From concert and album reviews to feature articles, Third Coast Percussion is in the news.
We are fortunate to have garnered critical acclaim and recognition for so many of our performances and projects. See for yourself what the buzz is all about by reading what the press has to say! Browse reviews, articles, and much more below.
Chicago Sun-Times: Twyla Tharp’s ‘Diabelli’ glistens as legendary choreographer celebrates her diamond jubilee
April 14, 2025, by Kyle MacMillan
“I figured I’d better couch my diagonals and spirals in sex and surprise,” Twyla Tharp wrote in her 1992 autobiography, “Push Comes to Shove,” explaining her early approach to dance, and that description remains apt. The 83-year-old New Yorker ranks among the influential and innovative dancemakers of her generation, creating more than 150 works that can be complex and conceptual but also cool and funky. As vital and active as ever, Tharp is marking her 60th anniversary as a choreographer with a high-profile, cross-country tour featuring her 12-member company, Twyla Tharp Dance. In what is arguably the most anticipated event of the Chicago dance season, the company presented the first of three performances Thursday evening at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance, reaffirming it as Chicago’s pre-eminent dance venue. (Tharp was not in attendance.) Given Tharp’s standing in the dance world, it is no surprise that she has put together…
I CARE IF YOU LISTEN: Third Coast Percussion’s “Standard Stoppages” Honors Two Decades of Innovative Music-Making
April 10, 2025, by Michelle Hromin
In celebration of the ensemble’s 20th anniversary, Third Coast Percussion’s Standard Stoppages (Cedille Records) reflects on the passage of time in both a musical and a literal sense. Featuring works by Jlin, Tigran Hamasyan, Jessie Montgomery, Musekiwa Chingodza, and the late Zakir Hussain, the album nods to the role of the percussionist as ‘timekeeper’ while showcasing dream collaborations and long-time friends. Jlin’s Please Be Still opens the album with waves of familiarity as it winks to J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor with tiny pointed phrases, delicate lifts, and dovetailing cascades. But the overarching aesthetic of this collaborative composition is a twinkling of industrial sounds, scratches, rattles, and shakers that dust the surface of melodic fragments seamlessly traded by marimba and vibraphone. Jlin’s electronic music influences are apparent, and her balancing of drum kit with pitched percussion is glorious – there is something so magical about the frenetic collection of sounds she packs into such a…
WBEZ Chicago: Twenty years in, classical stars Third Coast Percussion keep upping the ante
, by Courtney Kueppers
The Chicago quartet Third Coast Percussion is well-versed in high-profile, cross-genre collaborations. In the 20 years since the group’s scrappy start as Northwestern University students, they have worked with leading composers, from the legendary Philip Glass to Chicago-based classical superstar Jessie Montgomery. They’ve also embraced less expected projects, like an evening-length work that combined percussion music with Memphis-meets-Miami–style street dance. This week, Third Coast’s latest buzzy partnership arrives at Chicago’s Harris Theater after stops in Minneapolis, New York and Washington, D.C., that left plenty of critical praise in their wake. The three-night run features the percussionists (joined by flutist Constance Volk) playing a reimagined arrangement of a sweeping 1990s Philip Glass composition, paired with new choreography from the legendary dancemaker Twyla Tharp. The performances are part of Tharp’s coast-to-coast tour celebrating 60 years as a revolutionary choreographer, and Third Coast is a key aspect of the show, using several special-made instruments from the pit.…
Corrina’s Substack: Talk it Out
March 10, 2025, by Corrina Da Fonseca-Wollheim
I wrote a blip of an article in the New York Times this week about a percussion performance at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall. We have a monthly feature for singling out musical moments, not in the form of a review so much as a spotlight on an aspect of a performance we can’t stop thinking about. The full concert by Third Coast Percussion on February 27 included Jlin’s scintillating “Please Be Still,” a haunting “Lady Justice / Black Justice, The Song” by Jessie Montgomery and Tigran Hamasyan’s sensuous Sonata for Percussion. From a purely where-can-I-hear-that-again point of view, that last one was my favorite piece on the whole program. But I was unexpectedly moved by “Murmurs in Time” by the late tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain. He passed away last December, after recording this work (scored for tabla and percussion quartet) with Third Coast. At Zankel one of his students, Salar Nader, took on…
Relix: Third Coast Percussion Honor Zakir Hussain with ‘Murmurs in Time’ Premiere at Carnegie Hall
March 6, 2025, by Nolan Ehlers
On Thursday, Feb. 27, Third Coast Percussion returned to New York’s Carnegie Hall for a special 20th-anniversary celebration. On the intimate and acoustically immaculate Zankel Hall stage, the celebrated percussion quartet delivered New York premieres for commissioned works by four innovative composers, highlighting the classical pathbreakers’ omni-voracious style. The program culminated in the live debut of Murmurs in Time, a new collaboration with the late legendary tabla master Zakir Hussain, who was originally booked to join Third Coast at the performance; in his absence, the quartet offered a deeply moving tribute to their hero. With a set intention of “celebrating the life of one of the great rhythm makers of all time,” Third Coast Percussion commenced their anniversary performance with the premiere of Please Be Still, a new work with footwork and contemporary classical disruptor Jlin. After their previous team-up on Perspective earned a finalist nod for 2023’s Pulitzer Prize for Music, the…
