Percussion Perspectives Podcast

Eric Cha-Beach of the New York based Sō Percussion Quartet talks about the groups artistic work, their mission, organisational structure and other topics. The music used in the the episode is taken from their collaborative albums Let the Soil Play its Simple Part  with singer/composer Caroline Shaw and Forbidden Love with composer Julia Wolfe.

Ingar Zach is known for his research in sound production and alternative techniques in contemporary percussion. During his career he has developed a unique style using the Gran Cassa as the main source of sound exploration where he employs transducers with various objects to make the drum vibrate. He works in the field of contemporary music and is regularly touring worldwide and recording with his fixed ensembles; Dans les arbres, Huntsville and O3 alongside his solo- and collaborative projects. As a composer he is active in his regular ensembles, and he is continuously working with developing his solo work. In recent years he is composing for ensembles like Ensemble MusikFabrik, Quatuor Bozzini, Speak Percussion, Pinquins and Ludus Gravis. His solo work is used in different genres, such as film, dance, and art performances. Ingar Zach completed a Ph.D. project in artistic research at the Academy of Music in Oslo in 2024. You may read the exposition here. The music in the podcast is taken from the release Musica liquida. Watch Ingar's work with the German ensemble MusikFabrik here, and a video from the project "Musique Pour Deux Corps" with Ingar and Italian percussionist Michele Rabbia here. Ingar discusses this album in a separate podcast published here.

In this episode Henrik Knarborg talks with Evelyn Glennie about the role as a soloist, new commissions and advises for younger percussionists how to create a career. We also come closer to some of the mythical abilities to “listen” with the body and even how the vision is connected to this. Evelyn Glennie just received the renowned Danish Sonning Music Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in the world, and played an intense Galla-concert including no less than 3 percussion concertos in the same program. More than just an amazing soloist, Evelyn also has clear goals with her music and art, and this is for sure a “must hear” episode.  Sound examples: Vincent Ho: The Shaman (2017) with Winnipeg S.O. and conductor Alexander Mickelthwatehttps://open.spotify.com/album/2x8qSrgsS711NH93Tj4xM3?si=b5ydxQl8R_Oq11E7qS1O4A&nd=1 Shadow behind the Iron Sun (1999): Evelyn Glennie, Michael Brauer, David Motion. https://open.spotify.com/track/1So0i5v9IZFQ1Xm4DmVnws?si=6e2c2b3b11094ba1 Sonning Prize homepage: https://www.sonningmusik.dk/evelyn-glennie/?lang=en

In this episode we dive into the historical 60’s and 70’s percussion scene in Northern Europe, Instrumental Theatre and aspects of teaching and interpretation: Einar Nielsen is professor emeritus at The Academy of Music and Drama, Gothenburg University, now living in Copenhagen. Since the early seventies, he has toured Europe and North and South America together with some of the finest musicians and composers within classical avant-garde music, like the ensembles Trio Celeste (dk), Elsinore Players (dk), Studiegruppen (dk), Sub Rosa (dk), Transit Ensemble (de), Duo Kontarsky (de), Corona Danseteater (dk), Essential Music (New York), Cinnober Teater (se), and he also had close long-term collaborations with especially the composers Mauricio Kagel (de), Per Nørgård (dk), Karl Aage Rasmussen (dk) and Charles Morrow (New York). In 1974 he won the Salabert Prize at the Rencontre International de Percussion in La Rochelle, France, and since then he has taught at several universities in Scandinavia. As a soloist, chamber musician, performer, actor, conductor, etc., he has performed more than 600 contemporary works, including many premieres.Very early on, Einar Nielsen started playing in professional symphony orchestras, but the meeting with Argentinian-German Mauricio Kagel and his instrumental theater in 1968 opened up an insight into the more soloistic possibilities that one would get as a performer, developing the performer's juggling game between tragedy and humor, crying and laughter, typical for the absurdly experimental instrumental theater. Beside still acting as a performing artist, he is engaged in pedagogical research associated with interpretative processes in music with a special focus on assessment aspects.

