Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the Ann Arbor District Library’s Pulp blog.

Now that she’s finished graduate school, Sophie Bracken finds herself longing for past springs.

The University of Michigan alum and Ann Arbor clarinetist channels that feeling when she performs “I cannot meet the Spring unmoved” with OUT Ensemble, a wind quintet composed of LGBTQ+ musicians performing and commissioning the works of queer classical composers.

“I know that I myself am kind of nostalgic in spring for my high school days and some of the things we would do together in high school band,” said Bracken, who recently graduated with a master’s degree in chamber music. “I think it’s just a really interesting way to reflect on spring.”

Composed by U-M alum Nora Farley, “I cannot meet the Spring unmoved” is titled after and inspired by the Emily Dickinson poem of the same name.

“I really like Nora’s interpretation of spring,” Bracken said. “The Emily Dickinson poem, as well, that she’s drawing from has a lot of nostalgia and longing, which isn’t necessarily what you associate with spring—it’s usually a season of renewal and hope.”

The piece also serves as the opening track from OUT Ensemble’s debut album, Seasons of Change, which comes out May 22.

The four-track album features OUT Ensemble’s David Michael on bassoon, Alan Cook on flute and piccolo, Jenna Stokes on French horn, Bracken on clarinet and bass clarinet, and her identical twin sister, Abby Bracken, on oboe and English horn. (Sophie Bracken is the older twin by two minutes.)

The Bracken sisters formed OUT Ensemble in August 2024 while starting their graduate programs at U-M and quickly assembled a wind quintet with three other students.

During that time, the ensemble rehearsed and performed together regularly before working on Seasons of Change. The album is the culmination of their talent and dedication, and thematically explores the cycle of seasons through the lens of queer composers over time.

“We started the album with [spring] as the first seasonal change of a year,” Bracken said. “And it’s such a beautiful use of the bassoon, too, as a solo instrument, and I think it really captures the timbre of the nostalgia.”

While Farley’s piece opens the album, three additional works by queer composers focus on the other seasons of the year, including Samuel Barber’s “Summer Music,” Jennifer Higdon’s “Autumn Music,” and Mattie Levy’s “A Winter Wind.”

“One of the seminal pieces for wind quintet in general is Samuel Barber’s ‘Summer Music,’ and so Jennifer Higdon had written a response to that piece called ‘Autumn Music,’” said Bracken, who’s also the executive director for OUT Ensemble.

“‘Autumn Music’ was one of the first pieces that we played together as a group, and that was a tough one to start with. We had this piece, and we knew we wanted to do ‘Summer Music.’ We said, ‘Well, we have two out of four seasons. What if we commissioned new composers to write works that filled it out?’”

Bracken and OUT Ensemble then commissioned Farley and Levy, also a U-M alum, to compose “I cannot meet the Spring unmoved” and “A Winter Wind,” respectively.

Farley and Bracken had taken a class together at U-M about commissioning music, so Bracken asked her to compose a piece about spring.

“I’m a big fan of Emily Dickinson’s poetry, and there is some debate about whether Emily Dickinson was in a relationship with her brother’s wife,” Bracken said.

“Because that dialogue is out there, and the TV show Dickinson in my head is canon, I picked three poems that were about spring and sent them to Nora. And then Nora happened to pick my favorite one. That was really lovely to see it interpreted through a wind quintet instrumental lens.”

Bracken also had heard Levy’s work through attending concerts, and since Levy is also an oboist, Abby Bracken already knew Levy through the Michigan oboe network.

“The title did actually change for [Levy’s piece],” Bracken said. “Winter initially was not in the title, but as we were looking at the tracks, we said, ‘You know what? This should all be there.’”

OUT Ensemble started recording the four pieces for Seasons of Change last fall at U-M’s Duderstadt Center studio and finished the process in March.

All five members of the ensemble co-produced the album and worked with engineers Rj Dion, Stephen Elsinger, and Ancel “Fitz” Neeley.

With their foray into production, OUT Ensemble learned how recording session length and weather impacted their recording process.

“I’ve learned that longer sections are better to record,” Bracken said. “We had thought it would be easier if we did shorter chunks to piece it together.

“It’s [also] hard … when you have to book something so far in advance, you’re not really thinking about the weather. But there was a cold snap in March, and all of our reeds changed.”

Now, the ensemble is ready to celebrate the album’s release with a May 22 performance at AADL’s Downtown location.

All four pieces from Seasons of Change will be performed by OUT Ensemble, then a Q&A with the musicians and composers Nora Farley and Mattie Levy will follow.

“As far as performing these pieces together, it will be the first time we’ve performed the whole album together on a program,” Bracken said.

“For Alan and I, we did a joint master’s degree recital for our chamber music degrees, and that’s when we premiered Nora’s and Mattie’s pieces. We’ve done those two together, but we haven’t put ‘Summer Music’ and ‘Autumn Music’ in between them.”

After the AADL show, OUT Ensemble will host its second annual Pride Concert Series, with five shows from June 22 to July 1 in Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, and Northern Michigan.

The ensemble will perform pieces from Seasons of Change, as well as other compositions arranged by Abby Bracken, including older classical pieces, songs from Wicked, and pop tunes like Chappell Roan’s “Pink Pony Club.”

“We kind of are imagining this annual Pride Concert Series as taking place in different locations each year,” Bracken said. “But what’s fun about this series is it kind of adapts to wherever we are.”

In August, OUT Ensemble will travel to Amsterdam for a performance at WorldPride 2026. It will be the ensemble’s first time performing overseas.

“It will be kicking off our third season, and it will be great to test us on tour internationally,” Bracken said.

OUT Ensemble performs Friday, May 22, at AADL’s Downtown location, 343 South Fifth Avenue, Ann Arbor. The performance is free and runs from 6 pm-7 pm. It will also include a Q&A with the musicians and composers Nora Farley and Mattie Levy. Copies of OUT Ensemble’s new album, “Seasons of Change,” will be available for sale after the event.