PROGRAM

7:00pm: Opening act by SRBCC’s La Cantera

7:30pm: Música Poética by Carlos Carrillo

(Chicago premiere)

“Four Walls”
“Como si fuera la primavera”
“Dueling with Time”

Third Coast Percussion (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, David Skidmore)

Featuring

Juan Horie, Cello; Zachary Good and Katherine Jimoh, Clarinets

Presented by Third Coast Percussion and the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center.

The longest-standing Latino cultural center in Chicago, SRBCC was established in 1971 and named in honor of Segundo Ruiz Belvis, a Puerto Rican patriot and member of a secret abolitionist society that freed slave children under Spanish rule. In that spirit, SRBCC realizes its mission to preserve and promote appreciation of the culture and arts of Puerto Rico and Latin America, with a focus on its African heritage. Click here to learn more about SRBCC.

The commission for “Four Walls” has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support was provided by the Campus Research Board at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Third Coast Percussion’s 2023/2024 Chicago Season is generously supported by members of TCP’s Chicago Circle (click here to learn more and join), the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, and the Robert & Isabelle Bass Foundation. Third Coast Percussion acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency and a CityArts grant from the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.

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ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Composer Carlos R. Carrillo Cotto holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Yale University (MM) and the University of Pennsylvania (PhD). His teachers have included Tania León, Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Rouse, Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Roberto Sierra, George Crumb, James Primosch, Jay Reise and Steve Mackey. Dr. Carrillo is the recipient of numerous awards including the Bearns Prize, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI and ASCAP awards. He has been commissioned by Music and the Anthology for the Da Capo Chamber Players, the New York Youth Symphony, Concert Artists Guild and the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association. In 2004 he received a commission from the American Composers Orchestra, the second such work commissioned for ACO by the BMI Foundation, Inc./ Carlos Surinach Fund. 

Dr. Carrillo’s music has been performed at the American Composers Orchestra’s Sonido de las Americas Festival, and the Casals Festival, and played by the Young Musician Foundation’s Debut Orchestra, Sequitur, Network for New Music, Prism Quartet, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, and members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Performances abroad include Lontano Ensemble in London, Trio Morelia in Mexico and Esclats in Spain.

In 2002, his symphonic work Cantares was featured at the inaugural “Synergy: Composer and Conductor” program presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and American Symphony Orchestra League. In 1998 he received one of the first Aaron Copland Awards from the Copland Heritage Association and he was the 2001-2003 Van Lier Emerging Composer Fellow with the ACO. In the spring of 2005 Dr. Carrillo was invited to the inaugural John Duffy Composers Institute as part of the 9th Annual Virginia Arts Festival. In 2007 he received a fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. From 2007 to 2009 Dr. Carrillo was musical director of the Wabash Valley Youth Symphony. Recent performances include The Gathering Grounds, commissioned by the Casals Festival and a performance of selections from the opera in progress La Pasión segun Antígona Perez at the Pregones Threatre in the Bronx. He has taught composition at DePauw University, Reed College, and the Conservatory of Music in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In the Spring of 2013 Dr. Carrillo was appointed Assistant Professor of Composition-Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

PROGRAM NOTES

Four Walls, Como si fuera la primavera, and Dueling with time, bartering for minutes of existence are part of an evolving cycle of works by Carlos Carrillo, featuring percussion percussion instruments in different combinations and contexts, each of which is inspired by a poem.

Four Walls for percussion quartet

Paul Rochberg wrote his poem “My room has four walls” at age 16. Four years later, he was dead. From the first time I read this poem many years ago, it spoke to me, though I could not quite figure out why. It was not until after I completed this piece that I began to comprehend it. Like that song by the Cuban songwriter Silvio Rodriguez that says, “The most terrible things, we learn immediately. But the beautiful ones, take a lifetime.” By engaging with this poem through my composition process, I understood its depiction of both the profound and mundane. The contemplation of life by a teenager that, while quite mature, still shows his age. And this short poem, in inspiring this piece, remains a memorial and celebration of the beautiful things in life. 

Four Walls was commissioned by Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and written for Third Coast Percussion. In memoriam Jim Primosch.

Paul Rochberg escribió su poema “My room has four walls” (Mi habitación tiene cuatro paredes) a los 16 años. Cuatro años después, muere. Desde la primera vez que leí este poema hace muchos años, me llamó la atención, aunque no podía entender por qué. No fue hasta que terminé esta pieza que comencé a comprenderla. Como aquella canción del compositor cubano Silvio Rodríguez que dice: “Lo más terrible se aprende enseguida y lo hermoso nos cuesta la vida”. Al trabajar con este poema a través de mi proceso de composición, entendí su descripción tanto de lo profundo como de lo mundano. La contemplación de la vida por parte de un adolescente que, si bien es bastante maduro, todavía deja ver su edad. Y este breve poema, al inspirar esta pieza, sigue siendo un memorial y una celebración de las cosas bellas de la vida. Four Walls fue un encargo del Classical Commissioning Program de Chamber Music America, con una generosa financiación proporcionada por la Fundación Andrew W. Mellon, y escrito para Third Coast Percussion. En memoria de James Primosch.

My room has four walls

My room has four walls,
like a babycarriage
like a coffin
My room has four walls,
and a closet with
sliding doors that
open and close
like an elevator
Last night a man stepped out
of the closet and
said
sorrywrongfloor
got in and shut the door
I hope he finds it,
because I can still
hear the elevator.

Paul Rochberg (1944-1964)

Used with kind permission of the Rochberg Family

Duration: 14 minutes

Como si fuera la primavera for clarinet, bass clarinet, cello, and percussion

The title of Como si fuera la primavera (“As if it were spring”) is taken from the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén’s poem “Canción.” The verse speaks of expectations that perhaps are not fulfilled. The piece was commissioned by Concert Artists Guild for clarinetist Anna Maria Baeza and is dedicated to George Crumb.

El título de “Como si fuera la primavera” está tomado del poema “Canción” del poeta cubano Nicolás Guillén. El poema habla de expectativas que quizás no se cumplen. La pieza fue encargada por Concert Artists Guild para la clarinetista Anna María Baeza y está dedicada a George Crumb.

Canción

¡De que callada manera
se me adentra usted sonriendo,
como si fuera la primavera!
(Yo, muriendo.)
Y de que modo sutil
me derramó en la camisa
todas las flores de abril
¿Quién le dijo que yo era
risa siempre, nunca llanto,
como si fuera
la primavera?
(No soy tanto.)
En cambio, ¡Qué espiritual
que usted me brinde una rosa
de su rosal principal!
De que callada manera
se me adentra usted sonriendo,
como si fuera la primavera
(Yo, muriendo.)

Nicolas Guillen (1902-1989)

Duration: 8 minutes

Dueling with time, bartering for minutes of existence for cello and percussion quartet

Dueling with time, bartering for minutes of existence, forms part of a collection of pieces written for percussion and diverse instruments, all inspired by a particular poem. The power of poetry to speak in a concentrated way of profound things and how that can be experienced as music serves as a driving force of this collection; like songs without words. The piece is dedicated to the memory of Jacob Druckman and was commissioned by The Percussion Plus Project.

Dueling with time, bartering for minutes of existence (Duelo con el tiempo, trueque por minutos de existencia), forma parte de una colección de piezas escritas para percusión y diversos instrumentos, todas ellas inspiradas en un poema en particular. El poder de la poesía para hablar de manera concentrada de cosas profundas y cómo eso puede experimentarse como música sirve como fuerza impulsora de esta colección; como canciones sin palabras. La pieza está dedicada a la memoria de Jacob Druckman y fue un encargo de The Percussion Plus Project.

Dying like the soft breath of butterflies

The crush of reality
bites down on me-
an animal
eating flesh.
Turn, twist, and diminish
I vomit atoms and particles
in an attempt to purge myself
of this terrible consciousness.
Dueling with time,
bartering for minutes of existence,
I suddenly find myself as you,
losing myself in a room of sleep.

Samuel Mintonye

Used with permission of the author

Duration: 14 minutes

PERFORMERS

Third Coast Percussion (TCP) is a GRAMMY® Award-winning Chicago-based percussion quartet and GRAMMY®-nominated composer collective, and is the first percussion ensemble to ever win the revered music award. For nearly 20 years, the ensemble has created exciting and unexpected performances that constantly redefine the classical music experience and “push percussion in new directions, blurring musical boundaries and beguiling new listeners” (NPR), with a brilliantly varied sonic palette and “dazzling rhythmic workouts” (Pitchfork). In its latest GRAMMY® nomination, TCP’s 2023 album Between Breaths has been nominated under Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance in the 2024 GRAMMY® Awards.

The ensemble has been praised for the “rare power” (Washington Post) of more than 30 recordings and “an inspirational sense of fun and curiosity” (Minnesota Star-Tribune). Bringing their uniquely compelling programs worldwide, Third Coast Percussion maintains a busy tour schedule, with past performances in 40 of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., plus international tour dates across four continents. Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025, the ensemble is embarking on the most ambitious collaborative projects of their career, with some of the world’s leading musicians, choreographers, and composers from around the world.

A direct connection with the audience is at the core of all of Third Coast Percussion’s work, whether the musicians are speaking from the stage about a new piece of music, inviting the audience to play along in a concert or educational performance, or uniting fans around the world via one of their free mobile apps. The four members of Third Coast are also accomplished teachers, and make active participation by all students the cornerstone of all their educational offerings, including thoughtfully curated K-12 workshops and family programming.

The quartet’s curiosity and eclectic taste have led to a series of unlikely collaborations that have produced exciting new art. Their omnivorous musical appetite, paired with approachable and flexible working methods, remove collaborative boundaries across cultures and disciplines. The ensemble has worked with engineers at the University of Notre Dame, architects at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, dancers at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and musicians from traditions ranging from the mbira music of Zimbabwe’s Shona people, to indie rockers and footwork producers, to some of the world’s leading concert musicians. Third Coast Percussion served as ensemble-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center from 2013-2018, and currently serves as ensemble-in-residence at Denison University.

A commission for a new work from composer Augusta Read Thomas in 2012 led to the realization that commissioning new musical works can be – and should be – as collaborative as any other artistic partnership. Through extensive workshopping and close contact with composers, Third Coast Percussion has commissioned and premiered new works by Philip Glass, Missy Mazzoli, Jlin, Danny Elfman, Clarice Assad, Gemma Peacocke, Flutronix, Tyondai Braxton, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, Georg Friedrich Haas, Donnacha Dennehy, Glenn Kotche, Christopher Cerrone, and David T. Little, plus many of today’s leading up-and-coming composers through their Currents Creative Partnership program. TCP’s commissioned works have become part of the ensemble’s core repertoire and seen hundreds of performances around the world. In 2023, Jlin’s Perspective, commissioned by TCP, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Third Coast Percussion’s recordings include 17 feature albums, and appearances on 14 additional releases. Besides putting its stamp on iconic percussion works by John Cage and Steve Reich, the quartet has created first recordings of commissioned works by Philip Glass, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, Gavin Bryars, Danny Elfman, Donnacha Dennehy, David T. Little, Ted Hearne, and more – in addition to recordings of original Third Coast compositions. In 2017 the ensemble won the GRAMMY® Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their recording of Steve Reich’s works for percussion. Third Coast has since received four additional GRAMMY® nominations as performers, and in 2021 they received their first GRAMMY® nomination as composers.

