SOU Percussion Ensembles Concert 11/29 & Daniel Glass Clinic 11/30

I am thrilled to announce 2 exciting events this coming week!  Read on...

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: For further information contact:
November 14, 2011   Colleen Graves
gravesc@sou.edu
541.552.6102

The Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensembles, under the direction of Dr. Terry Longshore, presents “Rolling Thunder” featuring Taiko drummer Kelvin Underwood and percussion trio Compás

(Ashland, Ore.) – The widely acclaimed Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensembles, under the direction of Dr. Terry Longshore, will present “Rolling Thunder” on Tuesday, November 29, at 7:30 PM in the Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall.

The SOU Percussion Ensemble and Compás have been praised throughout the northwest for their performances of contemporary percussion music that entertains, challenges, and excites listeners of all ages.  Composer William Kraft (former Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence, Associate Conductor, and Principal Timpanist) said of the ensemble, "I have never – repeat, never – been so pleased with performances of my works."

The concert will open with “Jabberwocky”, written by Stan Sitnik in the style of the Zimbabwean marimba tradition.  This exciting and joyful piece will be led by SOU Percussion Ensemble Alumnus Lindsay Campbell, who taught the piece to the ensemble.

Featured guest artist for the evening will be taiko and percussionist artist Kelvin Underwood who will lead the ensemble on Maki Ishii’s “Monochrome” for taiko drum ensemble. Underwood began his professional music career with pioneering Taiko ensemble Za Ondekoza from 1994-1998.  He left the ensemble to study music and percussion at Berklee College Music in Boston, MA from 1999-2003.  Once his studies at Berklee were complete he moved to California and began working with the highly acclaimed Taiko group On Ensemble and created his own Taiko project Meidoko (may-doh-koh).  Meidoko is a slight departure from any conventions found in the Taiko world.  The group explores the common thread of their highly energetic style of drumming, Jazz, Alternative Rock and the Brazilian fight/dance Capoeira .  

Taiko drumming as a performing art is relatively young, but is rooted in centuries-old drumming in the temples and shrines of Japan.  The large drums can be heard for miles, and were designed to be heard by all the inhabitants of a village, no matter how far away from the temple they resided.  The “Rolling Thunder” of “Monochrome” guarantees to be an excite listeners of all ages.

Also featured will be percussion trio “Catfish” by Stanford University-based composer Mark Applebaum, a favorite of Southern Oregon audiences that have delighted in performances of his music by Terry Longshore and the Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensembles.  “Catfish”, for each player’s choice of 3 like instruments (wood, metal, skin), features many polyrhythms, metric modulations, and aleatoric sections, all the while rooted in a strong sense of groove.  Compás, led by Terry Longshore, features dynamic percussionists Bryan Jeffs and Jacob Phelps-Ransom.

The Reso-Nation Percussion Quartet will perform “Wart Hog #3” by Austin Wrinkle and new composition “Full Cycle” by quartet member Daniel Freiberg.  “Wart Hog” has its roots in the rhythms of India, and the ensemble members recite and perform the rhythmic language used in this fascinating music.  “Full Cycle” is inspired by African music with instruments chosen, from deepest lows to piercing highs, to shape the dynamic and melodic qualities of the piece.   Reso-Nation also features Jordan Levelle, Sean Muir, and Sean Siders.

The ensemble will also perform Anthony Cirone’s “4/4 for Four” and Daniel Levitan’s “Variations on a Ghanaian Theme.”  The concert will close with audience favorite John Bergamo’s Zappa-esque “Totally Hip” arranged for 10-member ensemble including keyboard percussion, drums, bass, junk percussion, Swiss cowbells, and electronics.

Tickets for this performance are $5 for general admission and free for students.  Tickets and season passes may be purchased by calling 541-552-6101 or at the Music Box Office prior to the performance.  For more information, please visit Southern Oregon University’s Music website at http://www.sou.edu/music  

-SOU-

Daniel Glass Clinic

Wednesday, November 30, Southern Oregon University presents a drum clinic by Daniel Glass. The clinic will take place at 7 PM in Room 220 of the Music Building at SOU.

