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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.
Third Coast Percussion wields mountains of metal for Vancouver New Music
April 25, 2018, by Third Coast Percussion
April 18, 2018 by Alexander Varty Alexander Varty of Vancouver's The Georgia Straight interviewed our own Sean Connors before TCP's Vancouver debut earlier this month. Read the interview below to learn about our friendship and work with Augusta Read Thomas, where Resounding Earth got its start, and more! Press material for Third Coast Percussion’s Vancouver debut indicates that its performance of Augusta Read Thomas’s Resounding Earth will involve the use of 125 bells from around the globe, but that’s old news. According to band member and technical director Sean Connors, the Chicago-based quartet’s musical arsenal has grown since the work premiered in 2012, and it might yet grow some more. “There’s actually over 300 pieces of resonant metal on-stage,” Connors says in a telephone interview from Third Coast’s Windy City studio. “There’s gongs and cymbals and things that people would identify as instruments right away, but then there are also found objects—things that people…
Magia de la percusión | Percussion magic
April 18, 2018, by Third Coast Percussion
04 de abril de 2018 por Jesús Vega La agrupación Third Coast Percussion, ganadora del premio Grammy por su interpretación de la música de Steve Reich, regresa victoriosa nuevamente con este registro de estreno mundial, inspirado en la banda sonora de Paddle to the Sea, cortometraje que nominado al Oscar en 1966, y que a su vez se basa en el libro infantil homónimo escrito e ilustrado por Holling C. Holling en 1941. El cuarteto interpreta la nueva versión con instrumentos tradicionales e inusuales, desde bloques de madera a sintetizador, marimba y mbira(instrumento idiófono africano para tocar con los dedos), entre otros. Completan la entrega otras obras con tema acuático que inspiraron el proyecto, creadas por Philip Glass y Jacob Druckman, y una canción típica Shona zimbabuense. Realmente mágico. The ensemble Third Coast Percussion, winner of the Grammy Award for their interpretation of the music of Steve Reich, returns victorious again with this world premiere…
Sonorous Earth with The Eugene Symphony
April 17, 2018, by Third Coast Percussion
We are thrilled to be performing Augusta Read Thomas's Sonorous Earth with co-commissioner The Eugene Symphony on Thursday, April 19. Thanks to KLCC's Brian Bull for profiling the concert, and for taking the time to sit down with Augusta Read Thomas to discuss the concerto, her lifelong love of bells, and the process of compiling all 300 pieces of resonant metal that are used in this amazing work. Click here to listen to the interview.
Album Review: Paddle to the Sea
February 28, 2018, by Third Coast Percussion
February 14, 2018 by Jarrett Hoffman "...deep and wide-ranging, impressive and highly creative." Third Coast Percussion went bold with their latest project, a sprawling marine ecosystem of an album titled Paddle to the Sea. The name comes from a 1966 film about a wooden toy boat floating its way from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean. After the half-hour film was brought to the group’s attention, they group-composed a new score to it, here receiving its world-premiere recording. But an ecosystem takes more than just one beautiful story. Third Coast surrounds the title work with the vastly differing colors of three aquatic creatures — water-themed works that inspired the film score’s composition. As a whole, the result from this Grammy-winning quartet out of Chicago is deep and wide-ranging, impressive and highly creative. The title work, spanning ten tracks, marks the little boat’s journey with a fascinating assortment of sounds and moods. “Open Water”…
Album review: Paddle to the Sea
April 4, 2018, by Third Coast Percussion
April 3, 2018 by David Hurwitz "...astonishing precision and sensitivity..." "...the performances are amazing...the engineering is perfect..." Today’s percussionists are amazing virtuosos, and the members of Third Coast Percussion play with astonishing precision and sensitivity throughout this intelligently planned recital built around the theme of “water” in many of its forms. There are two major works, the most important of which is Jacob Druckman’s amazing marimba solo “Reflections on the Nature of Water.” Its six movements are broken into pairs and spread throughout the disc. As the idiom is strongly atonal, it makes a refreshing contrast to the mellow harmonic syntax of the remaining pieces. The other major work is Third Coast Percussion’s original film score Paddle to the Sea. The movements have evocative titles, some presumably taken from the images to which they correspond: "The Lighthouse and the Cabin," "Open Water," "Niagara," "The Locks," etc. Other bits are simply…
100 metronomes can’t be wrong, but Cerrone premiere impresses most in Ligeti program
March 1, 2018, by Third Coast Percussion
February 17, 2018 by Lawrence A. Johnson The penultimate program of the György Ligeti festival in this season’s University of Chicago Presents series took place Friday night at the Logan Center. Yet the most substantive music of the evening, curated by Third Coast Percussion, was a work by a young American composer. One of Ligeti’s most endearing qualities is his antic sense of humor. The three Ligeti works featured on the first half richly represented the satirical, anti-establishment side of the Hungarian composer, even if none of the music showed Ligeti at his most essential. The evening began with a rare performance of a work more talked about than presented, Ligeti’s infamous Poème symphonique (1962). Neither symphonic nor poetic, this bit of theater art for 100 metronomes shows Ligeti at his most Cageian. Sixteen UC students walked out single file–in keeping with the mock-serious ceremony of the work–and seated themselves…
Third Coast Percussion at Cleveland Museum of Art
, by Third Coast Percussion
February 14, 2018 by Nicholas Stevens Few composers in the classical tradition have successfully transformed stories for children into engrossing all-ages artworks. In a concert at the Cleveland Museum of Art last week, Third Coast Percussion — the Chicago-based quartet of Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore — made a strong case for their new work, Paddle to the Sea. Third Coast’s concert on Sunday afternoon, February 11 represented a sort of homecoming for the piece, which the Museum helped commission. It was Thomas Welsh, CMA’s Director of Performing Arts, who first suggested that the quartet look at the 1941 children’s book Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling and Bill Mason’s 1966 short film based on the book. For their multimedia event, Third Coast alternates performances of pieces by Philip Glass, Jacob Druckman, and the mbira masters of the Shona people with portions of the film, screened along with the quartet’s original music.…
Classical New Release: Paddle to the Sea
, by Third Coast Percussion
February 6, 2018 by Amanda Sewell Grammy-winning ensemble Third Coast Percussion has a new album of water-inspired music called Paddle to the Sea.The centerpiece of the album is the world premiere of "Paddle to the Sea," an original Third Coast Percussion ensemble composition. The group created the music as a live soundtrack to accompany the 1966 short film that was adapted from a children's book. The album also includes water-inspired music by Philip Glass, Jacob Druckman and Musekiwa Chingodza. Click here to view the trailer for this new album.
Paddle to the Sea in National Sawdust
, by Third Coast Percussion
February 9, 2018 by Steve Smith Paddle to the Sea was featured in National Sawdust's On the Record, a weekly listing of highlighted new-music releases. Find the whole listing here.
Album Review: Paddle to the Sea
, by Third Coast Percussion
February 18, 2018 by Lisa Flynn Third Coast Percussion’s Paddle to the Sea transports listeners into a realm of imaginative sounds and world-premiere recordings evoking the aquatic world. Anchoring the album is the ensemble’s original collaborative composition Paddle to the Sea. The talented foursome conceived it as a live soundtrack to the 1966 film of the same name, based on a classic children’s story. Third Coast found a wellspring of ideas in the other works they’ve included on the album. Jacob Druckman’s Reflections on the Nature of Water revels in textures and timbres unique to the marimba. The ensemble plays its own arrangement of selections from Philip Glass’s 12 Pieces for Ballet — also drawing inspiration from Brazilian group Uakti’s multi-instrumental version, titled Aguas da Amazonia.
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