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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.
Alumni percussion ensemble wins a Grammy
July 26, 2017, by Third Coast Percussion
February 16, 2017 by Kelley Czajka Third Coast Percussion, a classical percussion ensemble comprising four NU alumni, took home a Grammy award Sunday night. Its album “Steve Reich” won the award for Best Chamber Group/Small Ensemble Performance. This was the first time the group had been nominated for or awarded a Grammy, as well as the first time any percussion group has won a chamber music category, Third Coast member Robert Dillon said. “We’re very proud of the work that we’ve done and are thrilled to have the honor, but we also definitely recognize that for music, it’s something that’s passed down from one generation to the next through teachers and mentors of all kinds,” Dillon said. (more…)
After Grammy win, Third Coast Percussion comes to Columbia
, by Third Coast Percussion
February 16, 2017 Meredith McGrath On Sunday, Third Coast Percussion took home this year's Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. Now for the first time, the ensemble is headed to our neck of the woods to work with local music students and perform at the Missouri Theatre on Friday. The quartet from Chicago gave an educational performance for students at Lee Expressive Arts Elementary School on Tuesday and has been working with students at the MU School of Music. Percussion students had the opportunity to attend a seminar with the group, where they learned about its background, received career advice and had their own performances critiqued by the professionally trained percussionists. (more…)
Northwestern alumni percussion group nominated for Grammys, attribute success to university
, by Third Coast Percussion
February 9, 2017 by Rishika Dugyala Peter Martin was not having a good morning. It was 8 a.m. on Dec. 6 and Martin (Bienen ‘04, ‘11) was rushing to get to his classical percussion ensemble’s — Third Coast Percussion — studio space to start practicing before all the musicians began their group rehearsal at 10 a.m. The week was a busy one for the group: They had an intense rehearsal schedule to prepare for a couple of recording sessions, and they were in the middle of an educational project at an elementary school on the South Side of Chicago. “I’ve got to get to the studio; I’ve got to get there,” Martin thought, stumbling out of his Chicago apartment. But as soon as the door shut, he froze. He had left his keys on the counter, locking himself out. Frustrated, Martin spent about a half hour sorting out the situation…
Third Coast Percussion premieres new work by Christopher Cerrone
, by Third Coast Percussion
February 2, 2017 by Jack Walton Once again, Third Coast Percussion has roused the Sleeping Giant. Sleeping Giant is the name of a composers' collective, an alliance of six increasingly prominent young American explorers in the field of contemporary classical music. Third Coast Percussion, the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center's ensemble-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame, has already performed new works from two of them — Timo Andres and Ted Hearne — and now the percussionists take on a third. (more…)
Grammy winning Third Coast Percussion performs at Lee Expressive Arts Elementary
, by Third Coast Percussion
February 15, 2017 by Roger McKinney New Grammy Award winners Third Coast Percussion on Tuesday stopped at Lee Expressive Arts Elementary School, where the band entertained and interacted with students. Third Coast Percussion, from the Chicago area, won its first Grammy on Sunday, for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. A student asked the musicians how it felt to win the Grammy. Band member David Skidmore said the award feels good because they had worked really hard for a long time. He said it’s more fun to perform and interact with students. “This is why we do what we do,” Skidmore said. (more…)
The Best of the Fall Season: Classical New Releases
July 22, 2017, by Third Coast Percussion
December 12, 2016 by Mark Pinto Third Coast Percussion: Steve Reich. The compositional style known as minimalism still sounds so new that it's hard to believe one of its pioneers—New York City's Steve Reich—has just turned 80. This album, by Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion, celebrates Reich's milestone with smooth, spirited, and precise performances of four works for tuned percussion: marimbas, vibraphones, pianos, and even slats of purpleheart wood. Composed between 1973 and 2009, these works showcase Reich's trademark style. Steady, complex, interlocking rhythmic patterns create jazzy melodies and harmonies as they evolve subtly in their rhythms, textures, instrumentation, and dynamics. The effect is fascinatingly kaleidoscopic, allowing for multiple entry points into this dynamic and uniquely American music. Click here to read the original article.