Vanessa is a percussive artist dedicated to exploring how sound shapes our lives, awakening our ears to new sounds, in new spaces, with the hope that attentive listening will lead to attentive custodianship of place. With a long history in experimental music, Vanessa uses this body of knowledge to consider how we listen through site-specific explorations and collaborations. Trained as a percussionist in Australia, Germany and the USA, Vanessa relies on this sonic investigation of objects to build compositions, create contexts for improvisation, interpret the voices of other composers and collaborate across art-forms and disciplines. She has toured the world for 25 years, premiering over 100 works by significant national and international composers, presenting work at major international festivals, and collaborating with improvisers, dancers, artists and more. Key projects include The Immersive Guitar (with Karin Schaupp at Curiocity Brisbane), The Piano Mill (a purpose built structure in the Australian bush), Sounding the Condamine (examining the history of the Condamine Bell in outback Queensland), Water Pushes Sand (examining intersections between Sichuan Opera and improvisational practices with Australian Art Orchestra), Sonic Dreams (a series of compositions about extinct and imaginary sounds) and Here and Now (her first book, examining approaches to music making in an Australian context).  She studied at the University of Adelaide, Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg and received her Masters and Doctorate from the University of California, San Diego where she worked closely with Steven Schick and George Lewis. In addition Vanessa has studied Sichuan Opera with Master Zhong Kaichi in Chengdu, China. She has been on the faculty of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music for 18 years, transforming the field of percussion in Australia, helping to define the field of Artistic Practice in music internationally, and pioneering the performer/composer, interpreter/improviser pathway for students. She is currently Director of Creative Arts Research Institute at Griffith University where she continues to drive research projects that help define the agenda for performing artists in the academy.The episode includes sounds from Excerpt from Lonely Hearts Pandemic Bandhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaqzLu_AhuQ&list=PLM-eAZLeWDtlmg4hRNW0DKuJKt-aAHfWEand Vibrations in a landscape by Vanessa Tomlison and Erik GriswoldPerformed at The Piano Mill with students from BaDaBoom Percussion (Queensland Conservatorium Percussion Department)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ed8VKVq5wwSolo tamtam https://room40.bandcamp.com/album/the-space-insideFound object masterclasshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXS67tbHC74Playing vibraphonehttps://vimeo.com/331963991

Andy Meyerson is a drummer and percussionist based in San Francisco, California. He is the Artistic Director, co-founder, and percussionist of The Living Earth Show, one of the premiere experimental classical ensembles in the United States. Named one of the “22 performers to watch in ‘22” by the Washington Post, The Living Earth Show has presented over a decade of “outstanding” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “transcendent” (Charleston City Paper) new music that pushes the boundaries of technical and artistic possibility while amplifying voices, perspectives, and bodies that the classical music tradition has often excluded. He is also the drummer and co-founder of queer nü metal collective COMMANDO, music director of renegade dance company Post:ballet, and the artistic director and CEO of uncompromising experimental chamber music record label Earthy Records.Here are links to some of the topics discussed in this episode: Mark Appelbaum – The Mad Scientist of Muisc (TED talk) Brian Ferneyhough – Renvoi/Shards (2010) (live performance by The Living Earth Show) Sarah Hennies – A Kind of Ache https://www.thelivingearthshow.com/productions/a-kind-of-acheAmadeus Regucera– IMY/ILYAlso check out the podcast on the Album “Lyra” by Samuel Adams and The Living Earth Show here.

Leif Karlsson is a renowned Swedish conductor, chief conductor for the State Wind Symphony Trimitas in Lithuania and the Inspector of Music in the Swedish Armed Forces. He has worked with a great number of orchestras in Scandinavia over the last decades and has premiered more than 250 compositions. As a percussionist Leif Karlsson was one of the founding members of the world renowned percussion ensemble Kroumata, with which he recorded, toured and preformed for 30 years. With Kroumata, he was a soloist with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, WDR Rundfunkorchester, Singapore Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony orchestra, Islands Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. Over the years, Kroumata performed in 43 countries and almost 600 cities worldwide and recorded 19 critically acclaimed records.As a Swedish ambassador for the arts, Leif Karlsson was honored with the Positive Sweden honorary award. He has performed at international state visits of Their Majesties the King and Queen of Sweden. Leif Karlsson is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.You may watch Kroumata's 1999 performance of Xenakis' "Peaux" here, and a full concert from 1993 here.

Vanessa Porter is a German percussionist based in Stuttgart. She is one of the most active percussionists in her generation internationally. Her performances often combine composed works with improvisation, also employing electronics and visual media.  In the 2033/23 season she will perform as a soloist of ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) in the most renowned European concert halls such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Barbican Centre London, Philharmonie Paris, L’Auditori Barcelona, and many more. She collaborates with many renowned composers and is regularly performing with groups such as Ensemble Modern, Ascolta Ensemble, and Les Percussions de Strasbourg. Check out Vanessa's recent solo albums here.

Christian Windfeld, b.1983, is a Danish improviser, composer, percussionist and educated soloist from The Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark. Since the age of 19 he has build an international career touring all over Europe, North America and Australia and lived in Stockholm, New York and Berlin.Windfeld has a minimalist but highly expressive approach to the percussive instruments often reducing his set-up to focus on just one instrument e.g. the snare drum to explore its full potential aiming to transcend the general perception of its capabilities.As a composer he has created pieces and installations to art exhibitions and cross media publications with writers and visual artists.Windfeld is featured as a leading figure on more than 30 recordings and have so far recorded two solo albums under the alias FØRSTEPERSONENTAL (FIRSTPERSONSINGULAR) the first released in 2014 and the second, ROTUNDA, in autumn 2016 .He has received a string of honors and grants most notably the prestigious “Young Elite” fellowship awarded to him by the Danish Arts Council in 2015.