CANDLER CONCERT SERIES THIRD COAST PERCUSSION Virtual Concert Friday, November 13, 2020 at 8 p.m. Eastern Schwartz Center for Performing Arts
This exclusive livestream concert from Chicago is presented by the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts schwartz.emory.edu/virtual-stage Box Office/Audience Information 404.727.5050 • schwartz.emory.edu
Photographs and Recordings Digital capture or recording of this concert is not permitted. Event and Program Information Available online at schwartz.emory.edu Third Coast Percussion Photos By Saverio Truglia Acknowledgment Eternal thanks to Donna and Marvin Schwartz for their many contributions.
This program is made possible by a generous gift from the late Flora Glenn Candler, a friend and patron of music at Emory University.
2020–2021
CANDLER CONCERT SERIES
Sean Connors Robert Dillon Peter Martin David Skidmore Friday, November 13, 2020, 8:00 p.m. Eastern
Program Metamorphosis (1988/1999/2020)
Philip Glass (b. 1937) arr. Third Coast Percussion
Aguas da Amazonia (1993/1999/2016) Xingu River Amazon River
Glass arr. Third Coast Percussion
Perpetulum (2018)
Glass
Program Notes The repetitive structures and meditative harmonies of Philip Glass’s music have allowed it to exist in many versions for different musical instruments. Selections from his piano études and the solo piano piece Metamorphosis were arranged in the late 1990s for a project with Brazilian musical group Uakti. This version, for Uakti’s unique gamut of custommade instruments, was part of a project called Aguas da Amazonia, in which all of the movements (except for Metamorphosis) were renamed after the Amazon River and its tributaries. Long-time fans of Glass’s work, and hoping to someday commission the iconic composer for his first percussion ensemble piece, the members of Third Coast Percussion (TCP) arranged a handful of these pieces for their multimedia project Paddle to the Sea in 2016. Drawing on both the Uakti arrangement and the original piano music, TCP reimagined these works using mallet percussion instruments and other unique instrumental colors such as melodica, desk bells, and almglocken (tuned Swiss cowbells). In 2020, TCP made its own arrangement of the rest of the Aguas da Amazonia, including Metamorphosis, to round out the collection.
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In the meantime, Third Coast Percussion realized its goal of commissioning Philip Glass for his first percussion ensemble piece. Although percussion instruments have played an important role in much of Philip Glass’s music and a number of his works have been arranged for percussion by other musicians, Perpetulum was the first work Glass composed specifically for an ensemble of only percussion instruments. Glass, who was 81 years old when he composed this work, harkened back to childhood memories of his first experience with percussion. Though Glass’s primary musical instrument was the flute, he had the opportunity to participate in a percussion class while he was a student at the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory in his hometown of Baltimore. Perpetulum blends a bright-eyed exploration of the sounds of percussion with Glass’s signature musical voice. The work is in three sections, with a cadenza between the second and third section. Glass proposes some general concepts and instruments for the cadenza, but leaves it to the performers to compose this segment of the music themselves. Third Coast Percussion released the debut recording of Perpetulum on Orange Mountain Music in 2019, on an album by the same name. This album also included works by members of the ensemble along with new music by Gavin Bryars, and it was nominated for a Grammy Award in the “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance” category. Perpetulum by Philip Glass was commissioned for Third Coast Percussion with lead support from the Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation. The work was co-commissioned by Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting for Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, San Francisco Performances, Town Hall Seattle, Performance Santa Fe, the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, and the Third Coast Percussion New Works Fund, with additional support from Friedrich Burian, Bruce Oltman, MiTO Settembre Musica, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra’s Liquid Music Series, and the Percussive Arts Society.
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About the Composer
Philip Glass (photo by Raymond Meier)
Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his wide-ranging collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon the musical and intellectual life of his times. The operas—Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, Akhnaten, and The Voyage, among many others—play throughout the world’s leading houses, rarely to an empty seat. Glass has written music for experimental theater and for Academy Award–winning motion pictures such as The Hours and Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, while Koyaanisqatsi, his initial filmic landscape with Godfrey Reggio and the Philip Glass Ensemble, may be the most radical and influential mating of sound and vision since Fantasia. His associations, personal and professional, with leading rock, pop, and world music artists, date back to the 1960s, including the beginning of his collaborative relationship with artist Robert Wilson. Indeed, Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience in the 6
opera house, the concert hall, the dance world, in film, and in popular music—simultaneously. He was born in 1937 and grew up in Baltimore. He studied at the University of Chicago, the Juilliard School, and in Aspen with Darius Milhaud. Finding himself dissatisfied with much of what then passed for modern music, he moved to Europe, where he studied with the legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger (who also taught Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, and Quincy Jones), and worked closely with the sitar virtuoso and composer Ravi Shankar. He returned to New York in 1967 and formed the Philip Glass Ensemble—seven musicians playing keyboards and a variety of woodwinds, amplified and fed through a mixer. The new musical style that Glass was evolving was eventually dubbed “minimalism.” Glass himself never liked the term and preferred to speak of himself as a composer of “music with repetitive structures.” Much of his early work was based on the extended reiteration of brief, elegant melodic fragments that wove in and out of an aural tapestry. Or, to put it another way, it immersed a listener in a sort of sonic weather that twists, turns, surrounds, and develops. There has been nothing “minimalist” about his output. In the past 25 years, Glass has composed more than 25 operas, large and small; 12 symphonies; 3 piano concertos and concertos for violin, piano, timpani, and saxophone quartet with orchestra; soundtracks to films ranging from new scores for the stylized classics of Jean Cocteau to Errol Morris’s documentary about former defense secretary Robert McNamara; string quartets; and a growing body of work for solo piano and organ. He has collaborated with Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Yo-Yo Ma, and Doris Lessing, among many others. He presents lectures, workshops, and solo keyboard performances around the world, and continues to appear regularly with the Philip Glass Ensemble.
