion and human fracture.
A committed interpreter of hybrid and graphic practices, she has voiced Tristan Gianola’s live chamber score for the silent horror classic Häxan, tackled Adam Scott Neal’s acrylic-splotched Splatter Score, and premiered Jason Barabba’s Phonetical Lullaby. Equally at ease in staged/operatic works and chamber music, she has performed Mara Gibson’s pastiche opera Galatea’s Dream, Amy Beth Kirsten’s Ophelia Forever, Kate Soper’s Here Be Sirens, and Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater. Improvised jazz inflections color Matthew Evan Taylor’s Joyful Noise: Sound of Defiance, while Ryan Carraher’s demanding …most of us… pushes her vocal and physical limits into “New Sincerity” extremes.
Ihnen’s work often aligns music with visual narrative. She toured Kurtág’s Kafka Fragments with violinist Martha Muehleisen, commissioning Rome Prize artist Karen Yasinsky to create hand-drawn, stop-motion films reframing the cycle through mountaineer Junko Tabei. Cross-disciplinary ventures include Erik Spangler’s site-specific Devonian Geometry in Iowa’s fossil gorge, Debra Loewen’s Into the Garden with Nick Zoulek and Wild Space Dance Company, and an early version of Nathan Davis’s Hagoromo with International Contemporary Ensemble for the Guggenheim’s Works & Process series.
She curated the New Music Shelf Anthology for Mezzo-Soprano, runs the non-profit the Live Music Project, teaches in the Peabody Institute’s Professional Studies Department, and is a Voting Member of the Recording Academy’s Memphis Chapter. You can follow Megan’s artistic exploits at meganihnen.com
Darrel Hale joined the University of North Texas College of Music in August 2021 as Associate Professor of Bassoon. A native of Denver, Colorado, he is Principal Bassoon of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra. Prior to his appointment at UNT, he served on the faculty at Louisiana State University and was Acting Principal Bassoon of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra under Lucas Richman.
An active orchestral performer, Hale has also served as Principal Bassoon of the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra and Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with numerous other ensembles, including the Fort Worth Symphony, Dallas Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, Dayton Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Gulf Coast Symphony, Shreveport Symphony, Meridian Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, and Cincinnati Symphony Chamber Players. As a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, Hale performed with the Aspen Academy of Conducting Orchestra under Maestro David Zinman and spent three summers as Second Bassoon in the Aspen Festival Orchestra alongside Per Hannevold.
A dedicated teacher, Hale has presented masterclasses in a variety of venues, including the International Double Reed Society Conference (2019), the Meg Quigley Symposium Pre-College Camp (2021), the Hot Springs Festival, and the Midwest Musical Imports Master Class Series. He has also taught at numerous universities and conservatories across the United States, including the College-Conservatory of Music, the University of Texas at Austin, Baylor University, The Ohio State University, the University of Kentucky, the University of Southern Mississippi, and the University of Georgia at Athens.
An advocate for expanding the bassoon repertoire, Hale has commissioned several new works for bassoon and voice with his duo partner, mezzo-soprano Megan Ihnen. These include Ahead of All Parting (2019) by Jenni Brandon, Aurora (2019) by Hannah Rice, White Ash (2019) by Mara Gibson, Washing Water Buffalo in the Ocean (2019) by Gregory Brown, and Millary Songs (2020) by Dana Kaufman. Hale has also participated in consortium commissions of works by Drew Baker, Jenni Brandon, and Nico Muhly. In May 2021, he premiered a new concerto for bassoon and orchestra written for him by Mara Gibson, entitled Escher Keys.
As a recitalist, Hale has performed at several International Double Reed Society Conferences, including those in Spain and Tokyo, as well as at the Meg Quigley Symposiums in 2019 and 2021, and the International Clarinet Association Conferences in 2014 and 2016. As a soloist, he has appeared with ensembles at Louisiana State University, performing Mozart’s Concerto in B-flat Major, K. 191, Weber’s Andante and Hungarian Rondo, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Concerto. In January 2020, Hale appeared with his colleagues in the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra to perform Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante under the direction of Maestro Timothy Muffitt.
Hale earned his Bachelor of Music degree in bassoon performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, studying with Dr. Yoshiyuki Ishikawa. He completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he studied with the late William Winstead. His other teachers include Per Hannevold, Martin James, and Chad Cognata.
