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.
Weekend Ear Taxi Festival events include several winning premieres
December 7, 2016, 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…
Concert Review: Third Coast Percussion hits all the right notes
August 25, 2016, by Third Coast Percussion
June 24, 2016 by Robert Croan It was not your grandmother’s chamber music at East Liberty’s Kelly Strayhorn Theater Thursday. Chamber Music Pittsburgh opened its enterprising Just Summer! season with a rousing and riveting concert by Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion — sounds quite unlike anything you’re likely to hear elsewhere in Pittsburgh. The concert featuring virtuoso players Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and David Skidmore traversed wide-ranging works for percussion groups, from John Cage’s seminal “Third Construction” (1941) up to a recent work by Mr. Skidmore, who was percussionist with Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble from 2007-11. Mr. Connors and Mr. Martin also have performed with PNME. (more…)
Album review: REICH Third Coast Percussion
July 18, 2016, by Third Coast Percussion
June 2016 by Pwyll ap Siôn Steve Reich’s music is often at its most effective when he writes for different combinations of percussion and/or piano, often set out symmetrically on stage in opposing pairs. This form of contemporary chamber music – unique in many ways to Reich – foregrounds some of its most important stylistic elements: rhythmic and melodic counterpoint; the combination and layering of interlocking patterns; and, most importantly, the dynamic interplay and subtle shifts in balance that are required collectively from the ensemble to best achieve these effects. It is this last element that proves a stumbling block for some performances of Reich’s music. Third Coast Percussion get it absolutely right here. Consider, for example, the five-movement Sextet (1984) for percussion and keyboards, which has become something of a 1980s Reich classic. Third Coast take the first movement at a slightly steadier pace than the original…
New, radiant and beautiful
, by Third Coast Percussion
June 2016 by Anthony Burton This enjoyable anthology of recent music by the American composer Augusta Read Thomas comes right up to date with Of Being is a Bird, recorded at its premiere in London last July.... The same sense of purposeful motion runs through the DNA-inspired string quartet Helix Spirals, which progresses gradually from scattered pizzicatos to bowed unanimity, and Selene, for percussion and string quartets, which depicts the moon goddess's journey across the skies with irresistible forward drive, pausing only for moments of radiant beauty. Claire Booth and Aurora capture the poetry and liveliness of the Dickinson settings, the Parker Quartet are impressively assured in Helix Spirals, and Third Coast Percussion and the Spektral Quartet interlock with exhilarating precision in Selene. Performance ★★★★★ Recording ★★★★★
Artist Interviews: Third Coast Percussion
July 22, 2017, by Third Coast Percussion
May 8, 2016 by Eve Szokolai CHIRP volunteer Eve Szokolai walked across the hall from the CHIRP studios and interviewed CHIRP's neighbors Third Coast Percussion about their recent Steve Reich album and the corresponding app. Click here to listen to the full interview.
Thinking outside the drum box
, by Third Coast Percussion
April 24, 2016 Carrie Seidman Say percussion and what most people think of is drums. But that’s a far too limited description of the instruments played by Third Coast Percussion, a quartet returning to Sarasota this weekend as the final performers in the New Music New College concert series. (more…)
Classical CDs Weekly: Elgar, Ives, Reich, Walton
, by Third Coast Percussion
April 9, 2016 by Graham Rickson Steve Reich: Mallet Quartet, Sextet, Nagoya Marimbas, Music for Pieces of Wood Third Coast Percussion (Cedille) This is the greatest percussion disc I have ever heard, both in terms of playing and recording. In the words of Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion, Steve Reich’s music has “shown audiences how percussion can be absolutely essential… it seems to have marimbas and vibraphones in its very DNA.” Reich’s own recordings of his music on Nonesuch should be on everyone’s shelves, but these performances are sharper still. (more…)
Next Gen Steve Reich: Two Great New Recordings
, by Third Coast Percussion
April 3, 2016 by Allan Cronin One of the hurdles on the way to long-term historical recognition is finding the next generation of interpreters for whom the music itself is not new but whose interpretation is needed anew in light of the music’s place in the canon of performed and recorded music. So Mr. Reich has now arrived in two fantastic new recordings. The first CD here is the Cedille (Cedille 90000 161) label debut by Third Coast Percussion, a young Chicago based group. The label itself is reason enough to pay attention with their intelligently selected and well-recorded releases. But even so this one stands out for a couple of reasons. (more…)
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