New York Times: The Classical Music Our Critics Can’t Stop Thinking About
, by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
When Zakir Hussain was a newborn, his father took him in his arms to recite a prayer over his son as was the tradition among Muslims in India. But instead of a blessing, his father whispered rhythms into his ear. Hussain grew up to become a tabla virtuoso like his father, mastering the North Indian classical tradition while also building bridges across musical genres. One of his last projects, before his death at 73 in December, was “Murmurs in Time,” a composition for tabla and percussion quartet commissioned by Third Coast Percussion, which he recorded with that ensemble. “Murmurs in Time” received its New York premiere on Feb. 27 at Zankel Hall, in a brilliant and moving performance that paid tribute to Hussain and the humanistic values at the heart of his art. The eloquent tabla player Salar Nader, a student of Hussain’s, joined the Third Coast players. The work is in two movements,…
New Sounds: Third Coast Percussion Plays New Work by Zakir Hussain, In-Studio
March 3, 2025, by John Schaefer
Third Coast Percussion is a Grammy-winning classical quartet based in Chicago. They’re all composers themselves, but they’ve also worked with a wide variety of other composers, including Philip Glass and the late great tabla player Zakir Hussain. Their new EP, Murmurs In Time, features Zakir’s work of that name, and he was supposed to join Third Coast Percussion here today, but as you may know, he passed away in December. This Soundcheck studio premiere of the work features a disciple of Hussain’s, Salar Nader. We’ll also hear an excerpt from another work written for Third Coast Percussion, by Tigran Hamasyan, the Armenian jazz pianist and composer. Oh – and it’s in 23/8, for anyone counting along. (-John Schaefer) Set list: 1. Tigran Hamasyan – Sonata for Percussion, 3rd Mvmt. – “23 for TCP” 2. Zakir Hussain: Murmurs In Time – second mvmt.
48 Hills: 60 years in, Twyla Tharp’s legendary company still shone like a diamond
February 26, 2025, by Lou Fancher
Asked in a 48 Hills phone interview how her eponymous dance company has survived—and thrived—for an epochal amount of time, choreographer Twyla Tharp says, “There’s no way to continue working other than to continue working. It’s one foot after the next. It’s continuity. If you work for 60 years, you don’t set out saying ‘I’m going to work for 60 years.’ Ultimately, there needs to be curiosity about what can happen next.” The Twyla Tharp Diamond Jubilee Tour, which came to Cal Performances at Zellerbach Hall February 7-9, had her streamlined company of 12 top-tier dancers powering through two West Coast premieres. Its program opened with Diabelli, a 52-minute ensemble work from 1998 grounded in and inspired by Beethoven’s 33 Diabelli Variations. A live performance by Russian-born pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev lent riveting virtuosity and exquisite nuance to a work showcasing Tharp’s devilishly difficult (and deceptively casual-looking) choreography. After intermission came…
Biberfan: Aguas Da Amazonia Review
February 24, 2025, by Biberfan
Third Coast Percussion has released this January a recording of the 1993-99 work by Philip Glass, envisioned as part of a ballet dance performance, entitled Aguas da Amazonia which like his work entitled Orion, used ethnic instruments. Third Coast had performed a few of these tracks earlier in an album focused on water, entitled Paddle to the Sea, which is among my favorite albums, for its vivid recording and first-class playing. In this album (35 minutes) they are joined by Constance Volk on flute. My original exposure to this work was via the recording made by Uakti. The order of pieces is different on this new album. More information about the piece is available via Wikipedia. This version doesn’t include the “bonus” track on the original, a recasting of Glass’ Metamorphosis. This piece because of its use of percussion, and non-traditional percussion, has a special flavor that’s missing from Glass’…
The Santa Fe New Mexican: The Twyla Zone
, by Emiliana Sandoval
There is nobody in the dance world like Twyla Tharp. She has defined, upended, and reimagined contemporary dance from the stage to the movie screen, and at 83 years old, she’s still creating new works. Her 60th anniversary tour stops at the Lensic Tuesday and Wednesday, February 25 and 26, to perform a work from her expansive archive as well as a new one to music by Philip Glass reimagined on custom percussion instruments. The evening will open with Diabelli, set to the Diabelli Variations for solo piano by Beethoven. The piece premiered in the U.S. in 1999 at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. Ten of the 12 dancers in the company and concert pianist Vladimir Rumyantsev perform the almost hourlong work. Marzia Memoli is a longtime dancer with the Martha Graham company who has worked with Tharp for two and a half years. She says Diabelli is…
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