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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.
The origins of Christopher Cerrone’s music
July 9, 2019, by Third Coast Percussion
We can't wait to be back at the Britt Festival in Southern Oregon later this month! We will be performing Chris Cerrone's new concerto for percussion quartet and orchestra, "Meander, Spiral, Explode", written for us last season. Check out this fantastic interview with Chris, about the origins of the piece, his compositional influences, and even his "suburban angst" rock band phase. July 8, 2019 by Evalyn Hansen Composer Christopher Cerrone’s percussion quartet concerto, “Meander, Spiral, Explode,” will be performed with Third Coast Percussion at the opening concert of the Britt Festival Orchestra season, which runs July 26 to Aug. 11. I chatted recently with Cerrone about the origins of his music. CC: I think I’ve had music coursing through my veins as long as I can remember. My mother told me a story of her giving me a 45 rpm record player. And I used to listen to the same…
Track Premiere: Donnacha Dennehy’s Surface Tension Performed by TCP
June 21, 2019, by Third Coast Percussion
June 20, 2019 We are stoked to be included on Donnacha Dennehy's newest album, Surface Tension/Disposable Dissonance! Read about—and listen to!—our track, Surface Tension, which Donnacha wrote for us back in 2016. The album is available on June 28, but you can listen to the track now! Congratulations, Donnacha! Today, we are premiering Donnacha Dennehy‘s Surface Tension performed by Third Coast Percussion! Surface Tension is one of two eponymous tracks from Dennehy’s upcoming New Amsterdam Records release: Surface Tension / Disposable Dissonance. Disposable Dissonance features the Dublin-based Crash Ensemble, founded in 1997 by Dennehy and now recognized as one of Ireland’s leading contemporary music ensembles. Surface Tension calls on the nuance and expertise of Third Coast Percussion, the Chicago-based percussion quartet whose portrait album of Steve Reich won the 2017 GRAMMY award for Best Chamber Music/ Small Ensemble Performance. Here’s what Donnacha had to say about Surface Tension: Surface Tension is a pretty intense, sweeping one-movement piece that I wrote for the wonderful Third Coast Percussion…
Album review: Perpetulum
June 18, 2019, by Third Coast Percussion
July 2019 edition by Geoff Brown Lovers of vibraphones and marimbas will relish this percussion fiesta from the famous Chicago group Third Coast Percussion. Drum aficionados won’t miss out, either. And Philip Glass fans will surely pounce on the title piece, a Third Coast commission, and the 82-year-old master’s long-delayed percussion debut, written last year. Perpetulum is a fidgety piece, content for a time to test sonorities rather than make obvious music. Then three minutes in, Glass gets up to speed: rhythms hiccup, perky melodies come and go while various drums tap out those rat-tat-tat patterns that seem to herald a brilliant display by high school majorettes. Spread in patches over 21 minutes, with a throbbing ‘cadenza’ devised by the performers, it’s all childlike fun. Gavin Bryars’s The Other Side of the River, another Third Coast commission, equally idiosyncratic, is surely a sturdier achievement: lyrical and mysterious, a victory for…
Album review: Perpetulum
June 4, 2019, by Third Coast Percussion
May 31, 2019 by James Manheim "...breaks new ground in several respects..." "...delightful..." "The entire album is absorbing and often fun" This release from Third Coast Percussion, on Philip Glass' Orange Mountain Music label, breaks new ground in several respects, which is no mean feat for its seemingly indestructible, octogenarian principal. The big news is that Glass himself, after all these years, contributes Perpetulum, a piece for percussion ensemble that is apparently his first one ever. This may seem strange for a composer for whom the rhythmic element has always been prominent, but here the relationship between rhythm and tonality is different, and the ensemble seems to draw forth a new kind of humor from Glass. It's delightful; sample the first movement, and you may well be entranced. The other new development here, is that Glass has reached what might be termed a second generation of influence; the rest of the music on the album, some of…
Album review: Perpetulum
, by Third Coast Percussion
May 31, 2019 by Rick Anderson "Third Coast Percussion is responsible for some of the most interesting and exciting recordings of the past few years." "...a glorious variety of styles and sounds..." Third Coast Percussion is responsible for some of the most interesting and exciting recordings of the past few years. Those who hear “percussion” and think “drums and woodblocks and gongs” need to understand that TCP’s primary instruments are mallet keyboards and other tuned instruments, which means that most of what you hear when they’re playing is melody and harmony, not just rhythm. And on their latest album, a two-disc collection of works by TCP’s members as well as by Gavin Bryars and Philip Glass (whose Perpetulum was commissioned for the group) you’ll hear a glorious variety of styles and sounds, perhaps the most consistently enjoyable of them being David Skidmore’s Aliens with Extraordinary Abilities. Read the original article here.
