A New Album From Third Coast Percussion
We are thrilled to announce our newest full-length album, featuring Philip Glass's iconic work Aguas da Amazonia. This new arrangement was created in partnership with Twyla Tharp Dance for their Diamond Jubilee program. Twyla encouraged us to put our own musical personality into the work as we honed in on a bespoke version of this music that fit Twyla’s vision for her new dance work.
TCP’s Production Manager, Colin Campbell, played a crucial role in this project as he designed, built, and sourced new instruments and customized methods of amplifying and recording this peculiar ensemble. The instrumentation includes a marimba made of glass and another made of red oak planks, a set of chromatically tuned PVC pipes, a sun drum (tunable tongue drum), synthesizers, and a djembe.
Our friend, flutist Connie Volk, adds a vital layer to these arrangements with playing that includes her own solos over Glass’s musical material. She also contributed a beautiful original artwork which is featured in this album’s graphic design.
All of this has taken our ensemble into new artistic territory, but has also brought us back to our classical music roots: viewing ourselves as the next step in an evolving performance practice of music that different artists before us have put their stamp on; music which we expect others in the future to make their own as well.
Aguas da Amazonia is now available to stream on all platforms. Click here to listen to Aguas da Amazonia.
Performed by Third Coast Percussion featuring Constance Volk, flute
This arrangement by Third Coast Percussion of Aguas da Amazonia by Philip Glass was commissioned with support from Modlin Center for the Arts, University of Richmond, the Zell Family Foundation, the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation, the Julian Family Foundation, and Steph and Daniel Heffner.
Artwork by Constance Volk.