Percussion Music Takes Center Stage at Musiqa's January 12 Concert

Contemporary classical group Musiqa will present its first 2013 concert, Percussive Illusions, at the Hobby Center's Zilkha Hall on January 12 at 7:30 p.m. The concert features the award-winning University of Houston Percussion Ensemble, directed by Blake Wilkins. The concert explores the evolution of percussion throughout the past century, highlighting its rhythmic virtuosity and timbral richness through a variety of works and instrumentation. Percussion's capacity to shape the experience of film is also explored in a trio of films curated by Aurora Picture Show.

The ensemble will perform an array of works for percussion, including a tribute to John Cage's 100th birthday with his iconic Third Construction in Metal, which features a large collection of unusual percussion instruments. Also being performed is Musiqa composer Marcus Maroney's resonant work for keyboard percussion, Pantheon, and a premiere of artistic director Anthony Brandt's latest piece, My Best Eleven. The ensemble will also perform works by Lukas Ligeti, Thierry De Mey and the late Elliott Carter.

Three short contemporary films spotlight percussion's influences: "WallWork" by Thierry de Mey, (whose work is also featured in the concert); "Left or Right for Love" by Magali Charrier and Maria Lloyd, about a motionless man and a weightless woman and "Mr. Foley" by Mike Ahern and Edna Loughman, about a man who wakes up into a completely silent world except for the team of musicians and sound artists who provide the live accompaniment to his life.

The 20th century revolutionized percussion's role in Western music: composers used exotic hammered and drummed sounds from all over the world, and, for the first time, even wrote pieces completely without pitch. Highlighting percussion's striking range of rhythm and timbre, the concert features instruments from conch shells and hands on a table to a wide collection of mallet percussion, including five marimbas and three vibraphones.

Musiqa's Percussive Illusions
Saturday, January 12, 2013
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts, Zilkha Hall, 800 Bagby, Houston, TX
7:30 p.m.
Tickets are $40-$20; 50% off for students and seniors
Tickets may be purchased at www.thehobbycenter.org