Third Coast Percussion has always maintained strong ties to the vibrant artistic community in their hometown of Chicago. They have collaborated with Chicago institutions including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Uniting Voices Chicago choir, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chicago Humanities Festival, and the Adler Planetarium. TCP performed at the grand opening of Maggie Daley Children’s Park; conducted residencies at the University of Chicago and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago; created multi-year collaborative projects with Chicago-based composers Jessie Montgomery, Clarice and Sérgio Assad, Augusta Read Thomas, Glenn Kotche, and chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird; and has taught tens of thousands of students through partnerships with Uniting Voices Chicago, The People’s Music School, the Chicago Park District, Rush Hour Concerts, Urban Gateways, Changing Worlds, and others.

The four members of Third Coast Percussion (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore) met while studying percussion music at Northwestern University with Michael Burritt and James Ross, and formed the ensemble in 2005. Settling in Chicago, the four friends have carefully and thoughtfully built a thriving nonprofit organization – including full-time staff, office/studio space, and a board of directors – to support their vision and facilitate their efforts to bring new works to life. Members of Third Coast also hold degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Rutgers University, the New England Conservatory, and the Yale School of Music.

Stay up-to-date and go behind-the-scenes by following Third Coast on Instagram (@ThirdCoastPercussion), YouTube (@thirdcoastpercussion), TikTok (@thirdcoastpercussion), Twitter (@ThirdCoastPerc), Facebook (@Third Coast Percussion) and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/third-coast-percussion)

*Third Coast Percussion is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

Juan Horie is a Venezuelan/American cellist who was trained in Venezuela’s acclaimed SISTEMA, studying Cello in the Academia Latinoamericana de Violoncello with Maestros Leandro Bandres and William Molina Cestari. Following his passion for Early Music, he entered the Latin American Academy of Ancient Music (ALMA) and studied baroque cello with Maestro Manuel Hernandez. While Juan was studying at IUDEM and Simon Bolivar Conservatory, he was a member of the Teresa Carreño Youth Symphony Orchestra, and Simón Bolívar Baroque Orchestra. His international engagements as member of the Teresa Carreño Youth Symphony Orchestra include playing at the Beethoven Fest in Bonn, Salzburg Festspiele, Teatro Alla Scala of Milan, Berlin Philharmonie, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, among other halls in Europe and Asia under the batons of renowned conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, and Christian Vasquez. In 2015 he won a chair in the cello section of the Teresa Carreno Symphony Orchestra, a professional orchestra constituted by a national selection of the third generation of musicians formed in Venezuela’s SISTEMA. In 2017 Juan was forced to emigrate from Venezuela to escape from the political/economic/social situation and moved to the United States. Juan spent 7 years in Chicago where he ventured into New Music and found his way into joining Ensemble Dal Niente. Also in Chicago, he joined forces with violist Sixto Franco to form the “Quijote Duo”, specializing in new music and interdisciplinary collaborations. In 2023 he was invited by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to perform in the opening of the Music NOW series. Juan teaches at Midwestern Young Artists Conservatory in the Young Music Scholars Program.

In 2024 Juan moved to New Orleans where he joined the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

Zachary Good is a multifaceted clarinetist, chamber musician, and composer based in Chicago. 

Zachary is the clarinetist of the sextet Eighth Blackbird (2019–present), a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, and a founding Co-Artistic Director and member of the eccentric performance collective Mocrep. He has frequently performed with International Contemporary Ensemble, Music of the Baroque Chicago, and the puppet company Manual Cinema. As an improviser, he performs and records with the trio ZRL and the amplified acoustic and synthetic quintet Honestly Same, as well as regularly appearing on improvised music series throughout Chicago.

As a composer, Zachary explores contrapuntal possibilities on the soprano clarinet with small–interval multiphonics (“close dyads”), creating the illusion of multiple clarinetists playing simultaneously. His music is quietly virtuosic, inspired by the intricacies of the clarinet and a love for Baroque nuance and form. Zachary’s compositions and intersecting multiphonic research are the focus of his dissertation, “Add Dye: Dyadic Perspectives on Close Dyad Multiphonics for the Soprano Clarinet.” 

Zachary is a graduate of Northwestern University (DMA), Oberlin Conservatory, and DePaul University. He is the recipient of the 2021 Luminarts Classical Winds Fellowship. Zachary has participated in fellowships with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Aspen Contemporary Music program. Zachary is a D’Addario Woodwinds Artist. 

zacharygood.com

Katherine Jimoh, clarinetist, vocalist, pianist, singer-songwriter and goldsmith lives in Chicago and works as a freelance musician and jeweler. She is a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, University of Chicago’s Grossman Ensemble and Chicago Wind Project. Working side-by-side with living composers while surrounded by colleagues who specialize in new music provides constant inspiration and creativity.

Katherine leads her four-piece band, Katet as singer-songwriter and pianist. When tonality is achieved in an utterly unpredictable way, Katherine feels satisfied with her songwriting. Complex harmonies matched with mixed meters, drones and repetitive vocal lines equals Katet.

Katherine earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University where she won the IU clarinet concerto competition and was awarded a Performer’s Certificate. She was a participant at the 2006 Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles. In 2008, Katherine spent a year abroad in Japan teaching English where she was simultaneously principal clarinetist of the Kakogawa Philharmonic Orchestra in Hyogo prefecture. Katherine received an Essentially Ellington jazz soloist award for the clarinet. She earned her Master of Music degree from McGill University where she was awarded a full Schulich School of Music scholarship. Her primary instructors have been John Bruce Yeh, Alain Desgagne, James Campbell, Frank Kowalsky and Mary Kantor.

Third Coast Percussion

Ensemble
Sean Connors, Ensemble Member, Technical Director, and Education Director
Robert Dillon, Ensemble Member and Development Director
Peter Martin, Ensemble Member and Finance Director
David Skidmore, Ensemble Member and Executive Director

Staff
Reba Cafarelli, General Manager
Colin Campbell, Production Manager
Rebecca McDaniel, Marketing and Development Manager
Mayshell Morris, Administrative Assistant

Board of Directors
Ethelbert Williams, President
Beth I. Davis, Vice-President
Mary K. Woolever, Secretary
Daniel Knaus, Treasurer
Jim Barasa
Friedrich Burian
Sara Coffou
Julio Desir, Jr.
Robert Dillon
Nimish Dixit
André Dowell
Jamie Jung
Samir Mayekar
Sarah Forbes Orwig
Louise K. Smith
Catharine Fox Walby

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Join TCP at our next Chicago performance: May 3 at DePaul University’s Holtschneider Performance Center. Click here to learn more, or view our full performance schedule at https://thirdcoastpercussion.com/events/

PROGRAM

Since Time Began                                                                   Michael J. Burritt (b. 1962)

1. Alchemy (1623)
2. Campana (1723)
3. Homage (1823)
4. Revolutions (1923)

World Premiere
Commissioned by the Zildjian Company in celebration of its 400^th anniversary, and written for Third Coast Percussion.

Watercolor Sun                                                                      Ivan Treviño (b. 1983)

World Premiere

Perspective                                                                            Jlin (b. 1987)

Paradigm
Obscure
Derivative
Fourth Perspective
Dissonance
Duality
Embryo

Featured on Third Coast Percussion’s GRAMMY®-nominated album Perspectives
2023 Pulitzer Prize Finalist

Program Notes

Since Time Began was commissioned for the celebration of the Zildjian 400 Anniversary in 2023. The vision for this project was to create a 30 minute percussion quartet in 4 movements, with each of the movements representing 100 years in history of the iconic company.  

After a ceremonial introduction, the first movement, Alchemy (1623), begins with a solo marimba line representing Avedis Zildjian, the founder and first to make cymbals for the Sultan in 1618. A second marimba voice joins, played in pseudo counterpoint and representing the son, Ahkam, the first to succeed Avedis and share in the secret process. Thus the story begins! The movement reflects the baroque period with its polyphonic texture and driving dance-like climax. The title Alchemy refers to the genesis (coming together of the company) and the medieval reference to the chemistry of mixing metals to create gold. 

Movement 2, Campana – (Bells) (1723), represents the classical period with its pseudo rondo form.  The movement also introduces the amadinda pipe rack, employed throughout the piece, as a nod to the sounds of church bells that were made by Zildjian in their early history. The rudimental drumming that characterizes the movement, played both on metal and membraned sounds, represents Zildjian’s role in making instruments for the Janissary music (Turkish Military music) of the period. 

Homage, movement 3 (1823), reflects on the romantic period incorporating the Turkish folk song, Agla garip agla (Weep, Sad One, Weep), which is vocally rendered by the ensemble. A haunting and contemplative movement, it slowly builds to one distinct climax, a characteristic of many works from this period in music history. 

The final movement, Revolutions (1923), represents the last 100 years, where the evolution of Jazz, Popular and Contemporary Classical music shared a symbiotic relationship with the development and influence of Zildjian Cymbals on these genres. The movement reflects these styles using a gritty and driving rhythmic language and modal melodic platform reminiscent of Bebop, Boulez, Bartok and Zappa.

*A special thanks to Zildjian for giving me the opportunity to write this work for this monumental occasion. I can’t think of another company that has consistently led with innovation and excellence while always putting artistry at the forefront of their mission. Congratulations! Here’s to the next 400 years!!!

**Additional thanks to Third Coast Percussion for taking on this project. Working with you on this piece has been one of the most rewarding and meaningful experiences of my career. When your students become your heroes, you know you’re doing something right. — MJB, October, 2023

Duration: 40 minutes.

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Having performed in four continents and more than forty states, Michael Burritt is one of his generation’s most accomplished percussionists. He is in frequent demand performing concert tours and master classes throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada. Mr. Burritt has been soloist with the United States Air Force Band, Dallas Wind Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Nexus,  The Paris Percussion Group (France), The Amadinda Percussion Group (Hungary), Third Coast Percussion, Ju Percussion Group (Taiwan), Percussion Art Quartet (Germany) and the Amores Percussion Group (Spain). Mr. Burritt has three solo as well as numerous chamber recordings including his work Home Trilogy, with the world renown percussion group Nexus and soon to released a new recording of solo and chamber works by Alejandro Viñao with the Grammy Award winning Third Coast Percussion. In 2006 he recorded the Joseph Schwantner Percussion Concerto with the Calgary Wind Ensemble on the Albany label.  Burritt recently premiered Fast Forward, a new chamber concerto written expressly for him by Pulitzer Prize winning Composer Joseph Schwantner in celebration of the centennial of the Eastman School.

