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Sandbox Percussion www.sandboxpercussion.com

Sandbox Percussion


Mission

Sandbox Percussion is one of today’s most exciting chamber music groups. Brought together by their love of chamber music and simple joy of playing together, members Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum and Terry Sweeney are committed to bringing percussion to a wider audience. Although classically trained, their repertoire runs the gamut from traditional percussion masterworks to experimental improvisations and new music.

In the summer of 2012, Sandbox made their New York debut at St. John’s Episcopal Church as part of the Concerts on the Slope chamber music series. They were subsequently invited to be the ensemble in residence for the Fall 2013 season. Later that summer they were finalists in The New England Chamber Music Competition, an international competition open to all genres of music and instrumentation, which included over 100 applicants from all over the world. Sandbox later worked closely with composer James Wood on his percussion masterpiece, Village Burial with Fire. Next to Iannis Xenakis, James Wood is known as the father of modern percussion composition. They gave multiple performances of Village Burial in Norfolk, Connecticut as part of the Norfolk New Music Workshop. James Wood described their performance of Village Burial as “fabulous.” While in Norfolk they also played along side what is often called the world’s greatest percussion quartet, Amadinda. Aurél Holló, member of Amadinda, later described, “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 Summer School of Music. Sandbox Percussion is the promising group of the near future, battering right on your door.”

This season, Sandbox will focus on the music of Steve Reich, one of the most vital composers of percussion music in the 21st century with a featured performance on the inaugural season of the unclassical series at DROM in Lower Manhattan. Also this year, Sandbox collaborates with mezzo-soprano Elspeth Davis on one of György Ligeti’s final works, Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel and with marimbist and composer Rich O’Meara on a portrait concert of his works.


Sample Programs

Canon: The Music of Steve Reich

Steve Reich Music for Pieces of Wood Jason Treuting Life is [ ]

Extremes Steve Reich Drumming

Nagoya Marimbas Mallet Quartet

Instrumentation: Composing for a percussion quartet

Samantha Wolf Thingamajig Thomas Kotcheff Hammer/ring Steve Reich Mallet Quartet Paul Lansky Threads


Canon: The Music of Steve Reich

In this program we demonstrate what a Canon is and how it is used in the music of Steve Reich. We have combined these Reich pieces with some pieces by composer/percussionist Jason Treuting to further demonstrate how Canon is used in a percussion quartet. In Treuting’s pieces two or more players will play similar rhythms to create an intricate composite rhythm or hocket. The same applies for the works by Steve Reich. Different members will play exactly the same pattern but simply displaced rhythmically. This allows the audience to get lost in the rhythmic chatter and become unaware of when one pattern ends and the next begins.

Instrumentation: Composing for a Percussion Quartet

When a percussionist receives a new piece of music it almost always means a new list of instruments to play on and a new way to set them up. However in this program two of our very good friends Samantha Wolf and Thomas Kotcheff have composed drastically different pieces for mallet quartet (two marimbas and two vibraphones). These pieces were inspired by Steve Reich’s already existing Mallet Quartet instrumentation. Performing different works by different composers on exactly the same instruments is very rare for a percussionist and something we are very excited about.

We pair these pieces with Paul Lansky’s Threads. The audience will hear how percussion instruments can achieve many different timbres in this ten-movement work. A perfectly placed cowbell note, lyrical vibraphone or robust drumming can create widely different sonorities from movement to movement.


Selected Repertoire John Cage Living Room Music

Third Construction Thierry de Mey Musique de Table Palmer Hefferan Forming the Year’s First Sky Thomas Kotcheff Hammer/ring Paul Lansky Threads György Ligeti Síppal, dobbal, nádihegedüvel Lukas Ligeti Pattern Transformation Rich O’Meara JH Variations Steve Reich Clapping Music

Drumming Mallet Quartet Music for Pieces of Wood Nagoya Marimbas

Jason Treuting Selections from Amid the Noise Extremes Life is Blank

Samantha Wolf Thingamajig James Wood Village Burial with Fire


Educational Programs Masterclass/Coaching

We believe that having students play along with the teachers is the most effective way of learning in a chamber music setting. We would have students play core pieces in our own repertoire so they can experience our interpretation, interaction and approach to basic chamber music skills. We would also be very excited to learn and play new pieces that a student ensemble has prepared. Having the opportunity for one or more students to play along with members of Sandbox is the best way to deliver information about developing chamber music skills. Percussion and Rhythm Demonstration

This session would last about 60 minutes and would focus on two pieces by Steve Reich, Clapping Music and Drumming. We would teach the rhythm to the audience and have them participate in a performance of the piece with Sandbox. We would show them the importance of exact rhythmic execution as well as understanding how your own rhythm interacts with the rhythm of the people playing around you. The idea of canon would be discussed and how rhythmic canon in Reich’s music allows the listener to hear new resulting patterns emerge out of the texture. This would then tie in with Drumming as Reich actually asks players in the ensemble to highlight these emerging resulting patterns. We would also demonstrate a technique in Drumming called phasing. During phasing two people play a rhythm in unison and one player gradually speeds up to achieve a canon.

