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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 John Cage Century
September 5, 2012, by Third Coast Percussion
September 4, 2012 by Alex Ross John Cage would have been a hundred years old tomorrow. Scratch that: Cage is a hundred. He remains a palpably vivid presence, still provoking thought, still spurring argument, still spreading sublime mischief. He may have surpassed Stravinsky as the most widely cited, the most famous and/or notorious, of twentieth-century composers. (more…)
CD Release Concert
August 13, 2012, by Third Coast Percussion
John Cage spent part of 1934 studying privately with pioneering serialist composer Arnold Schoenberg in Los Angeles, during which time his mentor suggested that Cage would never be able to write music because he lacked a feeling for harmony. Luckily Cage kept at it for the next six decades—and in the years immediately following that discouraging advice, he wrote works for percussion that rank among his greatest, a resounding rejection of harmony's primary role in composition. His inspirations at the time included the opportunity to write for dance troupes and his job as an assistant to animator Oskar Fischinger, who Cage says told him, "Everything in the world has its own spirit which can be released by setting it into vibration." Cage's Quartet (1935) didn't specify instruments; when he conceived it he had household objects in mind, and the objects he set into vibration included chairs, books, brake drums, and…
Third Coast Percussion Hammers Cage at MoMA
August 22, 2012, by Third Coast Percussion
August 14, 2012 by Angela Sutton Third Coast Percussion dodged the raindrops at MoMA on Thursday night, presenting a mostly John Cage concert in honor of the composer's centenary and his 1943 MoMA percussion program. (more…)
Cage: Three Constructions; Quartet, Trio, etc – review
August 13, 2012, by Third Coast Percussion
July 19, 2012 by Andrew Clements This is the 45th release in Mode's John Cage series, and the second to be devoted to his works for percussion. (more…)
John Cage percussion music a springboard of sonic possibilities
, by Third Coast Percussion
June 29, 2012 by John Terauds William Walton, Dmitri Shostakovich and Samuel Barber wrote pieces 70 years ago that are now part of the classical canon. While mainstream audiences still look away in anxiety when anyone mentions the name of John Cage, a new wave of savvy and hyper-talented young percussionists may be able to change fear to love (or at least respect). (more…)
Live: Third Coast Percussion Celebrates John Cage’s 100th Birthday at MoMA
, by Third Coast Percussion
August 13, 2012 by Steven Thrasher Third Coast Percussion MoMA Sculpture Garden Thursday, August 9 Better than: Watching almost any contemporary DJ, since Cage was mixing vinyl and live radio with live performance before World War II. Some 69 years ago in 1943 (more than a decade before the first issue of the Village Voice was published), a 30-year-old composer named John Cage made his debut at the Museum of Modern Art. What he presented, some wrote at the time, was described more as "noise" than as "music," but that may not have bothered him too much. (more…)
John Cage: The Works for Percussion 2 Album Review
, by Third Coast Percussion
June 21, 2012 by Doyle Armbrust The Works for Percussion 2 reminds us just how undeniably groovy John Cage’s percussion canon can be. In “Third Construction,” 3CP moves beyond precision to nimbly demonstrate the mesmerizing quality of Cage’s rotating rhythmic structure. David Skidmore breaks into an ecstatic, double-fisted kashishi breakdown, as Peter Martin shoots blasts from a conch shell. (more…)
Beat the Heat: Austin Chamber Music Center Summer Festival 2012
, by Third Coast Percussion
July 26, 2012 by Andrew Sigler Third Coast Percussion’s performance at Bates Concert Hall featured works by Reich and Cage, as well as two pieces written by the performers. Fractalia by TCP member Owen Clayton Condon was a perfect piece to start the show; a short, inviting amuse bouche to whet the appetite. Moto perpetuo figures echoed between marimbas, these figures complimented and set off by occasional accents on toms. The Condon was followed by Reich’s Mallet Quartet, which started off with many of the classic Reich tropes but showed some newer ideas in the second movement. Asymmetrical phrases populated symmetrical sections featuring two marimbas playing four bars figures followed by two vibraphones playing 16 bars, the entire form repeated several times. There was something of a music box texture in the vibes as their chords rang out above large structures in the bass register of the marimba, the latter…
Sounds Heard: Third Coast Percussion – John Cage: Works for Percussion 2
, by Third Coast Percussion
July 10, 2012 by Alexandra Gardner John Cage’s centennial year has resulted in a gaggle of new recordings, multimedia offerings à la 4’33″, as well as festivals and events around the country. Whether or not one embraces wholeheartedly Cage’s later integration of chance procedures and conceptual thought into his works, there is no denying that some of his most compelling music is the early compositions for percussion, which provide a wealth of insight into the composer’s internal musical landscape. At the time these pieces were created, his sonic palette, which consisted of pretty much everything and the kitchen sink, was somewhat revolutionary, though it has now become a common language for percussionists. The Chicago-based ensemble Third Coast Percussion has released a new CD and separate surround sound DVD on Mode (available either individually or together) of six early percussion works that will perk up the ears (and eyes, if you…
Album: John Cage, The Works for Percussion (2 Mode)
, by Third Coast Percussion
It’s boom time for Cage fans – barely a month goes by without another album confirming his status as surely the most underrated composer of the 20th century. (more…)
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