He has been a featured artist at ten Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. Mr Burritt has performed solo concerts in some of the worlds most prestigious concert halls including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and National Performing Arts Center in Beijing and The Kennedy Center. He has extensive chamber and orchestral experience and has performed with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, The Chicago Symphony and The Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra. 

Mr. Burritt is also active as a composer, with three concertos to his credit as well as numerous solo and chamber works for marimba and percussion. His works for solo marimba have become standard repertoire for the instrument and are frequently required repertoire on international competitions. Commissions include The World Marimba Competition in Stuttgart Germany, The Paris International Marimba Competition, Nexus and Paris Percussion Group.  Zildjian recently commissioned Burritt to compose a work in celebration of the company’s 400th Anniversary in 2023 to be premiered by Third Coast Percussion at PASIC 23.  Mr. Burritt is published with Keyboard Percussion Publications, C. Alan, Masters Music and Innovative Percussion. Burritt is also an artist/clinician and product design/consultant for Malletech, where he has developed his own line of marimba mallets and the MJB Signature Marimba. He is an artist/educational clinician with Zildjian, Evans, and Yamaha Drums. Mr. Burritt was the President of Percussive Arts Society from 2021-22, a member of the Board of Directors from 1996 – 2008, a contributing editor for Percussive Notes Magazine from 1991 – 2006 and chair of the Keyboard Committee from 2004 – 2010. 

Burritt currently holds the Paul J. Burgett Distinguished Professorship and is Professor of Percussion at The Eastman School of Music where he is only the third person in the history of the school to hold this position. Prior to his appointment at Eastman, Mr. Burritt was Professor of Percussion at Northwestern University from 1995-2008 where he developed a program of international distinction. Mr. Burritt received his Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees, as well as the prestigious Performers Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

“Watercolor Sun (2023) was commissioned by the Grammy Award winning ensemble, Third Coast Percussion. It was written for the quartet to perform on one single 4.3 octave marimba. I have been friends with the members of Third Coast for many years and have watched them from afar with much admiration. It brings me great joy to write music for them.

There are moments in life that create a feeling I can’t quite describe. Like waking up in a sunlight room, or sharing a meal with old friends, or going on a road trip with someone you love. There’s a jovial, euphoric feeling to it. I feel it when I catch the sunrise with my family, and I feel it when I play music too. Maybe it is gratitude, or peace, or something in between. Whatever this feeling is, it is at the heart of Watercolor Sun.” – Ivan Trevino, Nov. 2023

Duration: 5 minutes.

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Ivan Trevino is a Mexican-American composer, percussionist, teacher and arts advocate. Recognized around the world for his contributions to percussion literature, Ivan’s music has been performed on five continents in over 25 countries. He is a multi-award winning recipient of the Percussive Arts Society’s International Composition Contest and has over 80 compositions and songs to his name. His newly commissioned works include an etude book for The Juilliard School, a wind band piece for The Eastman Wind Ensemble, and a marimba quartet for the Grammy Award winning group, Third Coast Percussion. In 2020, Ivan was the featured composer on NPR’s Performance Today. Ivan currently serves as Assistant Professor of Practice at University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches a studio of undergraduate and graduate percussion majors. He is an artist and clinician for Innovative Percussion, Black Swamp Percussion, Zildjian Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, Pearl / Adams, and Meinl Percussion. 

Ivan is also known for his work as a drummer with Break of Reality, an international touring cello rock quartet. As a member of the ensemble, Ivan was selected as a music ambassador by the U.S. State Department during the Obama administration. Break of Reality has released five studio albums and has been featured on PBS, Huffington Post, Yahoo Music and is on regular rotation on National Public Radio.

Ivan’s work spans various media including storytelling, poetry, and film scoring. His collection of online writings are regularly circulated throughout the arts community, including “My Pretend Music School”, a blog post that has sparked debate about music school curriculum and has become required reading for collegiate courses around the U.S.

Ivan currently lives in Austin, TX with his wife, Amanda, and their children, Henry and Oscar.

A math lover, a former steel factory worker and a proud resident of Gary Indiana, Jlin (Jerrilynn Patton) has risen to become one of the most distinctive composers in America and one of the most influential women in electronic music. Jlin’s introduction to producing music stems from Chicago footwork, but diverse influences ranging from Igor Stravinsky and Philip Glass to Miles Davis and Eartha Kitt give Jlin’s complex percussion-driven work a sophisticated polyrhythmic sound all its own.

Jlin’s thrilling, emotional, and multidimensional works have earned her a rank as “one of the most forward-thinking contemporary composers in any genre” (Pitchfork). Her signature sound builds on a Chicago footwork style, expanded and warped into a frequency that is solely hers. Jlin was a 2023 Pulitzer Prize nominee for Perspective – originally commissioned and performed by Third Coast Percussion. Her albums Dark Energy (2015) and Black Origami (2017) received critical acclaim and have been featured “best of” in The New York Times, The Wire, LA Times, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and Vogue. Referencing a wide range of musical movements and techniques, Jlin’s collaborations with contemporary artists are just as relevant to her practice exemplified by “JSLOIPNIE,” the product of JLin and the late, iconic SOPHIE. Additional collaborators include William Basinski, Dope Saint Jude, Holly Herndon, and Zora Jones. Jlin has since remixed works for major artists including Björk, Max Richter, Martin Gore (of Depeche Mode), Galya Bisengalieva, Marie Davidson, Nina Kraviz, Ben Frost, and others. Inspired by movement, Jlin has also collaborated with legendary choreographers: Wayne McGregor (2017), and Kyle Abraham (2021).

Her seven-movement work Perspective was written for Third Coast Percussion through a highly collaborative process. After exploring and sampling instruments from TCP’s vast collection of percussion sounds at their studio in Chicago, she created an electronic version of each of the work’s seven movements using these samples and other sounds from her own library.

The members of Third Coast Percussion then set about determining how to realize these pieces in live performance. Diving into each of the audio tracks, the percussionists found dozens of sonic layers, patterns that never seem to repeat when one would expect them to, and outrageous sounds that are hard to imagine recreating acoustically. Even typical percussion sounds like snare drum, hi-hat, or kick drum exist in multiple variations, subtle timbral shades in counterpoint or composite sounds.

In pursuit of the broad expressive range of Jlin’s original tracks, TCP’s live version of this piece incorporates mixing bowls filled with water, bird calls, and a variety of gongs and tambourines, as well as many variations of drum set-like sounds: instruments that are like a hi-hat but not a hi-hat, or serve the function of a snare drum but are not a snare drum.

Jlin named her piece Perspective as a reference to this unique collaborative process, that this work would exist in two forms, the same music as interpreted through different artists and their modes of expression.

In addition to concert performances, Third Coast Percussion will feature the full 7-movement Perspective in its Carnegie Hall debut in January 2023, as part of a collaboration with Movement Art Is. That project features choreography by MAI founders Lil Buck and Jon Boogz, and new music by Tyondai Braxton in addition to Jlin’s work and TCP’s arrangements of music by Philip Glass.

Perspective by Jlin was commissioned for Third Coast Percussion by the Boulanger Initiative, the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation, Carnegie Hall, the Lester & Hope Abelson Fund for the Performing Arts at the Chicago Community Foundation, the DEW Foundation, and Third Coast Percussion’s New Works Fund.

Perspective was named a Finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for music.

Duration: 30 minutes.

Perspective is featured on Third Coast Percussion’s GRAMMY®-nominated album Perspectives. Click here to learn more, purchase, and stream.

Click here to purchase the sheet music for Perspective from Third Coast Percussion Publications (individual movements also available).

Where are you from?

I am from Homewood, Illinois (35 minutes south of downtown Chicago)

What is one thing about yourself that you want everyone to know?

I do sock-shoe, sock-shoe. Not sock-sock, shoe-shoe

What are you up to these days?

-Working towards my M.M. in Percussion Performance at the University of Missouri!

– Building my repertoire as composer and arranger

– playing golf more than I should

– teaching various music camps

When did you intern with TCP?

From May 30th – July 10th, 2023.

Did you leave a legacy or mark on the organization that you’re particularly proud of?

I didn’t have a big project that I worked on, but I felt proud of the preparation for the Currents Creative Partnership Concert at the Constellation. It was when I first started and I was able to make an impact early on.

How did you connect with TCP?

Reaching out by email!

Did you gain anything from the internship that you’d like to share?

I got much more comfortable with audio technical work, as well as seeing the administrative side of a Non-Profit organization. 

Favorite memory?

Getting to experience the group work with composers to create new pieces was particularly inspiring. Experiencing the individuality of the composers was refreshing, in that they each had drastically different approaches to composing their works.

A GIF or YouTube link that sums up your experience with TCP?

If you were a cartoon character, who would you be

CatBus from Totoro! (Studio Ghibli)

Congratulations to Joel St. Julien, Srayamurtikanti and Nick Zoulek, the composers selected for our 2023/24 Currents Creative Partnership! We will be collaborating with all three composers to create new works to be premiered by Third Coast next season. Read more about these outstanding music-makers below.

We received over 200 applications this year! It is so inspiring to see the creative and amazing work displayed by all of the proposals, and we know that our field will continue to be made better by the work of these composers! Thank you to everyone who submitted music and ideas this year.

Applications for the Currents Creative Partnership are reviewed each fall, and applications will open this summer. Click here for more information.

Joel St. Julien (b.1980) is a Haitian-American composer, musician, songwriter, and sound artist based in San Francisco. Joel has written music for documentaries, short / feature films, podcasts, and dance.  He is a firm believer in experimentation/fusion with acoustic and electronic elements in sound oscillating through escapism and the mysticism of the present tense.

Joel has shared music at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Salesforce Tower, Stanford University’s CCRMA, Gray Area, CounterPulse Festival, Land and Sea Gallery, Spectrum NYC, TED Conference, Frameline, Mill Valley Film Festival, and PBS.

His music has also been featured and reviewed in Resident Advisor, The Wire, Disquiet, KQED, Foxy Digitalis, a closer listen, Fault Radio, Dublab, and many more.

Click here to see Joel’s work and learn more.

Srayamurtikanti is a stage name of Ni Nyoman Srayamurtikanti (Bali, 3rd October 1996). She is a musician and a composer based on Balinese traditional music (Balinese Gamelan). Sraya’s works are often concerned with gamelan instrumental, innovative, vocal, and experimental music on Balinese gamelan. Sraya’s art developed by exploring the possibilities of composing and playing gamelan, musician’s movement, and space responses.