CD review: Third Coast Percussion’s “Perpetulum” showcases percussionists with extraordinary abilities
June 3, 2019, by Third Coast Percussion
May 30, 2019 by Olivia Kieffer "a powerhouse of a recording" "...virtuosic performances by the ensemble throughout." "they certainly do have extraordinary abilities" On March 29, 2019, Chicago-based quartet Third Coast Percussion released their newest album, Perpetulum. This is a powerhouse of a recording, with virtuosic performances by the ensemble throughout. It is certainly a “percussionist’s percussion album,” though anyone with an open ear for never-ending rhythms and percussive timbres can appreciate it. Those who are well-familiar with the standard Western percussion ensemble repertoire may enjoy the secret musical “throwback” gems peppered throughout the record. The title track comes from their much-anticipated Philip Glass commission, which is Glass’s first composition for percussion ensemble. This 2-disc set includes two works commissioned by the ensemble (“Perpetulum” by Philip Glass and “The Other Side of the River” by Gavin Bryars), and three compositions by members of the ensemble: David Skidmore’s “Aliens With Extraordinary…
Album review: Perpetulum
May 22, 2019, by Third Coast Percussion
May 22, 2019 (June issue) by Guy Rickards “glisteningly impressive” "This is a hugely enjoyable set, intelligently programmed, brilliantly performed and closely recorded." Philip Glass gets top billing here, unsurprisingly I suppose, for — astonishingly — his first work for percussion ensemble, the four-player Perpetulum (2018). Written for Third Coast Percussion, it is a virtuoso and entertaining showpiece in three parts with a brief cadenza prefacing the finale. Its momentum is not really that of a conventional perpetuum mobile, though there are elements of that at times, particularly in the toccata-like second part. Although there are gentler moments as well, Perpetulum’s busy discourse rarely rises to more elevated heights. If Perpetulum is not the most exciting work here, there are others that fit the bill, not least the concluding work on disc 2, Gavin Bryars’s The Other Side of the River (2016), also written for Third Coast Percussion. It is…
Review: Third Coast Percussion and the Civic Orchestra Premiered new Concerto Sunday Night
May 14, 2019, by Third Coast Percussion
May 14, 2019 by Louis Harris The front of the stage at Symphony Center was cluttered with marimbas, vibraphones, wood slabs, cymbals, crotales, and other gear as Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion opened the Civic Orchestra of Chicago’s concert Sunday night with the world premiere of Meander, Spiral, and Explode by Christopher Cerrone. It was the start of an excellent concert by the training orchestra that backs up the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. If one were to judge an orchestra based on the younger players waiting in the wings, the CSO is obviously top notch. Under the baton of Ken-David Masur, the Civic, as it usually does, delivered a delightful program on Sunday night and displayed a level proficiency worthy of the big leagues. Naturally, given the stage set-up demands, the Grammy-Award winning quartet Third Coast Percussion went first. They were backed up by a smaller, 50-piece Civic ensemble that included a piano and a two-person percussion section, which…
Concert review: Cerrone’s “Meander, Spiral, Explode” with the Civic Orchestra
, by Third Coast Percussion
May 14, 2019 by Howard Reich The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s recently ended seven-week strike meant that the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, too, fell silent during that time. Sunday evening’s performance in Orchestra Hall brought the young musicians back into the spotlight, and they seized it, opening with the world premiere of Christopher Cerrone’s “Meander, Spiral, Explode” for percussion quartet and orchestra. Third Coast Percussion collaborated animatedly with the orchestra in the gripping work, its three movements unfolding without pause. Though subtlety was not this composition’s strong point, there was no resisting Third Coast Percussion’s telegraphic opening statements, which pulsed over a relentless orchestral crescendo. The hypnotic incantations of the second movement eventually gave way to a propulsive finale, Third Coast Percussion’s speed demons giving listeners a great deal to marvel at. The program, sensitively conducted by Ken-David Masur, also included a solid performance of Debussy’s technically challenging “La Mer” and an…
Concert Review: Composer Portrait Frames Little As Social Interlocutor
May 13, 2019, by Third Coast Percussion
April 23, 2019 by Xenia Hanusiak This season, the Miller Theatre’s signature Composer Portraits series celebrates its 20th iteration. This vital and well-patronized series showcases the musical influencers of our time – composers and performers who are moving the needle of contemporary composition with assured and individual voices. The reputations of the featured artist are well validated. In the current season, the six composers have earned prestige awards ranging from the Pulitzer Prize to the MacArthur Fellowship: soprano/composer Kate Soper, performance artist/composer Du Yun, drummer/composer Tyshawn Sorey, Wang Lu, John Zorn, and David T. Little. The supporting musicians are integral, and for this season executive director Melissa Smey has snared the marquee names of contemporary music: International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, JACK Quartet, American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), and Third Coast Percussion. The synergy between composer and performers is essential to the enterprise. The portrait experience is multi-layered. Each presentation features the composer as curator and spokesperson (an onstage conversation is part of the concert experience). Lara Pellegrinelli’s program notes provide…
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