PopularMMOs

Murmur, by David Molk
Performed by Sandbox Percussion
Jonny Allen, Ian Rosenbaum, Victor Caccese, Terry Sweeney

Video by Evan Chapman
http://evanmchapman.com/

ABOUT THE PIECE:
murmur, was composed for SōSI 2015 (Sō Percussion Summer Institute). A quartet for two vibraphones, murmur features cardboard dowels from coat hangers standing in for more traditional mallets, creating a distinctive 'thwack' sound when striking the bars. The result is a blurring of pitch and noise, further explored through the use (or absence) of the pedal. murmur culminates in a chorale featuring ping pong balls and a bow, the percussive attack of the dowels now taken to a very delicate extreme.

I’m grateful to the murmur crew of SōSI 2015 for their incredible efforts and willingness to try the unconventional. Similarly, a very heartfelt thanks to Sandbox Percussion for their hard work and dedication on helping me to finalize murmur and bring it out into the world. They and Evan Chapman teamed up to create the incredible video featured here. Sandbox and Evan are a dream to work with—their unparalleled musicianship, professionalism, and enthusiasm is hard to beat. Plus, they're totally great guys to hang with! Thanks to Vic Firth for featuring this video...perhaps we'll see VF dowels or ping pong balls in the future? A final note—Andy Akiho introduced me to using dowels on steel pan during our first year of grad school together. Thanks man!

ABOUT THE COMPOSER:
Coming from a rock guitar background, Dave Molk embarked on jazz performance before shifting his focus solely to composition. Many of Dave's works are for small ensembles and solo instruments, although recent efforts include orchestra, black box theater, and live-remixing/DJing. He writes mainly for pitched and non-pitched percussion, combining sinuous chromaticism with an energized rhythmic propulsion, expressive timbres, and a healthy dose of glitch. He DJ's under the name Old Dirty Beathoven and plays the steel pan under the name Dave Molk (he needs to practice more). His current research is in software coding and EDM. Dave Molk is a doctoral fellow at Princeton University.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Brought together by their love of chamber music and the simple joy of playing together, Sandbox Percussion captivates audiences with performances that are both visually and aurally stunning. Through compelling collaborations with composers and performers, Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum and Terry Sweeney seek to engage a wider audience for classical music.
Sandbox made their New York debut in 2012 on the Concerts on the Slope series in Brooklyn. Following that performance, they accepted an invitation to become artists-in-residence of the series and have returned in each subsequent season. Later that year, Sandbox worked closely with composer James Wood on his masterpiece Village Burial with Fire at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. While at Norfolk, Sandbox played alongside the great Hungarian percussion quartet Amadinda – Aurél Holló, a member of Amadinda, later said about Sandbox: “With an array of skills, talent and freshness, these young artists seem to be pushing their limits up in the skies, as I realized listening to them at the Yale New Music Workshop. Sandbox Percussion is the promising group of the near future, battering right on your door.”

Last season, Sandbox gave twelve world premieres by composers such as Robert Sirota, Amy Beth Kirsten, David Crowell, Thomas Kotcheff, Alex Weiser, and Tonia Ko. Six of these were works by composition students at the Yale School of Music, and were featured on the New Music New Haven concert series. This past Spring Sandbox, along with flutist Tim Munro, performed the world premiere of Amy Beth Kirsten’s, They Might be Giants as members of a larger mixed ensemble, HOWL co-directed by Amy Beth Kirsten and Mark DeChiazza.

FULL BIO HERE: http://www.sandboxpercussion.com/about/

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An Index of Possibility, by Robert Honstein

Performed by: TIGUE
Matt Evans, Amy Garapic, Carson Moody

Video: Evan Monroe Chapman

TIGUE VicFirth Artist Page: http://vicfirth.com/artists/tigue.php

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Mallets Used:

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ABOUT THE PIECE:

An Index of Possibility

1. Repose
2. Flicker
3. Flow
4. Repose
5. Burst
6. Repose

Commissioned by a consortium of percussion trios led by TIGUE, An Index of Possibility explores the secret world of sound in everyday objects. Using found sounds, homemade constructions, and cheap toys Index unlocks a sonic palette exploding with color and variety. Cast in six movements, the music traverses a symphonic expanse, fluidly moving between ambient textures, visceral unisons and muscular virtuosity. A wistful lullaby tune, Repose, begins the piece. A kind of idée fixe, Repose will return two times, framing the three larger movements - Flicker, Flow and Burst. In Flicker piercing hits punctuate a tremulous layer of pulsating metal and wood. Flow begins with a mesmerizing rhythmic ostinato, gradually moving towards a strange and unexpected place as a new melody emerges in the tuned pipes. Long bell-tones signal a change of direction and then a second Repose appears only to be violently interrupted by the clangorous opening hits of Burst. Erupting into a wild torrent of rhythms traversing the full range of the setup, Burst is the work’s focal point. After barreling through Burst the final Repose brings the music to a hushed conclusion. While virtually the same as the opening, this last Repose feels somehow transformed, touched by the long journey of An Index of Possibility.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER:
Celebrated for his “roiling, insistent orchestral figuration” (New York Times) and “glittery, percussive pieces” (Toronto Globe and Mail), composer Robert Honstein (b. 1980) is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music.