She currently performed her compositions “Empowerment” at the SouthEast Asian Music Symposium (Bangkok, Thailand), “Nuutsih” at Pekan Komponis Indonesia (Jakarta, Indonesia), “Speech Delay” at Music Gamelan Creative Competition (Bali) and The Northern California Chapter of the Society for Ethnomusicology (NCCSEM), “Himpit” at Rocky Mountain Gamelan Bali Festival (Denver, Colorado-USA), “To Reckon through Complexities” Collaboration with Gabi Motuba (South Africa) at Mutual Mentorship of Musicians (New York, USA), “Just Us” Collaboration with Aine Nakamura at Center for New Music (San Francisco, California-USA), etc. Now, Sraya is a Gamelan Guest Artist Bali Teacher at Gamelan Sekar Jaya based in Berkeley California for 10 months (2022-2023) and a Guest Artist Teacher/Instructor at Gamelan Bali Class at the University of California, Berkeley.

Click here to see Sraya’s Instagram content.

Nick Zoulek is a saxophonist, composer, and media artist based in Chicago, Illinois. His music explores the emotional potential of physicality, both in fragility and exertion, and is praised as “stunningly virtuosic, whatever the genre” (The Wall Street Journal), “wickedly contagious” (The Huffington Post), with the capacity to “[take] you to other worlds” (Milwaukee Magazine. His work intertwines with visual media, both as a collaborator and as a digital media artist in his own right, operating as NZ Media (www.nzmedia.net). His films have screened and garnered awards at film festivals in England, Canada, Serbia, Italy, India, Africa, and around the United States. Additionally, he has composed for film, video games, and dance, including collaborations with Rockstar Games, Found Format Films, Wild Space Dance Company, and the Madison Ballet.

The saxophone is the foundation of Nick’s artistic practice. As a soloist and chamber musician, Nick has commissioned and premiered over 100 works by composers including Martin Bresnick, Alissa Cheung, Gordon Fitzell, Baldwin Giang, Ted Hearne, Aaron Kernis, Emma O’Halloran, Amanda Schoofs, and Shelley Washington. He performs regularly with experimental saxophone/multimedia group Duo d’Entre-Deux, the sad-boy-singing-saxophone trio Dial-Up Stepmom, and the Coalescent Quartet. His solo playing crosses genre as a means of expression, with features at the Groundswell Festival, the Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival, Treefort Music Festival, and as Artist in Residence for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee SENSORIA series. 

Nick holds a DMA in Contemporary Music with a cognate in Digital Media from Bowling Green State University. He has studied with Dr. John Sampen, Jean-Michel Goury, Dr. Matthew Sintchak, and improvisation with Jöelle Léandre. His music can be heard on his album Rushing Past Willow (INNOVA Records), which fuses all of facets of his work through pieces for alto, tenor, and bass saxophone. His upcoming project Enter Branch will feature collaborations with S. Carey, J. Ivy, Nathalie Joachim, Chris Porterfield, the Tontine Ensemble, ~Nois, and many more. b.1988.

Click here to see Nick’s work and learn more.

Where are you from? 

Spring Hill, FL

What is one thing about yourself that you want everyone to know?

 I guess the one thing people should know is I own a penguin sweatshirt.

A link to something about you (website, video, post, etc.)

 Here’s a link to one of my percussion quartet’s videos! Call Street Percussion – Symbiotique by Tyler Tolles – YouTube 

What are you up to these days? 

I’ll be going into my second year of my masters at Eastman.

When did you intern with TCP?

I interned in the month of July in 2022 AD.

How did you connect with TCP?

Through the Eastman Arts Leadership Program which helped put me in touch with TCP!

Did you gain anything from the internship that you’d like to share?

I think being able to see how they operate on a day-to-day schedule was very enlightening and each member was nice enough to have a chat with me over a meal and gave really good information that was invaluable.

What else did you do while you were interning?

I went to the zoo, I went to a Cubs game, and saw a corgi a day for 3 days in a row just by chance.

Did you leave a legacy or mark on the organization that you’re particularly proud of?

Not yet but there’s still time. I have 48 hrs.

Favorite memory?

I think helping set up the new Mark Applebaum piece with Colin and Sean and then seeing the ensemble read through it. We set it up for like an hour and a half and Sean was just calling out instruments that he needed which were like tongs in a chips bag, or a ping pong paddle, or a deck of cards, and it was funny just scrambling for all these instruments and then when the ensemble played through it, the piece was so intriguing and fun. It made the whole set up worth it.

A GIF or YouTube link that sums up your experience with TCP?

If you were a cartoon character, who would you be? 

I think I would want to be Perry the Platypus, but I don’t think I’m at his level yet. It’s definitely something to work towards. At this point in my life, I’m probably Flint Lockwood from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.

A funny or embarrassing story from the internship?

The first week I was practicing in the studio and Peter came to grab his marimba, but he had sunglasses and a hat on, and I had no idea who he was. So, he just made some small talk and then grabbed his stuff then left and the next day Colin asked who took a marimba and I just said some guy and was sure it wasn’t Peter but then I saw him later that day and it definitely was Peter. Sorry Peter!

Our interns can experience every part of TCP’s organization, from visiting recording sessions to writing grants and everything in between. We accept interns almost year-round, and are open to discussing remote internships. If you’re interesting in learning more about an internship with Third Coast, please contact Sean Connors at [email protected] or Rebecca McDaniel at [email protected].

Where are you from?

Munster, IN.

What is one thing about yourself that you want everyone to know?

In my free time, I like to go outside and just walk and listen to music/podcasts.

A link to something about you (website, video, post, etc.)

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDtqPGQxW_46POb2Y6SYoKw/featured

What are you up to these days?

In the fall, I will be going to UT Austin for my Master’s in Music Performance.

When did you intern with TCP?

I interned in the month of June 2022.

How did you connect with TCP?

Back in the spring of 2021, I initially sent an email to Sean about the internship. After deciding that the 2021 summer would not work out, we waited a year and made the internship work for this summer.

Did you gain anything from the internship that you’d like to share?

The most prominent thing I gained from the internship was not a singular skill but rather a perspective on what it means to be in a small high-functioning organization. Everyone executes their roles to the best of their ability, and there are always open lines for communication and collaboration. Also, from the ensemble to the staff, they are all just great people.

What else did you do while you were interning?

I was able to check out different jazz clubs, summer festivals, and awesome restaurants.

Did you leave a legacy or mark on the organization that you’re particularly proud of?

If I left anything on the organization, I hope it was just proof that Gen Zers can actually be good people.

Favorite memory?

On show days, I would give Colin a ride home after dropping off the truck at the rental shop. Those late-night chats were always pretty nice. Go Cats.

A GIF or YouTube link that sums up your experience with TCP?

If you were a cartoon character, who would you be?

Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles due to my infatuation with pizza.

A funny or embarrassing story from the internship?

We were setting up cameras for a video, and I faced the GoPro towards the ceiling. Now I know.

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Our interns can experience every part of TCP’s organization, from visiting recording sessions to writing grants and everything in between. We accept interns almost year-round, and are open to discussing remote internships. If you’re interesting in learning more about an internship with Third Coast, please contact Sean Connors at [email protected] or Rebecca McDaniel at [email protected].

Where are you from?

Flower Mound, TX

What is one thing about yourself that you want everyone to know?

As a side hustle, I make 30 second YouTube ads that people skip after 5 seconds.

A link to something about you (website, video, post, etc.)

Here’s a link to my duo Bonk Percussion playing Elliot Cole’s Bloom suite which we arranged! Bloom Suite Duet – YouTube

What are you up to these days?

I’m about to enter my second year of my masters at University of North Texas.

When did you intern with TCP?

June 2022

How did you connect with TCP?

I met Sean at PASIC and emailed to intern after that!

Did you gain anything from the internship that you’d like to share?

Muscles and some A/V knowledge.

What else did you do while you were interning?

I made several percussion videos in the TCP studio and also honed in on my Super Smash Bro. Ultimate skills!

Did you leave a legacy or mark on the organization that you’re particularly proud of?

I helped with some of the Suzanne Kite project videos as well as employee spotlight videos and I assisted with changing the lock box code.

Favorite memory?

Getting the privilege of recording video for the Suzanne Kite Project.

If you were a cartoon character, who would you be?

Cookie Monster

A funny or embarrassing story from the internship?

I changed the lock box code and then immediately forgot it and had to call TCP to let me in the studio.

Where are you from?

Flower Mound, TX

What is one thing about yourself that you want everyone to know?

This is my zip code 75028

What are you up to these days?

I’m just walking around my house right now.

When did you intern with TCP?

June 2022

How did you connect with TCP?

I met Sean at PASIC and that’s how we connected.

Did you gain anything from the internship that you’d like to share?

I learned so much that I don’t even know where to start.

What else did you do while you were interning?

I went to two smash tournaments and I went 2-2 both times. I main DK (Donkey Kong).

Did you leave a legacy or mark on the organization that you’re particularly proud of?

I changed the lock code to a certain phrase. I am not at liberty to say what it is,  but it will stay in their minds for years.

Favorite memory?

We were trying to leave Dave’s backyard, but we couldn’t get the gate open for three minutes, but then he came to help us because he was very nice.

A GIF or YouTube link that sums up your experience with TCP?

If you were a cartoon character, who would you be?

Pingu from Pingu (1986)

A funny or embarrassing story from the internship?

See favorite memory.

Interviewer- Sammy DeAngelis Summer 2022 intern

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Our interns can experience every part of TCP’s organization, from visiting recording sessions to writing grants and everything in between. We accept interns almost year-round, and are open to discussing remote internships. If you’re interesting in learning more about an internship with Third Coast, please contact Sean Connors at [email protected] or Rebecca McDaniel at [email protected].

PROGRAM

Aguas da Amazonia by Philip Glass (b. 1937) / arr. Third Coast Percussion*
“Tiquiê River”
“Madeira River”
“Xingu River”
“Paru River”
“Amazon River”
“Purus River”
“Tapajós River”
“Negro River”
“Metamorphosis No. 1”

Perpetulum by Philip Glass

*U.S. and Chicago premiere

The Field Museum houses an irreplaceable collection of scientific specimens and cultural materials, which support the research of more than 130 scientists. From groundbreaking discoveries to community engagement and public exhibitions to educational programs, the Field connects all of us to the natural world and the human story. For more, visit www.fieldmuseum.org/

Third Coast Percussion’s 2022/2023 Chicago Concert Season is generously supported by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, the Robert & Isabelle Bass Foundation, and the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. Third Coast Percussion acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

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ABOUT THE COMPOSER

Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.

The operas – Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, Akhnaten, and The Voyage, among many others – play throughout the world’s leading houses, and rarely to an empty seat. Glass has written music for experimental theater and for Academy Award-winning motion pictures such as The Hours and Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, while Koyaanisqatsi, his initial filmic landscape with Godfrey Reggio and the Philip Glass Ensemble, may be the most radical and influential mating of sound and vision since Fantasia. His associations, personal and professional, with leading rock, pop, and world music artists date back to the 1960s, including the beginning of his collaborative relationship with artist Robert Wilson. Indeed, Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film, and in popular music – simultaneously.

