“Using the vulnerability of the human voice as a connective thread,” local ensemble The Isaura String Quartet presents a selection of new music under the connective title of Hum. Each part of Laura Steenberge’s String Quartet (2014) is inspired by a different animal, whereas Nicole Lizée’s Darkness Is Not Well Lit (2016) is described as “a sonic imagining of film noir … as seen — and heard — from the vantage point of an electric fan.”

The world premiere of David Rosenboom’s Quartet for the Beginning of a Time invokes “a time collapsing and a time emerging,” and another world premiere, Carmina Escobar and Sean Deyoe’s Alchemies, enacts “audiovisual potions for transmutation.” The program culminates with the West Coast premiere of Alex Temple’s Behind the Wallpaper, a song cycle that twines inventive string work with melodious vocals by charismatic art-pop singer Julia Holter.

REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., downtown; Wed., Dec. 11, 8:30 p.m.; $22. (213) 237-2800, redcat.org.

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