Third Coast Percussion To Bring PERSPECTIVES Program To California And Albany

As part of their high-profile touring engagements in the 2023-24 season, GRAMMY Award-winning, Chicago-based percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion (TCP) is taking their GRAMMY-nominated album Perspectives on tour from Friday, April 5, 2024 to Saturday, April 27, 2024.

Perspectives invites listeners to embark on an exciting musical adventure, featuring virtuosic repertoire written for TCP by some of today's leading music creators, including commissioned and collaborative works by all-star composers such as Clarice Assad, Danny Elfman, Philip Glass, Gemma Peacocke and Jlin.

TCP's Perspectives will be presented by UCLA's Center for the Art of Performance (CAP UCLA) on Friday, April 5, 2024 at 8:00pm at the Nimoy Theater in Los Angeles; Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 7:30pm at Carriage House Theater in Saratoga, CA; Friday, April 12, 2024 at 7:00pm at Fresno State University; Friday, April 26, 2024 at 7:00pm and Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 7:30pm at The Linda, WAMC's Performing Arts Studio in Albany, New York; and Sunday, April 28, 2024 at 3:00pm at Washington Park Lakehouse in Albany, New York.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025, the ensemble (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore) is embarking on the most ambitious collaborative projects of their career, with some of the world's leading musicians, choreographers, and composers from around the world.

Based on their 2022 Grammy-nominated album Perspectives, the program also aims to explore the myriad of ways that classical music is being created. Opening with Clarice Assad's The Hero, TCP arranged the composition while developing the Archetypes project with the composer. The 12 movements of this suite are each inspired by a universal character concept that appears in stories and myths across cultures, such as the jester, the ruler, the creator, or the caregiver. With Clarice's blessing, TCP arranged her composition from this GRAMMY-nominated project for percussion quartet alone, as an additional opportunity to share this bold music with audiences.

For Danny Elfman's Percussion Quartet, the composer tapped into many early percussion influences from both West African balafons (similar to a marimba) and Indonesian gamelan (the metal orchestras of that region). On the inspiration behind the piece, he described, "The thing that both West African and Indonesian music have in common is the five-note pentatonic scale which I use quite a bit. And the interlocking rhythms of the gamelan are also referred to throughout the movements."

Philip Glass's Metamorphosis No. 1 is a gentle and hypnotic piece of music that gradually builds in intensity and complexity as it progresses. TCP's meticulous arrangement of this composition will showcase Glass's talent as a composer and pianist as the movement is characterized by its repetitive and minimalist style, with a simple and evocative melody that is repeated and developed over time.

IInspired by a short film on survivors of sexual assault, Gemma Peacocke wrote Death Wish out of respect for the victims. In her program notes, she said, "One of the survivors, Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan, spoke about the out-of-control spiraling of her life for many years and how she developed what she called a death wish. In the piece I thought about the spooling and unspooling of energy and how we are all bound and driven by forces both within and beyond ourselves. With the greatest of respect for Hinewirangi Kohu-Morgan who has used her life to create art and music and to help survivors of abuse and those who have perpetrated abuse."

Closing the program is Jlin's Perspective, which was a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize and written as a reference to the highly collaborative process with the ensemble. She wanted to highlight the way that this work would exist in two forms, the same music as interpreted through different artists and their modes of expression. In pursuit of the broad expressive range of Jlin's original tracks, TCP's live version of this piece incorporates-in addition to standard instruments like marimba and vibraphone-mixing bowls filled with water, bird calls, a variety of gongs and tambourines,

Program Information

Friday, April 5, 2024 at 8:00pm
CAP UCLA Presents Perspectives
UCLA Nimoy Theater | Los Angeles, CA
Link: https://cap.ucla.edu/event/third-coast-percussion

Program:
Clarice Assad - The Hero
Philip Glass - Metamorphosis No. 1
Danny Elfman - Percussion Quartet
Gemma Peacocke - Death Wish
Jlin - Perspective

Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at 7:30pm
Montalvo Arts Center Presents Perspectives
Carriage House Theatre | Saratoga, CA
Link: https://my.montalvoarts.org/2165/2202

Program:
Clarice Assad - The Hero
Philip Glass - Metamorphosis No. 1
Danny Elfman - Percussion Quartet
Gemma Peacocke - Death Wish
Jlin - Perspective

Friday, April 12, 2024 at 7:00pm
Fresno State University Presents Perspectives
Fresno State Concert Hall | Fresno, CA
Link: https://calendar.fresnostate.edu/index.php?eID=2148

Program:
Clarice Assad - The Hero
Philip Glass - Metamorphosis No. 1
Danny Elfman - Percussion Quartet
Gemma Peacocke - Death Wish
Jlin - Perspective