He was born in 1937 and grew up in Baltimore. He studied at the University of Chicago, the Juilliard School and in Aspen with Darius Milhaud. Finding himself dissatisfied with much of what then passed for modern music, he moved to Europe, where he studied with the legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger (who also taught Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, and Quincy Jones) and worked closely with the sitar virtuoso and composer Ravi Shankar. He returned to New York in 1967 and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble – seven musicians playing keyboards and a variety of woodwinds, amplified and fed through a mixer.

The new musical style that Glass was evolving was eventually dubbed “minimalism.” Glass himself never liked the term and preferred to speak of himself as a composer of “music with repetitive structures.” Much of his early work was based on the extended reiteration of brief, elegant melodic fragments that wove in and out of an aural tapestry. Or, to put it another way, it immersed a listener in a sort of sonic weather that twists, turns, surrounds, develops.

There has been nothing “minimalist” about his output. In the past 25 years, Glass has composed more than twenty-five operas, large and small; twelve symphonies; thirteen concertos; soundtracks to films ranging from new scores for the stylized classics of Jean Cocteau to Errol Morris’s documentary about former defense secretary Robert McNamara; nine string quartets; and a growing body of work for solo piano and organ. He has collaborated with Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Yo-Yo Ma, and Doris Lessing, among many others. He presents lectures, workshops, and solo keyboard performances around the world, and continues to appear regularly with the Philip Glass Ensemble.

PROGRAM NOTES

The repetitive structures and meditative harmonies of Glass’s music have allowed it to exist in many versions for different musical instruments. Selections from his piano etudes and the solo piano piece Metamorphosiswere arranged in the late 1990’s for a project with Brazilian musical group Uakti. This version, for Uakti’s unique gamut of custom-made instruments, was part of a project called Aguas da Amazonia, in which all of the movements (except for Metamorphosis No. 1) were renamed after the Amazon River and its tributaries.

Long-time fans of Glass’s work, and hoping to someday commission the iconic composer for his first percussion ensemble piece, the members of Third Coast Percussion arranged a handful of these pieces for their multi-media project Paddle to the Sea in 2016. Drawing on both the Uakti arrangement and the original piano music, TCP reimagined these works using mallet percussion instruments and other unique instrumental colors such as melodica, desk bells, and almglocken (tuned Swiss cowbells). In 2020, TCP made their own arrangements of the rest of the Aguas da Amazonia, including Metamorphosis, to round out the collection, premiering the full cycle at the Philharmonie de Paris in 2021.

Glass celebrated his 85^th birthday in 2022 with a series of online concerts “Philip Glass: Three Cities,” with prominent artists performing Glass’s work in the three cities that formed his musical identity: Chicago, New York, and Baltimore. The Chicago portion of the series featured TCP performing movements from Aguas da Amazonia in Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago, where Glass attended many concerts as a student.

Third Coast Percussion’s recording of Metamorphosis No. 1 appears on their album “Perspectives,” released in May 2022 on Cedille Records, alongside music by Danny Elfman, Jlin, and Flutronix.

In the midst of the arranging of Aguas da Amazonia, Third Coast Percussion also realized their goal of commissioning Glass for his first percussion ensemble piece. Although percussion instruments have played an important role in much of Philip Glass’s music, and a number of his works have been arranged for percussion by other musicians, Perpetulum was the first work Glass composed specifically for an ensemble of only percussion instruments. Glass, who was 81 years old when he composed this work, harkened back to childhood memories of his first experience with percussion. Though Glass’s primary musical instrument was the flute, he had the opportunity to participate in a percussion class while a student at the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory in his hometown of Baltimore. Perpetulum blends a bright-eyed exploration of the sounds of percussion with Glass’s signature musical voice.

The work is in three sections, with a cadenza between the second and third section. Glass proposes some general concepts and instruments for the cadenza, but leaves it to the performers to compose this segment of the music themselves.

Third Coast Percussion premiered Perpetulum as part of a double bill that featured Glass performing his piano works, as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival in 2018, and released the debut recording of Perpetulum on Orange Mountain Music in 2019, on an album by the same name. This album also included works by members of the ensemble and new music by Gavin Bryars, and was nominated for a GRAMMY award in the “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.”

Perpetulum by Philip Glass was commissioned for Third Coast Percussion with lead support from the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation. The work was co-commissioned by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting for Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, San Francisco Performances, Town Hall Seattle, Performance Santa Fe, the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and the Third Coast Percussion New Works Fund, with additional support from Friedrich Burian, Bruce Oltman, MiTO Settembre Musica, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series, and the Percussive Arts Society.

ABOUT THE ENSEMBLE

Third Coast Percussion is a GRAMMY® Award-winning Chicago-based percussion quartet and GRAMMY®-nominated composer collective. For over fifteen years, the ensemble has created exciting and unexpected performances that constantly redefine the classical music experience. The ensemble has been praised for “commandingly elegant” (New York Times) performances, the “rare power” (Washington Post) of their recordings, and “an inspirational sense of fun and curiosity” (Minnesota Star-Tribune). Third Coast Percussion maintains a busy tour schedule, with past performances in 38 of the 50 states and Washington, DC, plus international tour dates across 4 continents.

A direct connection with the audience is at the core of all of Third Coast Percussion’s work, whether the musicians are speaking from the stage about a new piece of music, inviting the audience to play along in a concert or educational performance, or inviting their fans around the world to create new music using one of their free mobile apps. The four members of Third Coast are also accomplished teachers, and make active participation by all students the cornerstone of all their educational offerings.

The quartet’s curiosity and eclectic taste have led to a series of unlikely collaborations that have produced exciting new art. The ensemble has worked with engineers at the University of Notre Dame, architects at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, dancers at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and musicians from traditions ranging from the mbira music of Zimbabwe’s Shona people, to indie rockers and footwork producers, to some of the world’s leading concert musicians. Third Coast Percussion served as ensemble-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center from 2013—2018, and currently serves as ensemble-in-residence at Denison University.

A commission for a new work from composer Augusta Read Thomas in 2012 led to the realization that commissioning new musical works can be—and should be—as collaborative as any other artistic partnership. Through extensive workshopping and close contact with composers, Third Coast Percussion has commissioned and premiered new works by Philip Glass, Missy Mazzoli, Gemma Peacocke, Flutronix, Jlin, Tyondai Braxton, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, Georg Friedrich Haas, Donnacha Dennehy, Glenn Kotche, Christopher Cerrone, David T. Little, Danny Elfman, and today’s leading up-and-coming composers through their Currents Creative Partnership program. TCP’s commissioned works have become part of the ensemble’s core repertoire and seen hundreds of performances across four continents.

Third Coast Percussion’s recordings include fourteen feature albums, and appearances on fourteen additional releases. The quartet has put its stamp on iconic percussion works by John Cage and Steve Reich, and Third Coast has also created first recordings of commissioned works by Philip Glass, Danny Elfman, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, Gavin Bryars, Donnacha Dennehy, David T. Little, Ted Hearne, and more, in addition to recordings of the ensemble’s own compositions. In 2017 the ensemble won the GRAMMY® Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their recording of Steve Reich’s works for percussion. Third Coast has since received 3 additional GRAMMY® nominations as performers, and in 2021 they received their first GRAMMY® nomination as composers.

Third Coast Percussion has always maintained strong ties to the vibrant artistic community in their hometown of Chicago. They have collaborated with Chicago institutions such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Chicago Children’s Choir, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chicago Humanities Festival, and the Adler Planetarium. TCP performed at the grand opening of Maggie Daley Children’s Park, conducted residencies at the University of Chicago and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, created multi-year collaborative projects with Chicago-based composers Augusta Read Thomas, Glenn Kotche, and chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird, and taught tens of thousands of students through partnerships with The People’s Music School, the Chicago Park District, Rush Hour Concerts, Urban Gateways, and others.

The four members of Third Coast Percussion (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore) met while studying percussion music at Northwestern University with Michael Burritt and James Ross. Members of Third Coast also hold degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Rutgers University, the New England Conservatory, and the Yale School of Music. Stay up-to-date and go behind-the-scenes by following Third Coast on Twitter (@ThirdCoastPerc), Facebook (@Third Coast Percussion), Instagram (@ThirdCoastPercussion), and YouTube (@thirdcoastpercussion).

*Third Coast Percussion is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

Third Coast Percussion

Ensemble
Sean Connors, Ensemble Member and Technical Director
Robert Dillon, Ensemble Member and Development Director
Peter Martin, Ensemble Member and Finance Director
David Skidmore, Ensemble Member and Executive Director

Staff
Reba Cafarelli, Managing Director
Colin Campbell, Production Manager
Rebecca McDaniel, Marketing and Development Manager

Board of Directors
Sara Coffou, President
Beth I. Davis, Vice-President
Mary K. Woolever, Secretary
Daniel Knaus, Treasurer
Jim Barasa
Teddy Boys
Friedrich Burian
Julio Desir, Jr.
Robert Dillon
André Dowell
Jamie Jung
Leslie Larson Maheras
Sidney Robinson
Louise K. Smith
Catharine Fox Walby
Ethelbert Williams

PROGRAM

Matters/Mind by Alexis C. Lamb

the season of Big rain (Mbura ya Njahĩ) by Nyokabi Kariũki

Wógligleya (Tȟuŋkášila Čečiyelo) by Kite in collaboration with Santee Witt**

Intermission

Etude 1 by Tigran Hamasyan, arr. Peter Martin

Double Drum Dutch by Ayanna Woods*

Situtations by Machado Mijiga**

**- Written for Third Coast Percussion’s Currents Creative Partnership, made possible by the DEW Foundation, the Sargent Family Foundation, and Louise K. Smith. World Premiere.

*- World Premiere

This concert is generously supported by Sidney K. Robinson.

Third Coast Percussion’s Currents program is made possible by generous support from the DEW Foundation, the Elizabeth F Cheney Foundation, the Sargent Family Foundation, and Louise K. Smith.

Third Coast Percussion’s programs are supported by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at Prince Charitable Trust, The Illinois Arts Council Agency, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Amphion Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University.

Third Coast Percussion acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

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PROGRAM NOTES

Alexis C. Lamb (b. 1993) is a composer, percussionist, and educator whose work seeks to cultivate a connectedness to natural, historical, and societal relationships. Her recent
commissions and collaborations include Third Coast Percussion, Albany (NY) Symphony, Aizuri
Quartet, Opera Omaha, Contemporaneous, and Vera Quartet. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Michigan and has previously earned degrees from the Yale School of Music and Northern Illinois University. Lamb’s compositions can be found on Innova Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and Evan Chapman’s self-published record, Caustics. Her works are self-published and available at https://alexislamb.com/ .

“Do you ever feel like your mind overthinks and gets in the way of what truly matters?
…Yes, I do too.”