His works have been performed throughout North America by ensembles such as the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, eighth blackbird, Ensemble ACJW, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Mivos quartet, the Del Sol Quartet, Concert Black, TIGUE, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, among others. He has received an Aaron Copland Award, multiple ASCAP awards and other honors from SCI, Carnegie Hall, and New Music USA. He has also received residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Copland House, the Bang on a Can Summer Institute, and the Tanglewood Music Center.

MORE INFO HERE: http://vicfirth.com/artists/tigue.php

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
One half new music ensemble, one half avant-pop band, TIGUE delivers rhythmic hooks and patterned drones through process and improvisation. Uniting homegrown ethos and conservatory precision, the Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based members (Matt Evans, Amy Garapic and Carson Moody) have worked together extensively on original and composed music for nearly half a decade. Acclaimed as “one of the premier young percussion-based groups in Brooklyn right now.” (Dayton City Paper) the percussion-charged trio will release their debut full-length album, “Peaks”, this fall alongside collaborative performance projects with Adrian Knight and Man Forever. Formed in 2012, following their concurrent studies at both the Eastman School of Music and the Ohio State University, TIGUE has crystalized out of, and in spite of, the eclectic contemporary, pop, and avant-garde influences inherent in their DNA.

FULL BIO HERE: http://vicfirth.com/artists/tigue.php

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Postlude #1, by Elliot Cole from 'Postludes for Bowed Vibraphone'
Performed by Mobius Percussion
David Degge, Yumi Tamashiro, Mika Godbole, Frank Tyl

Dance by Myssi Robinson & Kyle Marshall

Video by Evan Monroe Chapman

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Postlude 4 - https://youtu.be/TDXYKrP1mCY
Postlude 6 - https://youtu.be/oBY7b3vKCX8
Postlude 8 - https://youtu.be/G2Ze1rUycZ4

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ABOUT THE PIECE:
Postludes is a book of eight pieces for a familiar instrument played in a new way. Four players, with eight double-bass bows, play interlocking lines on a single vibraphone. The interplay of bows and hands tapping, muting and touching harmonics, weaves an intimate and intricate counterpoint that is as beautiful to watch as it is to hear: fragile, tender and haunting.

ABOUT THE COMPOSER:
Elliot Cole (*1984) is a composer, singer, and programmer. Postludes, his book of bowed vibraphone quartets, is a new classic of percussion repertoire, having been performed by over 80 ensembles all over the world, including all major American music schools, So Percussion, TorQ, Blow Up Roma, Mobius Quartet, and Amadinda. He has sung his Hanuman's Leap, a bardic epic for voices and drums, in nine cities, and it was performed by Grammy-winning choir Roomful of Teeth at the Five Boroughs Music Festival in NYC. His creative friendship (part band, part book club) with Brad and Doug Balliett has produced opera and hip hop collaborations with the Chicago Composers Orchestra, Metropolis Ensemble, Washington Square Winds, operacabal, the Berkshire Fringe Festival, and the Lucerne Festival Academy, where they were Spotlight Artists in 2011. He lives in Jersey City, NJ, and is a doctoral candidate in composition at Princeton University, where he teaches undergraduates how to hear and sings in a study group devoted to 14th and 15th century music in facsimile.

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Mobius Percussion seeks to fuse their interest in fresh sounds with their commitment to high-quality performance and the promotion of new works by emerging composers. The group is composed of David Degge, Mika Godbole, Yumi Tamashiro and Frank Tyl, who formed the ensemble after working together at the first annual So Percussion Summer Institute in Princeton, NJ. Based in New York City, the ensemble made their debut at downtown multimedia art cabaret, (Le) Poisson Rouge, performing alongside other notable artists including So Percussion, Nexus, Meehan/Perkins Duo and Mantra Percussion. Since then they have performed at venues including the Firehouse Space, the Cell, Princeton Sound Kitchen, Good Child Music Studios, and Andrea Clearfield’s Salon to name a few.

To date, Mobius has produced four music video projects featuring the works of living composers. Their most recent projects include a collaboration with dancers for a video recording of selections from Elliot Cole’s Postludes as well as a theatrical performance video of Wally Gunn’s Vicious Children. Other commissions include new works by composers Jason Trueting, Jacob Cooper, Wally Gunn, and Andrea Mazzariello.

In addition to their regular performance schedule, Mobius has given concerts and masterclasses at numerous universities including the Curtis Institute of Music, York College of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, and Rowan University as well as participating in educational outreach programs including the MAP program at Juilliard and others.

In the Spring of 2015, Mobius will embark on their first tour, stopping at venues and giving masterclasses in Tennessee and California.

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