Friday, April 26, 2024 at 7:00pm
Friends of Chamber Music Troy Presents Think Outside the Drum, a family-friendly community concert
The Linda, WAMC's Performing Arts Studio | Albany, NY
Link: www.friendsofchambermusic.org/public/app/concert/65b1443a514da38d94623ea2

Saturday, April 27, 2024 at 7:30pm
Friends of Chamber Music Troy Presents Perspectives
The Linda, WAMC's Performing Arts Studio | Albany, NY
Link: www.friendsofchambermusic.org/concert/641c5ff0bd55e19998a40c6a

Program:
Clarice Assad - The Hero
Philip Glass - Metamorphosis No. 1
Danny Elfman - Percussion Quartet
Gemma Peacocke - Death Wish
Jlin - Perspective

Sunday, April 28, 2024 at 3:00pm
Friends of Chamber Music Troy Presents a Community Workshop: Terry Riley - In C
Washington Park | Albany, NY
Link: www.friendsofchambermusic.org/public/app/concert/65b14582514da38d94623eb7

More About Third Coast Percussion

A direct connection with the audience is at the core of all of Third Coast Percussion's work, whether the musicians are speaking from the stage about a new piece of music, inviting the audience to play along in a concert or educational performance, or uniting fans around the world via one of their free mobile apps. The four members of Third Coast are also accomplished teachers, and make active participation by all students the cornerstone of all their educational offerings, including thoughtfully curated K-12 workshops and family programming.

The quartet's curiosity and eclectic taste have led to a series of unlikely collaborations that have produced exciting new art. Their omnivorous musical appetite, paired with approachable and flexible working methods, remove collaborative boundaries across cultures and disciplines. The ensemble has worked with engineers at the University of Notre Dame, architects at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, dancers at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and musicians from traditions ranging from the mbira music of Zimbabwe's Shona people, to indie rockers and footwork producers, to some of the world's leading concert musicians. Third Coast Percussion served as ensemble-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame's DeBartolo Performing Arts Center from 2013-2018, and currently serves as ensemble-in-residence at Denison University.

A commission for a new work from composer Augusta Read Thomas in 2012 led to the realization that commissioning new musical works can be - and should be - as collaborative as any other artistic partnership. Through extensive workshopping and close contact with composers, Third Coast Percussion has commissioned and premiered new works by Philip Glass, Missy Mazzoli, Jlin, Danny Elfman, Clarice Assad, Gemma Peacocke, Flutronix, Tyondai Braxton, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, Georg Friedrich Haas, Donnacha Dennehy, Glenn Kotche, Christopher Cerrone, and David T. Little, plus many of today's leading up-and-coming composers through their Currents Creative Partnership program. TCP's commissioned works have become part of the ensemble's core repertoire and seen hundreds of performances around the world. In 2023, Jlin's Perspective, commissioned by TCP, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Third Coast Percussion's recordings include 17 feature albums, and appearances on 14 additional releases. Besides putting its its stamp on iconic percussion works by John Cage and Steve Reich, the quartet has created first recordings of commissioned works by Philip Glass, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, Gavin Bryars, Donnacha Dennehy, David T. Little, Ted Hearne, and more - in addition to recordings of original Third Coast compositions. In 2017 the ensemble won the GRAMMY Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their recording of Steve Reich's works for percussion. Third Coast has since received four additional GRAMMY nominations as performers, and in 2021 they received their first GRAMMY nomination as composers.

Third Coast Percussion has always maintained strong ties to the vibrant artistic community in their hometown of Chicago. They have collaborated with Chicago institutions including Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Uniting Voices Chicago choir, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Chicago Humanities Festival, and the Adler Planetarium. TCP performed at the grand opening of Maggie Daley Children's Park; conducted residencies at the University of Chicago and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago; created multi-year collaborative projects with Chicago-based composers Jessie Montgomery, Clarice and Sérgio Assad, Augusta Read Thomas, Glenn Kotche, and chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird; and has taught tens of thousands of students through partnerships with Uniting Voices Chicago, The People's Music School, the Chicago Park District, Rush Hour Concerts, Urban Gateways, Changing Worlds, and others.

The four members of Third Coast Percussion (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore) met while studying percussion music at Northwestern University with Michael Burritt and James Ross, and formed the ensemble in 2005. Settling in Chicago, the four friends have carefully and thoughtfully built a thriving nonprofit organization - including full-time staff, office/studio space, and a board of directors - to support their vision and facilitate their efforts to bring new works to life. Members of Third Coast also hold degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Rutgers University, the New England Conservatory, and the Yale School of Music.

Photo Credit: Saverio Truglia

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