Percussion Ensemble
Dr. Ralph Sorrentino, Director
Quey Percussion Duo, GuestSoloists
Tuesday, November 26, 2024
Madeleine Wing Adler Theatre
Performing Arts Center
7:30 PM
Andrew Baldridge
Evan Croteau
Sam Cundiff
Craig DiGiamarino
Alex Fry
Haydn King
Evan Lydon
Nathan McCarty
Vlad Puskovitch*
Eric Rodgers
David Sabella
Amanda Smith
Mason Stroop
Aurora Tufariello
Zack Volturo
Colin Wade
Abby Walton
Loryn Whistler
Danielle Whitman, piano
* Denotes graduate student
For nearly 20 years, Quey Percussion Duo has dazzled audiences worldwide with their unmistakable style that blends traditions of contemporary, cross-cultural, classical, and popular music to create colorful sound worlds that often place focus on interlocking counterpoint andmusicalmulti-tasking. Their presentations have areputation for elevatingthe basic acts of striking, shaking,and scraping into a blast of energy, a splash of curiosity, with a pinch of whimsy. Comprised of members Gene Koshinski (BM ’03) and Tim Broscious, QPD has performed in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, China, France, Jordan, the UK, and extensively throughout the US. They have worked with music festivals, art galleries, chamber music series, conferences (including 5 PASIC appearances), professional orchestras, and have engaged in more than 150 university residencies worldwide. They also can be heard in the score of the award-winning short film The Passage, which was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018. As new music advocates, QPD has generated over 300 new works written for the duo (or by the duo), and they have collaborated with renowned composers including Pulitzer Prize recipient John Luther Adams, Emmanuel Séjourné, Alejandro Viñao,Molly Joyce, Alyssa Weinberg, Stuart Saunders Smith, Adam Silverman, Phyllis Chen, David Macbride, David M. Gordon, Ben Wahlund, and Casey Cangelosi. The result of such collaborations can be seen in the group’s recordings for the Innova, Naxos, Centaur, Equilibrium, and Neuma record labels. A review of their most recent album, soniChroma, stated, “one cannot help but stand in awe of the Quey Percussion Duo” (Percussive Notes). QPD holds the only fulltime residency by a percussion duo in the United States at the University of Delaware where they co-direct the percussion program, deliver various chamber ensembles, coordinate applied lessons, and present joint studio classes. Their focus on creating high-level social media videocontent has ledto over2million views oftheir performances.QPD is endorsed by Pearl/Adams Instruments, Sabian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, Remo Drumheads, and Schoenhut Toy Pianos.
Circuit Breaker, scored for percussion sextet, functions as a concertino for percussion duo with percussion quartet accompaniment. While there is no set program, the inspiration behind the music came from various images of robots dancing. Initially, I was inspired by an internet video of twenty synchronized “Noa" robots dancing to a samba groove. Later I fabricated various other scenarios where a robot might dance if they perhaps led “normal lives" (at a party, nightclub, etc). All of the images involved robots that looked not of the advanced-type of the 21st C., but rather those antiquated and stereotypical types of decades past. These images were entertaining and often humorous, so I was inspired to make this piece a backing track for robots everywhere to “strut their stuff."
- Gene Koshinski
The Cloud Folk are (imaginary) visitors to Earth, invisibly parked in our upper atmosphere, observing 21st century human behaviour. I’d imagined an arrival driven by optimism, intense curiosity, and excitement; followed quickly by incomprehension, shock, and the hastiest possible departure (back into a wondrous universe teeming with life). With no contact made, in fact avoided at all costs, we were never aware we’d been visited. The music loosely follows this narrative.
- John Psathas
I Ching is a set of variations for large percussion ensemble The I Ching, or the Book of Changes, is an ancient Chinese book of wisdom derived from the polar concepts of Yang (the light or creative) and Yin (the dark or receptive). Yang is represented by a solid line and Yin by a broken line. These lines are then combined into all possible groups of three, creating eight different trigrams (a set of three lines). Each trigram is associated with an image of something that exists between Heaven and Earth. The inspiration for I Ching came from the images of the eight trigrams, which are presented in the following order: Earth, Mountain, Water, Wind, Thunder, Fire, Lake, and Heaven. The resulting piece is a set of variations on a theme, each basically an “impression” of the trigram’s image and meaning. The connections between the piece and the actual I Ching run much deeper than just the surface images of the trigrams. They not only dictate both the form and the feel of each musical section, but their consecutive connections into hexagrams, and those hexagrams’ degrees of change, give the piece its direction and momentum.
- Dwayne Rice