Daniel Glass is one of today's foremost authorities on classic American drumming. Since 1994, he has toured all over the world with the pioneering " retro-swing" group Royal Crown Revue, and recorded and performed with a host of top flight artists like Brian Setzer , Gene Simmons, Bette Midler, Liza Minnelli and Mike Ness from Social Distortion. He has been voted one of the top five R&B drummer s in the world two years in a row by the readers of Modern Drummer and DRUM magazines. Daniel is also an award-winning author and clinician. He has written three books, including The Commandments of Early Rhythm and Blues Drumming (with Zoro), and has performed at many prestigious international festivals like PASIC and the 2010 Modern Drummer Festival. Daniel's clinics focus on the evolution of the drum set. Using dazzling chops and high- energy showmanship, Daniel takes audiences on a whirlwind journey that covers seven decades of groove. His goal? To convince you that the best way to play today's grooves - Rock, Pop, Blues, Funk, Hip Hop, Reggae, Gospel, etc - is to understand the roots from which they grew. To learn more about Daniel and his obsession with classic American music, please visit: www.DanielGlass.com.

Caballito Negro presents "Una Noche de Duende - Wednesday, 11/2

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release: For further information contact:
October 15, 2011   Colleen Graves
gravesc@sou.edu
541.552.6102

Caballito Negro presents “Una Noche de Duende”, an evening of contemporary music, dance, and multi-media art featuring Southern Oregon University Faculty

(Ashland, Ore.) –  Caballito Negro (flutist Tessa Brinckman and percussionist Terry Longshore) presents “Una Noche de Duende” Wednesday, November 2, at 7:30 PM in the Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall in Ashland.

Caballito Negro is named from a line of the poem, Canción de Jinete (Song of the Rider) by Federico García Lorca, and one of the Madrigals, by composer George Crumb. "Little Black Horse" gallops in and around Oregon's new music scene, directed by flutist Tessa Brinckman and percussionist Terry Longshore. Assisted by brilliant guest artists, Caballito Negro presents contemporary music on the edge of many worlds, always in the spirit of duende.

The Spanish word ‘duende’ defies definition, but has been interpreted as inspiration, emotion, authenticity, magic, and “fire”.  The music encountered in this eclectic program, “an evening of duende”, takes the audience on a journey of seldom experienced musical diversity, including avant garde American contemporary music, electro-acoustic music, video projection, dance, music of South Africa, and a musical score consisting entirely of bizarre pictographs to be “interpreted rigorously” by the performers.

New Zealand flutist Tessa Brinckman, described by Gramophone as a “flutist of chameleon-like gifts” and "virtuoso elegance", is an active performer on the West Coast, and serves on the faculty of Southern Oregon University and Rogue Community College.  Percussionist Terry Longshore is a champion of contemporary music who has premiered and recorded many important works, composes contemporary percussion music, and is Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at Southern Oregon University.

Brinckman and Longshore will be joined by guest artists David Bithell, composer/artist/musician; Ellie Leonhardt, choreographer/dancer; Christine Williams, soprano; and percussion ensemble Compás, including Terry Longshore, Bryan Jeffs, and Jacob Phelps-Ransom.  The ensemble will perform works by Mark Applebaum, David Bithell, William Kraft, Ellie Leonhardt, Alvin Lucier, and Bongani Ndodana-Breen.

“Una Noche de Duende” will feature the world premiere of William Kraft’s “Encounters XVI” for flute and percussion, performed by Caballito Negro.  World renown composer William Kraft has had a long and illustrious career.  In 2002 he retired as chairman of the composition department and holder of the Corwin Chair at the University of California, Santa Barbara. From 1981-1985, Mr. Kraft was the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Composer-in-Residence. During his residency, he was founder and director of the orchestra’s performing arm for contemporary music, the Philharmonic New Music Group. Mr. Kraft had previously been a performing member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 26 years – eight years as percussionist, and the last 18 as Principal Timpanist. For three seasons, he was also assistant conductor of the Philharmonic, and, thereafter, made frequent appearances as guest conductor.  Mr. Kraft has received numerous commissions and awards, including two Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards; two Guggenheim Fellowships; two Ford Foundation commissions; fellowships from the Huntington Hartford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts; the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Music Award; and numerous others. Mr. Kraft’s works have been performed by orchestras throughout the United States and around the world, including in Europe, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, Israel, and the former Soviet Union. In November 1990, Mr. Kraft was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Percussive Arts Society.  

Kraft’s “Encounters” series of works for percussion and another instrument are some of the favorites of the percussion chamber music repertoire.  “Encounters XVI”, the latest in this series and receiving its world premiere by Caballito Negro, is full of rich color and texture.  Scored for flute and a battery of percussion including marimba, vibraphone, seven graduated drums, tam-tam gong, and suspended cymbal—the work explores the rich harmonic sonorities between the flute and both the resonant sounds of metallic percussion and drier, woodier textures of the marimba and drums.

