Last month, Third Coast Percussion hosted an event unlike any other in our ensemble’s history. “Lyrical Geometry” was a collaboration between TCP, the extraordinary artists at Luftwerk, architectural historian and scholar Sidney K. Robinson, and (posthumously) architect and composer Bruce Goff.

(All of the beautiful photos in this post were taken by Peter Tsai).

The event took place at Sid’s home, the “Ford House” in Aurora, IL, designed by Bruce Goff in 1949.

Besides being a brilliant architect of boundless creativity, Goff also composed a series of pieces for player piano in the early 1930s (nearly two decades before Conlon Nancarrow began composing for the instrument).

TCP transcribed and arranged a series of these player piano pieces for our ensemble. We performed these arrangements in sync with projections of the scrolling piano rolls (provided by Luftwerk) on the ceiling of the Ford House.

Luftwerk also created some other stunning images which were projected during the performance and throughout the evening.

We also set up an “instrument petting zoo,” which included bells from Resounding Earth by Augusta Read Thomas (commissioned for TCP)…

…as well as the “Brockmanophone,” an instrument created in collaboration with the College of Engineering at the University of Notre Dame for Glenn Kotche’s new work, Wild Sound (commissioned for TCP).

It was an incredible evening of music, architecture, and stunning visual art. Enjoy the photos, and check out dev.thirdcoastpercussion.com.10.1.10.19.xip.io:8888/ to keep up to date on our touring schedule and other crazy projects.