– Alexis C. Lamb

Nyokabi Kariũki (b. 1998) is a Kenyan composer based between Nairobi and New York. Illuminated by musical sensibilities from her African upbringing and training in Western classical contexts, Nyokabi shares a unique and affecting artistic voice spanning across various genres — from experimental & classical contemporary to sound art and explorations into (East) African musical traditions. Her debut EP, ‘peace places: kenyan memories’ (SA Recordings) was marked as one of Bandcamp’s Best Albums of Winter 2022 and The Guardian’s ‘Contemporary Album of the Month’, with additional praise from Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, and more. Her other works have been experienced in various contexts around the world, from audio art festivals — including the Hearsay International Audio Festival and the LUCIA Festival in Italy — to performances by award-winning ensembles like Brooklyn Youth Chorus Men’s Ensemble and Third Coast Percussion. Additionally, she has received commissions from Heartland Marimba, Arcis Saxophon Quartet, and more. Nyokabi’s sonic imagination is ever-evolving, reflecting a love for experimentation, inquiry, as well as a commitment to the preservation of African thought, language and stories.

“I never hesitate to look for guidance and inspiration for my pieces in home, Kenya. My ethnic group, the Kikuyu, are farmers, and seasons are based on planting and harvest. The season of ‘big rain’ is known as Mbura ya Njahi, which refers to the rain that comes that allows the beans to grow (usually from April to July). When writing the piece, I found myself thinking of the sound of the tapping of rain on the roof of our home in Kirinyaga, where my father and his sisters grew up. It is one of my most favourite, most peaceful places to be.”

–Nyokabi Kariũki

Armenian-born, Los Angeles-raised pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan is one of the 21st century’s true slipstream musicians. His work crosses boundaries between jazz, crossover classical, electronic, Baroque dance, vocal, and Armenian folk musics atop electronic backdrops and hip-hop beats. Hamasyan was born in 1987 in Gyumri, Armenia. He began playing the family’s piano at three and was enrolled in music school at six. His jazz tastes early on were informed by Miles Davis’s fusion period, and then around the age of 10 his family moved to Yerevan and he came to discover the classic jazz songbook under the aegis of his teacher Vahag Hayrapetyan. Tigran found himself part of the festivities at the Yerevan Second International Jazz Festival in 2000 and, when he was 16, his family immigrated to Los Angeles. Tigran stayed in high school for two months before gaining entrance to the University of Southern California, which he attended for two years. As a teen, he would go on just a few years later to win a number of contests including the 2003 Montreux Jazz Festival and the grand prize at the prestigious 2006 Thelonious Monk Jazz Piano Competition.

Etude No. 1 was composed as a solo piano work and is from Tigran’s album An Ancient Observer,
released March 2017 on Nonesuch records, featuring compositions written over the previous four years. Some pieces including Etude no. 1 were through-composed, while others offered less-formal frameworks, leaving space for improvisation. Well known as a jazz pianist, Tigran has also become increasingly regarded as a composer in his eight albums recorded as the sole leader. “I have been composing since I was 9 and composing is a huge part of my daily life and all the records I did from World Passion to An Ancient Observer,” he says. “For me creating a beautiful melody is very important and is the basis, but what you will do with that melody, considering the age of folk music creation is over, is the most important task.”

Ayanna Woods is a Grammy-nominated performer, composer and bandleader from Chicago. Her music explores the spaces between acoustic and electronic, traditional and esoteric, wildly improvisational and mathematically rigorous. A collaborator across genres and forms, her work spans new music, theater, film scoring, arranging, songwriting, and improvisation. She earned her B.A. in music from Yale University.

Woods has been commissioned by Third Coast Percussion, Chanticleer, The Crossing, the Percussive Arts Society, Manual Cinema, Lorelei ensemble, the Chicago Children’s Choir, Boston Children’s Choir, and Chicago Chamber Choir.

In 2018, she originated her role as a vocalist in Place,a new oratorio about gentrification and displacement co-conceived by Pulitzer finalist Ted Hearne, director Patricia McGregor and poet/librettist Saul Williams.

Her music appears in a range of film and theater projects. Two of her songs are featured in the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls. In 2017, she and her sister Jamila Woods co-composed the score for No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks, a live film created by writers Eve Ewing, Nate Marshall, and Emmy-winning performance collective Manual Cinema. She continues to tour the U.S. and Canada with Manual Cinemaas a bassist and music director.

As a gigging musician, she is a sought-after bassist and improvisor. She toured the west coast and performed at Pitchfork Music Festival in 2019 as bassist for TASHA. She’s currently recording a debut album with her own band, Yadda Yadda.

Woods is a recipient of Third Coast Percussion’s 2017 Currents Creative Partnership, a 2017 3Arts Make A Wave grant, and a 2020 DCASE Individual Artist Program grant.

“I was inspired by the way drumline tom melodies scramble from place to place, the way kids play together on a playground. Like the best hand-clapping games, there’s a feeling of being chaotic and very coordinated at the same time. The patterns grow and grow until they get too unwieldy; they burst and have to become something else!”

– Ayanna Woods

Hailing from Portland, Oregon, multi-instrumentalist Machado Mijiga spins his creative web across denizens of genres, idioms, and formats to forge diverse soundscapes that encapsulate his core artistic identity. With an ever-changing vision chasing creative horizons, Mijiga seeks to bond mind to the ears with every sonic endeavor.

Where are you from?

Milwaukee, WI.

What is one thing about yourself that you’d want everyone to know?

I will be graduating in May 2022 with a Masters Degree in Arts Administration; if you know anyone hiring, I’m looking!

What are you up to these days?

I just finished up all my final projects for my last fall semester of graduate school and now I get to enjoy my winter break! Excited to see what the spring has to hold but also terrified that it’s my final semester.

Give us a link to something about you.

Check me out on LinkedIn (it seems to be the only social media I use now): https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkortes/

When did you intern with TCP?

My internship was from July 12th – December 15th, 2021.

How did you connect with TCP?

I tuned in for a live stream that TCP was doing for a university and at the end Sean mentioned something about needing internships. After a couple of days of thinking I reached out!

Did you gain anything from the internship that you’d like to share?

I got to see how a smaller organization operates. Looking at it through the lens of an arts administrator it was interesting to see how they organized everything and what programs they used to assist them.

What else did you do while interning with TCP?

Besides my internship with TCP I’ve been working at the Indiana University Cinema for my work study program. That’s another great organization that I’ve learned a lot from and have had a blast working/running events for. 

Favorite memory from the internship?

I think my favorite memory has to be when I came to Chicago for a donor/board member hang at Burning Bush. As someone who is going to have to interact with a lot of these types of people it was great to get to know the donor base that TCP has backing them up! Having Sean Connors buy you a beer too isn’t that bad either.

Give us a GIF or a YouTube link that sums up your experience with TCP.

If you were a cartoon character, who would you be?

Probably Courage the Cowardly Dog. There are a lot of things that terrify me, but I’m still going to do them.

What’s a funny or embarrassing story from the internship?

I think the funniest thing that has happened too many times during this internship is people not remembering that I visited Chicago multiple times in the summer. I realized this was an actual problem when I saw all the guys at PASIC this year and David [Skidmore] came up to me and said “It’s finally good to meet you in person.” To which I promptly responded with “We’ve already met…” That’s what I get for switching between remote work and in-person!

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TCP accepts interns any time of the year. If you are interested in learning more about TCP’s internship programs, please email TCP team members Sean Connors ([email protected]) and Rebecca McDaniel ([email protected]).

PROGRAM

Bulldog by Andrea Venet
…hence the term, well adjusted. by Robert Dillon
Narratology by Hunter Ewen
the season of Big rain (Mbura ya Njahĩ) by Nyokabi Kariũki
R.I.N. by Andys Skordis

Third Coast Percussion’s “Currents” is made possible by the generous support of Sidney K. Robinson, and by Third Coast Percussion fans like you. Thank you!

Third Coast Percussion’s Currents Creative Partnership is made possible by the DEW Foundation, the Sargent Family Foundation, and Louise K. Smith.

Third Coast Percussion’s programs are supported by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at Prince Charitable Trust, The Illinois Arts Council Agency, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Amphion Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University.

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PROGRAM NOTES

Dr. Andrea Venet is a percussion artist, educator, and composer specializing in contemporary and classical genres. She is Associate Professor of Percussion at the University of North Florida where she directs the UNF percussion ensemble, teaches applied lessons, pedagogy, methods and percussion literature. As an international soloist, chamber musician, and clinician, she maintains an active performance schedule with appointments in Europe, Japan, Canada, and Trinidad. Andrea’s compositions and arrangements can be found self-published via her website, through Keyboard Percussion Publications (KPP), and Tapspace, in addition to articles published with Percussive Notes and Rhythm!Scene Journals. Andrea is an artist for Malletech, Black Swamp Percussion, Remo, and DREAM Cymbals. She currently serves as the Percussive Arts Society Florida Chapter President and on the Board of Directors for The Green Vibes Project. 

“My beloved English bulldog, Shosti, is no stranger to drums and percussion. She has been surrounded by these sounds her whole life. She lays under the marimba while I practice and refuses to be far from sight when I’m playing drums at home. Added bonus: most of the things she does are rhythmic with some level of consistency. For example, Shosti drinks water in combinations of 7/8 and 9/8, which is represented at letter B. She witnesses a lot of creativity that happens at home and much of it is a direct result of interacting with her in idle moments because I am a huge dork. Consequently, one hilarious and interesting thing about her is that she loves paradiddles. Whether it be drumset, or a multi-setup, or tapping a groove on nearby objects, it instantly sets her off into a boisterous “play mode” frenzy, even from a dead-sleep. She also gets very fired up when hearing Steve Reich’s “Clapping Music”!
“Bulldog” is inspired by Shosti and our jam time. The content of the piece is based on paradiddles in various forms, and includes rhythmic grooves and patterns that represent things I associate with the bulldog “freestyle”. Within paradiddle groupings of different lengths, there are variations of voicing, sticking, and patterns. One versatile thing about paradiddle language are the funky grooves that emerge when extracting one voice/hand, especially when juxtaposing over a contrasting but steady pulse. Like an English bulldog, the piece is intended to be fun, sturdy, thick, short and sweet!”

–Andrea Venet

Third Coast Percussion member Robert Dillon has enjoyed a career as an orchestral, solo and chamber musician, as well as an educator for all ages, and since college, has pursued music composition as an additional expressive avenue. His music appears on TCP’s just-released Archetypes album as well as the Grammy-nominated 2019 release Perpetulum, and his music has been performed by university percussion ensembles across the country and overseas.

“I find the hardest part of writing a new piece is getting started. I began this piece in 2017 with a sound I wanted to explore — a rapid movement between many different instruments and objects, all with the same pitch. I liked the idea that one note would come through clearly, even while the timbres were changing too quickly for the listener’s ear to hold on to any one sound.

The hardest part is getting started, and once I had an initial sonic idea — a single note made of many colors — I could begin building on that one note to form harmonies, and with each new step, more and more possibilities opened up. 

