Princeton Sound Kitchen Presents

So Percussion

Performing New Works by:

• Dave Molk

• Andrea Mazzariello

• Sō Percussion

• Jason Treuting

• Dan Trueman

Performed by:

• Sō Percussion

  • Eric Beach

  • Josh Quillen

  • Adam Sliwinski

  • Jason Treuting

Location: Taplin Auditorium in Fine Hall
Ticketing: Free admission
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Start time: 8:00 pm

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PSK presents SŌ PERCUSSION, performing works by Princeton composers Dave Molk, Andrea Mazzariello, Sō Percussion, Jason Treuting and Dan Trueman on Tuesday, February 11th, 2014 at 8:00pm.

Dan Trueman, Director

Michael Pratt, Resident Conductor

PROGRAM

DAN TRUEMAN
Rink, a suite for steel pans (with kick-drum and hi-hat)
Composed for Josh Quillen
Josh Quillen, steel drums

ANDREA MAZZARIELLO
Monobot
Jason Treuting, drum kit

DAVE MOLK
Azucar y Canela
Josh Quillen, steel drums

DAN TRUEMAN
Nostalgic Synchronic Études (5 - 8)
Adam Sliwinski, Prepared Digital Piano

- INTERMISSION -

JASON TREUTING / SŌ PERCUSSION
Chorus Music
Eric Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski and Jason Treuting, snare drums, cymbals and electronics

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS AND PERFORMERS

Andrea Mazzariello is a composer, performer, writer, and teacher. His music thinks through the capabilities of the performing body, in terms of both instrumental technique and the possibilities afforded by technological intervention, and pays special attention to the treatment and setting of his own original text, spoken and sung.

He’s active as a solo performer of his own work for a novel and evolving instrumental setup, and has presented in such diverse venues as The Knitting Factory, Cakeshop, the Queens New Music Festival, and the Wassaic Festival. His concert music has been performed or read by the New Jersey Symphony, The Berkshire Symphony, Sō Percussion, NOW Ensemble, and Newspeak, among many others.

In 2011, he completed his Ph.D. in Music Composition at Princeton University, writing on the vinyl resurgence and its connection to our ideas of physicality and abstraction in music analysis. He holds an M.M. from the University of Michigan and graduated magna cum laude from Williams College, where he won a Hubbard Hutchinson Memorial Fellowship for Excellence in Music and was named to Phi Beta Kappa.

Andrea joined the faculty of the Princeton Writing Program in 2010, and currently teaches a seminar called ‘Music and Power.’

Dave Molk is in his 3rd year at Princeton. He previously studied composition at Berklee College of Music under John Bavicchi and at Tufts University under John McDonald.

For over a decade, Sō Percussion has redefined the modern percussion ensemble as a flexible, omnivorous entity, pushing its voice to the forefront of American musical culture. Praised by The New Yorker for their “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam,” Sō’s adventurous spirit is written into the DNA passed down from composers like John Cage and Steve Reich, as well as from pioneering ensembles like the Kronos Quartet and Nexus Percussion. Sō Percussion’s career now encompasses 13 albums, touring throughout the USA and around the world, a dizzying array of collaborative projects, several ambitious educational programs, and a steady output of their own music.

When the founding members of Sō Percussion convened as graduate students at the Yale School of Music, their initial goal was to present an exciting repertoire of pieces by 20th century luminaries such as Cage, Reich, and Iannis Xenakis. An encounter with David Lang, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and co-founder of New York’s Bang on a Can organization, yielded their first commissioned piece: the 36 minute, three movement the so-called laws of nature. Since that first major new work, Sō has commissioned some of the greatest American composers of our time to build a new repertoire, including Steve Reich, Steve Mackey, Paul Lansky, Martin Bresnick, and many others.

Over time, an appetite for boundless creativity led the group to branch out beyond the composer/interpreter paradigm. Since 2006 with group member Jason Treuting’s amid the noise, the members of Sō Percussion have been composing in their own right within the group and for others. In 2012 their third evening-length work Where (we) Live premieres at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, travelling to the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 30th Next Wave Festival and the Myrna Loy Center in Helena, MT. Where (we) Live follows on the heels of 2009’s Imaginary City, a fully staged sonic meditation on urban soundscapes. In 2011, Sō was commissioned by Shen Wei Dance Arts to compose Undivided Divided, a 30-minute work conceived for Manhattan’s massive Park Avenue Armory.

Sō Percussion’s artistic circle extends beyond their contemporary classical roots. They first expanded this boundary with the prolific duo Matmos, whom The New York Times called “ideal collaborators” on their 2010 combined album Treasure State. Further projects and appearances with Wham City shaman Dan Deacon, legendary drummer Bobby Previte, jam band kings Medeski, Martin, and Wood, and Wilco’s Glenn Kotche drew the circle even wider. In 2011, the rock band The National invited Sō to open one of their sold-out shows at New York’s Beacon Theater.

Sō’s recording of the so-called laws of nature became the cornerstone of their self-titled debut album on Cantaloupe Music (the record label from the founders of Bang on a Can) in 2004. In subsequent years, this relationship blossomed into a growing catalogue of exciting records. In 2011, Sō released six new albums, ranging from their definitive recording of Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet¾composed for them in 2009¾on Nonesuch Records, to Steve Mackey’s epic quartet It Is Time on Cantaloupe, to their collaborative album Bad Mango with jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas on Greenleaf Music. The BBC raved of Sō’s performance of Mallet Quartet that they “have it nailed, finding both the inner glow and the outer edge, and never letting the tapestry lapse into the flat or routine.”

Sō Percussion is heavily involved in mentoring young musicians. Its members are co-directors of a new percussion department at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. This top-flight undergraduate program enrolls each student in a double-degree (Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts) course in the Conservatory and Bard College, equipping them with elite conservatory training and a broad liberal arts education. In 2009, they created the annual Sō Percussion Summer Institute on the campus of Princeton University. The Institute is an intensive two-week chamber music seminar for college-age percussionists featuring the four members of Sō as faculty in rehearsal, performance, and discussion of contemporary music for students from around the world. During the 2011-2012 academic year, Sō was an ensemble-in-residence at Princeton University, teaching seminars and collaborating extensively with talented student composers.

Sō has been featured at many of the major venues in the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stanford Lively Arts, Texas Performing Arts, and many others. In addition, a recent residency at London’s Barbican Centre, as well as tours to Western Europe, South America, Russia, and Australia have brought them international acclaim.

Dan Trueman is a composer, fiddler and electronic musician.