Third Coast Percussion Third Coast Percussion is a Grammy Award–winning, Chicago-based percussion quartet. For 15 years, the ensemble has created exciting and unexpected performances that constantly redefine the classical music experience. The ensemble has been praised for “commandingly elegant” (New York Times) performances, the “rare power” (Washington Post) of its recordings, and “an inspirational sense of fun and curiosity” (Minnesota Star-Tribune). Third Coast Percussion maintains a busy tour schedule, with past performances in 35 of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., plus 7
international tour dates in Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom. 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 inviting their fans around the world to create new music using 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.
The quartet’s curiosity and eclectic taste have led to a series of unlikely collaborations that have produced exciting new art. 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, to some of the world’s leading concert musicians. Third Coast Percussion served as ensemblein-residence at the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center from 2013–2018. 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, Clarice Assad, Devonté Hynes, Jlin, Tyondai Braxton, Danny Elfman, Augusta Read Thomas, Donnacha Dennehy, Glenn 8
Kotche, Christopher Cerrone, Georg Friedrich Haas, and David T. Little. It also supports and commissions works from today’s up-and-coming composers through its Emerging Composers Partnership Program. TCP’s commissioned works have become part of the ensemble’s core repertoire and seen hundreds of performances across four continents. Third Coast’s recordings include 12 feature albums and appearances on 10 other releases. The quartet has put its stamp on iconic —New York Times percussion works by John Cage and Steve Reich, and the ensemble has also 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 the ensemble’s own compositions. In 2017 the ensemble won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for its recording of Steve Reich’s works for percussion. The group was nominated again in 2020 for its album Perpetulum, which features music written for TCP by Philip Glass, Gavin Bryars, and members of the ensemble. Third Coast Percussion has always maintained strong ties to the vibrant artistic community in its hometown of Chicago. The musicians have collaborated with Chicago institutions such as Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Chicago Children’s Choir, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Adler Planetarium; 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 Augusta Read Thomas and Glenn Kotche, and chamber ensemble Eighth Blackbird; and taught tens of thousands of students through partnerships with the People’s Music School, the Chicago Park District, Rush Hour Concerts, Urban Gateways, 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. Members of TCP also have degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Rutgers University, the New England Conservatory, and the Yale School of Music. Stay up-to-date and go behind the scenes by following Third Coast Percussion on Twitter (@ThirdCoastPerc), Facebook (@Third Coast Percussion), and Instagram (@ThirdCoastPercussion).
“Relentless focus and energy”
*Third Coast Percussion is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. 9
Photo by Mark Teague
Schwartz Center Staff
Rachael Brightwell, Managing Director Terry Adams, Box Office Coordinator Lisa Baron, Communications Specialist Carrie Christie, Program Coordinator Kathryn Colegrove, Associate Director for Programming and Outreach Lewis Fuller, Associate Director for Production and Operations Jennifer Kimball, Assistant Stage Manager Jeff Lenhard, Operations Assistant Alan Strange, Box Office Manager Nicholas Surbey, Senior Graphic Designer Mark Teague, Stage Manager Nina Vestal, House Manager Matt Williamson, Multimedia Specialist The Schwartz Center gratefully acknowledges the generous ongoing support of Donna and Marvin Schwartz. To support tthis program, visit schwartz.emory.edu/give.
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More events coming soon to the Schwartz Center Virtual Stage schwartz.emory.edu/virtual-stage Emory Chamber Ensembles November 15, 2020 at 4 p.m. Mentored by Emory’s artist faculty, student musicians perform chamber repertoire for strings, brass, winds, percussion, and piano. Works by Beethoven, Bach, and contemporary composers Elizabeth Raum and Josh Turner are programmed.
Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra November 18, 2020 at 8 p.m. Composed of the region’s finest young musicians, the Emory Youth Symphony Orchestra presents orchestral masterworks by Beethoven, Grieg, and Bach. Paul Bhasin conducts.
Emory Jazz Ensembles November 20, 2020 at 8 p.m. Award-winning trumpeter, composer, and educator Melvin Jones brings his talent to the virtual stage for this unique collaboration with Emory Big Band. The pre-recorded concert also features Emory Jazz Ensembles performing remotely and from the Emory campus.
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CANDLER CONCERT SERIES The Flora Glenn Candler Concert Series brings internationally-renowned artists to Emory University's Schwartz Center for Performing Arts—to the Emerson Concert Hall or the online virtual stage. The artists come from a variety of musical genres including traditional classical ensembles, such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and contemporary artists, like Kronos Quartet. The series is made possible by a generous gift from the late Flora Glenn Candler, a friend and patron of music at Emory University. 12