I do find the hardest part of writing a new piece is getting started, but sometimes, even once I feel sure about where to begin, I can be paralyzed by the options of where to go next. The second step is when I actually have to decide what the piece is “about,” or whether there’s even really a piece there at all.

I find the hardest part of writing a new piece is getting started, but often the part that excites me the most is a big-picture idea about the form or structure of a piece. I really like it when a book or movie or a tv show organizes its story in a clever way. Part of the eternal charm of “Groundhog Day,” for instance, is the way its imaginative premise speaks to the mundane challenges of our everyday lives. Many of our journeys unfold not in heroic arcs with inevitable ends, but in familiar cycles we have to repeat, again and again, until we figure out how to escape them, or at least until how we get them to lead where we want to go.”

–Robert Dillon

Hunter Ewen is a dramatic composer and educator. During the day, Dr. Ewen designs systems for artificially intelligent creativity. At night, he masks up and fights crime with loud noises and strange ideas. His work rails against the waning borders of science and art—meaning and meaninglessness. Ewen values clamor and deviance. Clarity and frenzy. Space. Yowls and yips and screams that masquerade as music. He’s worked some of the same jobs and won some of the same awards as other composers too.

“For percussion quartet and pre-recorded narrator, Narratology is a reflection on ambiguity and lack of autonomy in our public discourse. We Americans are slowly becoming more divided, more political, and more contentious. Society is forcing us into lockstep. We’re having to choose sides—and we keep getting quieter…and angrier. It’s hard to disagree peacefully anymore. So how can we have a real conversation if we just repeat talking points? How can we find our own voice in the 21st century, and how can we reclaim the strength to speak up? Narratology is what happens when we discover our patterns and start pushing back against the systems that deny our autonomy.”

–Hunter Ewen

Nyokabi Kariũki (b. 1998, she/her) is a Kenyan composer and performer based between New York, Maryland and Nairobi. Her sonic imagination is ever-evolving, with compositions ranging from classical contemporary to choral music, film, experimental pop; and further includes explorations into sound art, electronics, and (East) African musical traditions. She is dedicated to using composition as a tool to not only re-discover the stories of her culture, but also to highlight its significance, and contribute to the preservation of African and Black stories.

Nyokabi’s works have been performed across the United States and internationally, and she has been commissioned by various performers and ensembles including Tetractys New Music, the Heartland Marimba Quartet, piano duo Chromic, and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus Men’s Ensemble. Most recently, she was the recipient of the 2021 Hearsay ‘Art’ Award, which celebrated her piece ‘A Walk Through My Cũcũ’s Farm’ as “audio that transports, transforms, evokes, immerses, transports”. 

“I never hesitate to look for guidance and inspiration for my pieces in home, Kenya. My ethnic group, the Kikuyu, are farmers, and seasons are based on planting and harvest. The season of ‘big rain’ is known as Mbura ya Njahi, which refers to the rain that comes that allows the beans to grow (usually from April to July). When writing the piece, I found myself thinking of the sound of the tapping of rain on the roof of our home in Kirinyaga, where my father and his sisters grew up. It is one of my most favourite, most peaceful places to be.”

–Nyokabi Kariũki

Andys Skordis (Cyprus, b. 1983) is a composer of contemporary music, with special emphasis on large scale works, music theatre and site specific pieces. His music is often characterized as archaic and dark, resulting in performances which are frequently compared with rituals or ceremonial occurrences. His work list includes operas, orchestral and chamber pieces, Gamelan music, vocal works, as well as music for dance, theatre and short films. In addition, he has created various music theatre performances in site specific locations like quarries, temples, abandoned buildings, forests, floating stages, and more. Recently he was awarded with the Black Pencil Prize in 2020. Besides composing, he is an artistic collaborator with the Greek National opera, the music curator of Xarkis festival and the guitarist of Monsieur Doumani, a multi awarded trio from Cyprus. 

“’R.I.N’ is inspired by a process where one goes into a deeper state of existence…an introverted state, going deeper into their own body and soul. The piece is divided into two movements, where the first one resembles the journey of going deeper in yourself and the second reflects the state when someone has arrived that state; in other words the two movements could be called as descent and exploration. The piece finishes when the whole process has finished, returning back into an altered state of mind and ultimately, existence.

The four percussionists represent a single entity broken into four pieces, where absolute harmony in all aspects should function in order for the collective “ego” to go through the entire process. The bass drum represents our mind, the nucleus of ourself which is broken in other pieces, and so on.

Lastly, as a personal note for the piece, I tried to engage percussion instruments found in various cultures around the world, thus reflecting my personal journey as a composer, expressing timbre and patterns from the various cultures I have studied as a musician, to arrive at the present time. The piece is dedicated to Third Coast Percussion, and our entire journey in creating this piece from the very beginning.”

–Andys Skordis

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Third Coast Percussion’s programs are supported by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at Prince Charitable Trust, The Illinois Arts Council Agency, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Amphion Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University.

PROGRAM
Common Patterns in Uncommon Time by David Skidmore (b. 1982)
Prelude – Material Study 1
Mvt. 1 – Entity
Mvt. 2 – Design
Mvt. 3 – Repose
Interlude – Material Study 2
Mvt. 4 – Diversity
Mvt. 5 – Entity
Mvt. 6 – Repose

This concert is support by Sidney K. Robinson. Special thanks to Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Taliesin Preservation for partnering with us on the event.

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PROGRAM NOTES

Common Patterns in Uncommon Time (2011) was commissioned by Sidney K. Robinson in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Taliesin, the studio and residence of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Of Common Patterns, the composer David Skidmore writes:

“In writing this piece, I drew inspiration from the following Wright quotation:

‘…striving for entity, oneness in diversity, depth in design, repose in the final expression of the whole – all these are there in common pattern between architect and musician.’

The piece is comprised of six movements and an interlude performed without pauses between the movements. Each movement draws its title from one of the key words from Wright’s quote: entity, diversity, design, and repose.

When I was asked to write this piece, I quickly realized that I was not interested in writing music ‘about’ a piece of architecture. Even if the notion had interested me, I have no idea how one could accomplish such a thing. Instead, this is a piece inspired by architecture, and, more specifically, the work of one of the great creative minds of the last century, Frank Lloyd Wright. I am an amateur aficionado of architecture, not an expert, so I approached the project as such. When I look at a Frank Lloyd Wright building, the characteristic which most fascinates me is the manner in which simple geometric shapes – squares, rectangles, circles, triangles – are layered in such intricate and unpredictable ways to create the deep complexity and beauty of the whole work.

These simple shapes in complex layers, along with the quotation above, inspired both the title of the piece and the vast majority of the musical material. I have taken some basic building blocks of music –rhythmic groupings of 3, 4, or 6 notes; harmonies with 3, 4, or 6 pitches – and layered these elements in many, many different ways, each layer leading to a new musical idea, a new sound, a new inspiration. Taliesin is unique among Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings in that he worked on it continuously from 1911 until his death in 1959. The house is therefore not a single, self-contained architectural idea but instead a fluid structure nearly 50 years in the making. Yet somehow Wright managed to create continuity across his decades of work on the building.

As my good friend, architectural guru, and progenitor of this piece, Sidney K. Robinson once said “Taliesin was always changing, but it was always Taliesin.” I have thus endeavored to capture some aspect of this combination of evolution and continuity. While the piece is a palindrome harmonically, with the end of the piece circling back to exactly where it began, the rigid and repetitious rhythmic nature of the beginning slowly loosens throughout the course of the piece and eventually completely dissolves as the piece draws to a close.

The materials of the percussion instruments used (glass, wood and metal) are woven throughout the work in much the same way Wright integrated materials to unify his own designs. This represents a striking similarity between percussion and architecture: more so than in any other music, percussion music is defined by the materials used in performance. A piece may call for marimbas and vibraphones, or it may call for radios, electric buzzer and tom toms; whatever palette the composer chooses, his or her work is defined and structurally unified by these materials as an architect’s work is defined and unified by his or her use of limestone, or plaster, or wood.”

Hear Common Patterns in Uncommon Time on Third Coast Percussion’s album Unknown Symmetry: click here to listen on Spotify, and click here to purchase the album.

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David Skidmore is an Ensemble Member and Executive Director of Third Coast Percussion. As a chamber musician, David has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center Festival, Kimmel Center, EMPAC, June in Buffalo, Klangspuren Schwaz, the Ojai Music Festival, the Bang On a Can Marathon and three Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. David was a member of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble from 2007-2011 and Ensemble ACJW from 2008-2010.

David has performed and collaborated with many of the world’s finest musicians including conductors Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, and Michael Tilson Thomas, composers Steve Reich, Steve Mackey, Matthias Pintscher, and Peter Eötvos, and chamber ensembles Eighth Blackbird and Ensemble Signal. David has performed as a soloist in Europe, Asia, and the United States. David has also performed as a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Pacific Music Festival, and the National Repertory Orchestra.

David is also a composer, and his works are performed regularly in concert halls and universities across the country. David taught for four years on the percussion faculty at the Peabody Conservatory. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern University and a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music. His teachers were Michael Hernandez, Shawn Schietroma, Michael Burritt, James Ross, and Robert Van Sice.

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Common Patterns in Uncommon Time was commissioned by Sidney K. Robinson for the Taliesin Centennial Celebration.

Third Coast Percussion’s programs are supported by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at Prince Charitable Trust, The Illinois Arts Council Agency, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Amphion Foundation, the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, and the Alice M. Ditson Fund at Columbia University.

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We are thrilled to announce that our album Fields has been nominated for two GRAMMY® Awards, in the categories “Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance” and “Best Engineered Album, Classical”!

These are our third and fourth Grammy Award nominations, following our first nomination and win in 2017 for Third Coast Percussion | Steve Reich, and our second nomination in 2020 for Perpetulum. It’s an honor to be nominated alongside so many incredible musicians that we admire and respect.

Big thanks to the team that helped us put this album together: Jesse Lewis (producer, editing, mixing mastering), Kyle Pyke (engineer), Sonnenzimmer + Stephanie Bassos and Timothy Burkhart of People vs Places (album artwork), and Cedille Records.

We are so grateful to composer Devonté Hynes for taking this collaborative journey with us, and to all of the co-commissioners and partners who made these works possible, including the amazing Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. 

Most of all, thanks to all of you for listening to and supporting TCP and this album. 

Where are you from?

Goshen, IN.

What is one thing about yourself that you’d want everyone to know?

Before going to college, I was a llama trainer.

What are you up to these days?

I am a senior at the Eastman School of Music studying Percussion Performance. I also study Brazilian drumming with master drummer Jorge Alabe.

When did you intern with TCP?

From the end of May 2020 through the end of July 2020.

How did you connect with TCP?

TCP was Ensemble in Residence at the University of Notre Dame when I was in high school. They would come to my school and have a master class with the percussion ensemble every year!

Did you gain anything from the internship that you’d like to share?

