Cage, Bartok, & Reich in Idaho

Hello from Moscow, Idaho!  We’re performing tonight at 7:30 pm at the University of Idaho with a piano-and-percussion heavy program, kicking off the 2011-2012 Auditorium Chamber Music Series.  On the bill tonight: Cage’s Credo in Us, Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, and Reich’s Sextet.  Our touring ‘Thumpers this time around are our own Stephen Drury and Yukiko Takagi on piano, as well as our rockstar percussionists Scott Deal, Jeffrey Means, Bill Solomon, and Nick Tolle.

We’re in residence this week, giving demos, masterclasses, and concerts to the folks here in Moscow.  Feel free to come by if you’re in the area, and don’t be shy — we’ll be hanging around after the concert for a meet-and-greet.  More information on our residence can be found here and here.

See you tonight!

— webbottress

Boulez Reviews!

Callithumpian performs Boulez at Seully Hall

Congrats to our ‘Thumpers, and many thanks to all who came to experience Boulez first-hand at Boston Conservatory!  From The Faster Times, Matthew Guerrieri writes, “If there’s an ensemble better suited to this sort of thing than the Callithumpian Consort, I don’t know of it—given the kind of Moore’s-Law-esque acceleration in musical training, there’s doubtless far more musicians able to navigate Boulez’s tangles than when it was written, but the Consort (reflecting the predilictions of its director, pianist Stephen Drury) combines that ability with a devil-may-care, caution-to-the-wind flair. So this Le marteau—conducted by Jeffrey Means—was not only technically secure, but confident enough that Boulez’s touches of timbral character and narrative came to the fore…”

And more from Guerrieri: “Soprano Jennifer Ashe sang all three works on the program, a feat for which tour de force seems strangely inadequate. Ashe’s voice, silvery and fine-spun, was lithe and lucid from top to sometimes wickedly deep chest-voice bottom, with enough clarity to delineate the precipitous lines and carry them through often busy instrumental traffic. To simply make it through such a trio of scores on one program is testament enough to skill and technique; to do so with style, the illusion of ease, and an intelligent interpretive point of view is kind of mind-boggling. Those wild, leaping, coursing, uncompromising lines have rarely sounded so good.”  Read the entire review here.

From the Boston Globe, Harlow Robinson writes: “…“Séquence’’ (1955), the lone Barraqué piece performed with gusto on Thursday by the intensely focused members of the Callithumpian Consort and new music diva soprano Jennifer Ashe, who displayed remarkable pitch control amid apparent sonic chaos. A cool Jeffrey Means conducted. Based (sort of) on a dense text by Friedrich Nietzsche and scored for an eccentric ensemble including violin, cello, piano, harp, celesta, glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, and unpitched percussion, “Séquence’’ creates a hypnotic, shimmering, multilayered world whose underlying mathematical complexities bend and boggle the mind.”  Read more of this review here.

Coming up next: we’ll be performing Earle Brown, Michele Zaccagnini, Morton Feldman, and a world premiere by Tamar Diesendruck on December 3rd, 2010 at New England Conservatory.  8:00 pm, free admission. See you then!

Enjoy the holiday!

—webbottress.

Ashe, Tolle, Hamm

Just wanted to post quickly on last night’s concert in Williams Hall — Callithumpian presented two solo pieces: soprano Jennifer Ashe floored the audience with her flawless performance of Aperghis‘s Recitations; percussionist Nick Tolle took sensitive command of McPherson‘s Anagram.  And to close, we had Canadian pianist Corey Hamm treat us to an international array of piano + pre-recorded sound pieces (we should stop saying “tape” when it really isn’t “tape” anymore) by Michel Gonneville, Pierre Jodlowski, and Jacob ter Veldhuis, each quite distinct and, certainly with Veldhuis‘s The Body of Your Dreams — with a particular personality.  Hamm has been on faculty here at SICPP 2010, and we’ve been so glad to have had him on board this year.

A few pictures in case you missed out:

Percussionist Nicholas Tolle performing Andrew McPherson's Anagram

Soprano Jennifer Ashe performing Georges Aperghis's Recitations

Soprano Jennifer Ashe performing Georges Aperghis's Recitations

Pianist Corey Hamm

one more quick post coming very soon…
—webbottress.

Twitter! and Saariaho!

Yep — we have a Twitter account as well. Follow us: @callithumpian.

Meanwhile, percussionists Scott Deal, Mathias Reumert, Joseph Becker, and Nick Tolle have just finished their first rehearsal for Kaija Saariaho‘s Trois Rivieres (Wednesday at 8pm in Jordan Hall). Jeffrey Means will be conducting.

Quite the powerhouse percussion group here: Scott Deal is very much involved in music and technology and is the founder of the Telematic Collective, a networked group of artists and empiricists.  He’s performed all over North America and in Europe and is currently on faculty at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI).  Danish percussionist Mathias Reumert won 1st prize at Gaudeamus in 2007 and has performed at major festivals in the USA, France, Holland, Poland, and throughout Scandinavia.  Joseph Becker, a recent alum of New England Conservatory and Boston University, has performed with Xanthos Ensemble at Roulette in NYC, and has also performed and recorded Carter during his time as a Tanglewood Fellow in 2008 (Carter’s 100th).  And Nick Tolle is no stranger to the new music scene: he directs the Ludovico Ensemble in the sounds of Feldman, Lachenmann, Kurtág, and more.  Tolle also performs with Ensemble XII, previously known as the Lucerne Festival Percussion group, an international gathering of 12 hand-picked percussionists guided by Pierre Boulez and Ensemble Intercontemporain.

Jeffrey Means will get his own spot in due time — he’s accomplished quite a lot (severe understatement) as a percussionist, director, and conductor himself.

More soon!
— your friendly webbottress.

P.S.  Don’t forget!  TOMORROW, Monday June 14th at 8pm in Jordan Hall at NEC: Stockhausen’s MANTRA with pianists Stephen Drury and Yukiko Takagi.  Admission is free.  Bring your toddlers, grandparents, and short-wave receivers.

Percussionist SCOTT DEAL’s appearances include venues, festivals and conferences in North America and Europe. A performer who presents “a riveting performance (Sequenza 21), his recent recording of the music of John Luther Adams has been described as “a soaring, shimmering exploration of texture and tone…an album of resplendent mood and incredible scale” (Musicworks).  Continually inspired by new and  emerging artistic technologies, Deal is the founder of the Telematic Collective, a networked group of artists and empiricists. He hasperformed at Almeida Opera, Supercomputing Global, SIGGRAPH, Arena Stage, Chicago Calling, Ingenuity Festival, Moscow Alternativa, and with groups that include ART GRID, Another Language, Percussion Group Cincinnati, Digital Worlds Institute and the Helsinki ComputerOrchestra. He is a Professor of Music and Director of the Donald Tavel Arts and Technology Research Center at Indiana University PurdueUniversity Indianapolis (IUPUI).  He holds degrees from the Universityof Miami, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and Cameron University.