Percussion and Rhythm for a younger audience

In our demonstration for younger audiences we would show them that percussion instruments come from many different cultures all around the world. We would perform an arrangement we made of some African drumming rhythms from the Ewe tribe in Togo. Along with this we would perform and teach the rhythm of Steve Reich’s Clapping Music. Lastly we would end with a performance of Terry Riley’s In C using found items in the room as musical instruments showing that rhythm and percussion is all around us. The duration of this session would be about 90 minutes including discussion as well as performance. Composing for Percussion

This would be a multiple-session workshop to help composers acquire more knowledge about how percussion instruments can exist in a chamber music setting. Our first visit would include a small performance of a variety of different percussion pieces. We would talk about how each of them is different and why they are successful. This would include discussing topics such as instrumentation and how certain percussion instruments blend with others. We would use examples from pieces in our own repertoire to explain how simply choosing the correct instrument or combination of instruments can reflect a certain compositional idea. We would devise an instrument list for which the composers can choose what they would like to write for. This session would last about two hours. After about one month we would return for a second visit to read through and rehearse drafts of the composers’ works and offer feedback and suggest revisions, if necessary. A three-hour session will accommodate approximately five student works. Lastly our third visit would include a concert premiering these new works. The concert date would ideally be set one month after our second visit.


Member Bios

Whether he is playing chamber music in Carnegie Hall, a drum set concerto in Woolsey Hall, or giving a marimba recital in a castle outside Salzburg, Jonathan Allen performs with a passion and mastery that enthralls audiences and draws them into even the most contemporary of soundscapes. A strong advocate for percussion chamber music, Jonathan co-founded the Volta Trio and is a member of Sandbox Percussion Quartet. Through these ensembles, he strives to advance the art-form and enrich the community with performances, clinics, and commissions of new works. Jonathan Allen has won prizes at both the International Chamber Music Competition and the International Marimba Competition in

Salzburg. He was also a recipient of the Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music where he completed a Bachelor degree in 2011. Jonathan is currently pursuing an Artist Degree in Percussion Performance from the Yale School of Music where he Studies with Professor Robert van Sice and performs with the world class Yale Percussion Group. Inspired by his passion for chamber music, percussionist Victor Caccese is dedicated to bringing percussion chamber music to diverse audiences. A founding member of The Sandbox Percussion Quartet, Victor celebrates the intimacy of chamber music and explores how percussion can enhance audience engagement. He is active in the discovery of new works for percussion through experimentation and collaboration with composers and other performers. Active in today’s new music scene, Victor has appeared at the Norfolk New Music Workshop in 2011 and 2012 both as an individual and member of Sandbox. Over the course of these two summers, he assisted in 18 world premieres from a selective group of 12 young composers from all over the world. In addition he also performed works by Martin Bresnick and James Wood, including Mr. Wood’s percussion solo masterpiece, Rogosanti which in a performance that composer praised as “beautiful with a very nice pacing and fabulous interpretation”. In the summer of 2011, as a member of Sandbox Percussion, Victor was a finalist in The New England Chamber Music Competition, an international competition open to all genres of music and instrumentation. Together with The Peabody Percussion Group, Victor was a finalist in the Percussive Arts Society International Convention competition in 2012 where he performed James Wood’s Village Burial with Fire.


Praised for his “excellent” and “precisely attuned” performances by the New York Times, percussionist Ian David Rosenbaum has developed a musical breadth far beyond his years. He made his Kennedy Center debut in 2009 and later that year garnered a special prize created for him at the Salzburg International Marimba Competition. Last season, Mr. Rosenbaum joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two program as only the second percussionist they have selected in their history. Mr. Rosenbaum has performed with the acclaimed So Percussion group and has appeared at the Norfolk, Yellow Barn, Chamber Music Northwest and Music@Menlo festivals. Highlights of the 2013-2014 season include a tour of Southern California performing Christopher Cerrone’s Memory Palace, a recital at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C. and a solo performance on the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s New Music in the Kaplan Penthouse series. Continuing his passionate advocacy for contemporary music, this season Mr. Rosenbaum will premiere new works for percussion by Andy Akiho, David Crowell, Tawnie Olson and Paola Prestini. Mr. Rosenbaum is a member of Sandbox Percussion, Le Train Bleu, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Novus NY and Time Travelers. He has recorded for the Bridge, Innova and Naxos labels and is on the faculty of the Dwight School in Manhattan. Mr. Rosenbaum endorses Vic Firth sticks and mallets.

American percussionist Terry Sweeney is an avid chamber musician and collaborator. Terry currently performs as the percussionist with the Lunar Ensemble and has appeared with the Sonar New music ensemble. In 2014 he joins the percussion quartet, Sandbox Percussion. In 2013 Terry received the Harold Randolph prize in performance and the Peabody Conservatory Zildjian scholarship. Terry is also a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda National

Music Society. A passionate educator, Terry has taught at the Peabody Preparatory and is currently a teaching artist for New Haven Music in Schools program. Born and raised in Michigan, Terry began his formal percussion studies with Gwen Burgett and has received a bachelor’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. Terry is currently pursuing his Masters Degree at the Yale School of Music, where he studies with Robert van Sice and performs with the Yale Percussion Group.


Contact

general email [email protected]

booking contact (302) 632-1840

[email protected]

web www.sandboxpercussion.com

postal mail

Sandbox Percussion 169 54th Street Unit 6 Brooklyn, NY 11220

sandbox press kit - sandbox · pdf filesteve reich drumming nagoya marimbas ... these pieces...

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