I learned what a full-time ensemble looks like from the inside. TCP is extremely organized and they work together very well!

What else did you do while interning with TCP?

Since we had to work from home, I played fetch with my dog, cooked, watched Netflix, played golf (the best social distanced sport) and practiced!

Favorite memory from the internship?

My favorite thing was to sound check the livestream dress rehearsals!

AND NOW FOR THE LLAMAS. We usually ask our interns to share a funny story from the internship, but instead, Tristan has given us permission to share one of our favorite funny moments from his internship: the day that we learned about Tristan’s llama training skills. Unbeknownst to us, we had a national champion llama trainer working with us all summer long! Please peruse the photos below of Tristan and his llamas. You won’t regret it.

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Our interns can experience every part of TCP’s organization, from visiting recording sessions to writing grants and everything in between. We accept interns almost year-round, and are open to discussing remote internships. If you’re interesting in learning more about an internship with Third Coast, please contact Sean Connors at [email protected].

Congratulations to Elori Saxl and George Hurd, the composers selected for our 2020/21 Emerging Composers Partnership! We will be collaborating with both Elori and George to create new works to be premiered by Third Coast next season. Read more about these outstanding music-makers below, and click their names to hear some of their music.

We received a remarkable 125 applications this year! It is so inspiring to see the creative and amazing work displayed by all of the proposals, and we know that our field will continue to be made better by the work of these composers! Thank you to everyone who submitted music and ideas this year.

Applications for the next round of submissions to the Emerging Composers Partnership (projects to be completed in the 2021/22 season) will open on August 1 and will close on September 30, 2020.

Elori Saxl (b. 1990) is a musician, composer, and filmmaker whose work explores technology, place, memory, and empathy. Her work often blends acoustic instruments with electronic instruments and processed field recordings. She has created music for various New Music ensembles, the New Yorker, This American Life, Public Radio International, Gimlet, MOMA, Patagonia, Dove, Google, Poler, and more. She has directed films for the New Yorker and Slate. Her work has been featured by the New Yorker, This American Life, Vimeo Staff Picks, Slate, Paste, MTV, USA Today, Consequence of Sound, Flood Magazine, Impose, Transom, Gimlet, and at various film festivals. She is a founding member of the New York-based band Alpenglow. Originally from Minneapolis, she now lives in Brooklyn, NY.

George Hurd is a San Francisco-based electro-acoustic composer and solo electronic performer whose work focuses on classical composition, electronic music, and the uncharted world where they coexist. Best known for his work with The Hurd Ensemble, a group that performs his pieces for chamber ensemble and electronics, his music has been performed across the country from the Kennedy Center in D.C. to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. He often fixates on memory, using field recordings recorded from his life and travels, each encapsulating an experience from when they were recorded. His ongoing project Echolocation runs with this idea, using location-specific audio captured while traveling around the world to create an ever-growing number of pieces based on the unique soundscapes of each place.

He’s written for various groups and artists, including an electro-acoustic piece for the brilliant violinist/composer Carla Kihlstedt, and a piece for Elevate Ensemble, melding chamber ensemble with sounds recorded entirely in Paris, France.

He writes extensively for podcasts, film, and dance, with music being featured on the hit podcasts Wind of Change and Running from Cops. He’s written for the Oscar-winning filmmakers the Wider Brothers for their recent film To the Edge of the Sky, and has scored numerous indie films and shorts. He also writes for dance, including a LEVYdance/Loni Landon Dance Projects score called Meet Me Normal, a Kinetech Arts piece the murmur of yearning, and ongoing tech-based projects with dancer/technologist Lauren Bedal. 

 

Third Coast Percussion’s Emerging Composers Partnership is made possible by Louise K. Smith and the Sargent Family Foundation.

PROGRAM NOTES

Ayanna Woods is a composer and performer from Chicago, IL. She earned her BA in music at Yale University. Woods’ work has been performed by the Chicago Children’s Choir, ZRL, Fifth House Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, and Longleash Trio, among others. Her music has also appeared in a range of film and theater projects, including the Emmy-nominated web series Brown Girls and an original Manual Cinema play No Blue Memories, based on the life of Gwendolyn Brooks. In 2018, she was a vocalist in the world premiere of PLACE, a new work by Ted Hearne, Saul Williams and Patricia McGregor. She is the bassist for TASHA and Michael Albert Group. Her music explores the spaces between acoustic and electronic, traditional and esoteric, wildly improvisational and mathematically rigorous.

“The Triple Point of a pure substance is the temperature and pressure where it can be a solid, liquid, and gas in equilibrium. That sounds a lot more tranquil than it actually is; you can find videos online of liquid bubbling into gas, rapidly freezing and then exploding and melting into liquid again. In some ways it’s always the same, and in some ways, it never stops moving. It’s something that’s stable on the one hand, and colliding with itself on the other.

“This title came out of one of our workshops together as the piece was taking shape. We talked about the sound world being meditative and groovy at the same time. That’s something that I tried to lean into as I was writing.”

-Ayanna Woods

Triple Point was composed as part of Third Coast Percussion’s 2017-2018 Emerging Composers Partnership, made possible by generous support from Louise K. Smith, with additional support from the Sargent Family Foundation.

Duration: 6 minutes
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Robyn Jacob is a pianist, singer, composer and educator who lives and works on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She has toured Canada and internationally with her avant-pop project Only A Visitor, who have released three albums to date and are currently collaborating with sound designer Nancy Tam on a multi-media production called “Double Happiness: Detour This Way.” Her recent composition projects explore writing for unusual ensembles, as well as collaborations with visual artists and instrument makers. In early 2020 she celebrated the release of Earth Leaps Up on the label elsewhere music with her duo The Giving Shapes in collaboration with harpist Elisa Thorn. Since 2012 she has been part of the multi-disciplinary arts collective Publik Secrets, currently artists in residence at the Hadden Park Field House with the City of Vancouver. In 2013 she toured Bali with Gamelan Gita Asmara, and has since been co-leading Gamelan Bike Bike. Robyn has received a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of British Columbia, and has completed residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Joya AiR in Spain. She has been teaching music and piano privately for over 10 years.

“Much of my experience with percussion music has been the study of Balinese Gamelan, which is traditionally learned by rote. Around the time I started composing Transference and Zoosemiotics, I learned that humpback whales learn their songs by rote as well. Through further research, I was drawn to the beautiful sonograms that, in a poem of images, made visual the syntax of the whales’ songs. These graphs, which show pitch and texture through time, illustrate the clearly delineated and repeated themes of the songs. I wondered what could be shown by delving into the form of a song created by another species. With the growth of human mega-culture, the whales’ transmission of their songs seemed almost like a parallel form of ‘trending.’ I wanted to explore the tension that comes from the struggle to adhere to the form developed by another – and not only that but a collectively composed work of another species. No one knows what purpose the humpback whale song serves, and similarly, the reasons why people feel the need to perform is also a vast and indefinite discussion. I became interested in the performative actions of whales, such as is featured in films like Blackfish and appears from time to time in the news (for example, the case where a mother orca dragged her dead calf around for seventeen days). In the end these questions guided my composition process, in what is perhaps just an elaborate homage. Regardless, I am grateful to work with the beautiful sonograms that were first published in the journal Science by Payne and McVay (September 1971), and to draw inspiration from another emotionally intelligent being, who creates for reasons we can only begin to try and understand. I’d like to thank the members of Third Coast Percussion for inviting me along in this adventure.”

– Robyn Jacob

Transference and Zoosemiotics was composed for Third Coast Percussion’s Emerging Composers Partnership program, with lead support from Louise K. Smith, with additional support from the Sargent Family Foundation, and Third Coast Percussion’s board of directors, in honor of Samir and Emily Mayekar.

Duration: 13 minutes
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Born in Zurich, pianist, composer, and producer Nik Bärtsch has developed a distinct and prolific musical voice that draws on funk, minimalism, and Japanese ritual music. He is pianist and composer for the ongoing “Ritual Groove Music” project, which he has developed over the last 20 years through albums and performances with his bands Mobile and Ronin. In addition to his performing work, he regularly teaches through international workshops, lectures, and residencies. He is the founder of the label Ronin Rhythm Records, co-founder of the Music club EXIL in Zurich, and co-founder and co-artistic director of the Indie-Classical Festival “Apples and Olives” in Zurich. He has been an ECM artist since 2006.

WORDS END ON THE COAST

“Third Coast Culture is a piece based on my understanding of Third Coast Percussion’s music-playing culture. I myself have always looked for a ‘third way’ of experiencing the world and expressing myself: a creative, alternative perspective to pure tradition. In music this means a fruitful third path – nourished in one way by clearly composed and subtly interpreted music, generally labeled ‘classical,’ and in another way by the working band-oriented, oral or communal way of creating groove music together. These music cultures usually require different strategies for rehearsing, playing and presenting music. But for me they have much more in common than separation-trained minds think, and they clearly are results of the same musical sources and of our need to share music together.

“A group like Third Coast Percussion has an inspiring fresh post-genre and post-‘-ism’ attitude, both mentally and aesthetically: their curiosity, enthusiasm and way of working are important drives, whereas ‘membership’ in a scene, style or defined culture identity is secondary. Like myself, TCP sees the journey of music as an evolutionary process of learning and understanding the world and us — not as a cultural flow fixed by tradition, but also not so indecisive as the multicultural ‘anything goes.’ Their working spirit is based on differentiation, precision and dedication. They cultivate the scientific explorer attitude with a childlike, playful enthusiasm, which we all should preserve and cultivate in ourselves. This is why ‘Third Coast’ as a term inspired me not mainly geographically, community oriented, or as demarcation, but as a mind- and heart-opening attitude towards life, culture, music.

“I tried to bring this positive spirit and its power into the piece to say, ‘Thank you, Third Coast Percussion, for your way of working and enriching the music ocean!’ The music can speak for herself; we are just standing on her coast to listen.”

-Nik Bärtsch

Nik Bärtsch’s Third Coast Culture was commissioned by the Third Coast Percussion New Works Fund.

Duration: 13 minutes
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We are thrilled to announce that our album Perpetulum has been nominated for a GRAMMY® Award in the “Best Chamber Music / Small Ensemble Performance” category!

This is our second GRAMMY® Award nomination, following our first nomination and win in 2017 for Third Coast Percussion | Steve Reich. It’s an honor to be nominated alongside so many incredible musicians that we admire and respect.

Big thanks to the team that helped us put this album together: Jesse Lewis (producer, editing, mixing, mastering), Dan Nichols (engineer), Kyle Pyke (editing), Sonnenzimmer (album artwork), and the Orange Mountain Music label.

We are ever-grateful to Philip Glass and Gavin Bryars for writing such incredible music for us, and to all of the co-commissioners who made these works possible. This album holds extra-special significance to us as it also features music composed by three of our own ensemble members: Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore.

Most of all, thanks to all of you for listening to and supporting TCP and this album.