Third Coast Percussion provides an Ear Taxi highlight with jointly composed premiere
December 7, 2016, by Third Coast Percussion
by Tim Sawyier October 9, 2016 ... The program opened with Third Coast Percussion giving the world premiere of its own Reaction Yield. While all four TCP members—Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore—compose their own music, this is the first work they have written together collaboratively. Commissioned by the Glenn D. Prestwich and the Sounds of Science Commissioning Club, which subsidizes pieces that fuse music and science, Reaction Yield was far and away the evening’s highlight. While the work is divided into four connected movements, Dillon in his prefatory remarks was emphatic that no member was solely responsible for any one segment. A delicate pulsing suffuses and unifies the whole work, while the individual sections are discernible by changes in instrumentation. Particularly memorable was an interlude calling for four triangles of different pitches combined with glockenspiels, which generated an ethereal rhythmic tintinnabulation. Three members also performed on…
Weekend Ear Taxi Festival events include several winning premieres
, by Third Coast Percussion
by John Von Rhein October 9, 2016 The staggering amount of brand-new classical music that is emerging from the inaugural Ear Taxi Festival reflects a broad-shouldered synergy among local composers, performers and audience members that's rare in this nation but particularly emblematic of the Chicago-centric event as masterminded by Augusta Read Thomas. … The marvelous Third Coast Percussion foursome began its segment with the world premiere of a jointly composed piece, "Reaction Yield," inspired by modern science and deriving its haunting power from intricate rhythmic ostinatos that draw on a kaleidoscopic array of shifting percussion colors. The work whetted one's ears for one of Thomas' own pieces, "Selene (Moon Chariot Rituals)," a Tanglewood Festival-Third Coast co-commission receiving its Chicago premiere. The impetus of dance is never far from the surface of this exhilarating score, which melds the complementary natures of a percussion quartet and a string quartet to produce a…
MITO SettembreMusica. Note su due spettacoli a Torino
September 29, 2016, by Third Coast Percussion
September 28, 2016 by Marco Enrico Giacomelli PERCUSSIONI MINIMALI All’Auditorium Rai si sono esibiti i vulcanici e precisissimi componenti di Third Coast Percussion, ensemble di Chicago fondato nel 2005, insieme ai pianisti David Friend e Oliver Hagen nella seconda parte del concerto. La prima sessione è dunque tutta percussiva, con la perizia di Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin e David Skidmore messa a dura prova (brillantemente superata) dalla prima esecuzione europea di Surface Tension (2015) del compositore irlandese Donnacha Dennehy. Evidente la parentela con il Minimalismo, ma senza alcun timore reverenziale. Utile anche la breve introduzione di Stefano Catucci, a sottolineare l’accordatura degli strumenti, in alcuni casi variata durante l’esecuzione grazie a un sistema di aumento e diminuzione della pressione interna a tamburi & co. Azionamento rigorosamente orale tramite cannule in gomma e… polmoni. Il secondo brano (di cui s’è bissato l’ultimo movimento, a dimostrazione della grande generosità degli…
Third Coast Percussion Champions Steve Reich
, by Third Coast Percussion
by Christian Kriegeskotte September 14, 2016 In February of 2016, Third Coast Percussion (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore) released their sixth recording in partnership with Chicago-based label Cedille Records. The album, simply titled Third Coast Percussion/Steve Reich, is a collection of definitive works by the eminent American master. Recorded over the course of a week in December of 2014, the program includes four contrasting works composed by Steve Reich between 1973 and 2009. It is certainly safe to say that the form and aesthetic pioneered by composers such as Reich, Glass and Riley has become a large swath in the foundation of the current generation’s standard repertoire. A tenaciously American archetype, the consonant pulsations and rhythmic mantras of this pioneering group have carried over into the voices of subsequent generations of composers and landed before the fingers, mallets and lips of energetic young performers with great…
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