“encapsulating” is an interactive work of video and audio composed by David Bithell, newly-hired SOU Assistant Professor of Digital Art and interdisciplinary composer, artist, and performer whose work blurs the lines between experimental music, theater, and visual art.  “encapsulating” was written specifically to accompany choreography by Ellie Leonhardt, creating a work that uses technology to convey a multiplicity of perspectives as well as a sense of containment, resistance, and escape.  The video uses a camera focused on the live dancer as input to a series of visual columns and is controlled by audio cues as well as automated through algorithmic processes.  The sound world is created by the live electronic manipulation of a Javanese gender (a 14-key bronze percussion instrument), augmented by flute and additional percussion performed by Brinckman and Longshore.  Leonhardt’s dance and choreography blend her passions in Contact Improvisation, Authentic Movement/Dance-Therapy, Yoga/Somatics, and the Erick Hawkins Modern Dance Technique.

As with most of his compositions, Alvin Lucier’s “Still and Moving Lines of Silence in Families of Hyperbolas” is based upon an acoustic phenomenon, in this case “standing waves.” If sine waves are tuned closely to the geometry and resonant frequencies of the performance space, then pockets of tone and silence appear in different areas of the room simultaneously. With the addition of deliberately mis-tuned  frequencies, the “lines of silence” can be spun around the room at varying  speeds.

Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s “Apologia at Umzimvubu” is an unwavering explanation of Xhosa culture and the composer's personal identity through music. Animated dances by the young people give way to the dignified umxhenstso dance of the elderly matrons.  “Apologia” was originally commissioned in 2005 by Tessa Brinckman for flute, violin and cello and will be performed for the first time in this arrangement for flute and two marimbas by Tessa Brinckman, Terry Longshore, and Bryan Jeffs.

The concert begins and ends with two compositions by Stanford University-based composer Mark Applebaum, a favorite of Southern Oregon audiences that have delighted in performances of his music by Terry Longshore and the Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensembles.  Applebaum’s rousing percussion trio “Catfish”, performed by percussion ensemble Compás, sounds the alarm for an evening of exciting juxtapositions.  “Catfish”, for each player’s choice of 3 like instruments (wood, metal, skin), features many polyrhythms, metric modulations, and aleatoric sections, all the while rooted in a strong sense of groove.  Compás, led by Terry Longshore, features dynamic percussionists Bryan Jeffs and Jacob Phelps-Ransom.

The program concludes with Applebaum’s “Medium”, a work for a quartet of any four musicians (Tessa Brinckman, Terry Longshore, Jacob Phelps-Ransom, and Christine Williams) “who rigorously interpret its score—a mercurial spray of pictographs whose precise definition as musical specifications is left entirely up to its performers...There are several mediums at play: the work is multi-media as it resides equally in the realms of visual art and music.  The score itself is a medium—it presents a conceptual substance through which the expressive energy of creative musicians must pass; and, as a non-standard notation presented to imaginative, inventive performers, it is as much a musical filter as a musical prescription...And lastly, the work represents a middle state between spatial right and left, between the ceremony of performance and the routine of not performance.” (Mark Applebaum)  

The Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall is located at 405 S. Mountain Ave. in Ashland.  Tickets for this performance are $10 for general admission and free for students.  Tickets and season passes may be purchased by calling 541-552-6101 or at the Music Box Office prior to the performance.  For more information, please visit Southern Oregon University’s Music website at http://www.sou.edu/music  

-SOU-

Chris Burton Jácome Flamenco Ensemble in Southern Oregon!

It's a great for flamenco in Southern Oregon!  I'm proud to present the Chris Burton Jácome Flamenco Ensemble in "Amigos Flamencos" at the SOU Music Recital Hall on Friday, Jan. 14, 7:30 PM.  Chris and his wife, incredible flamenco dancer Lena Jácome, will be joined by Grant Ruiz, guitar; Mónica Morales, dance; and myself on cajón and percussion.  Lena will also teach dance workshops while here.  We will also perform on the Pistol River Concert Series on Saturday, Jan. 15, 8:00 PM for those of you on the coast.

SOU Percussion Ensembles present "Sonic Diffusions"

Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensembles present “Sonic Diffusions” 

featuring the West Coast Premiere of Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic’s “Tak-Nara”

(Ashland, Ore.) – The widely acclaimed Southern Oregon University (SOU) Percussion Ensembles, under the direction of Dr. Terry Longshore, will present “Sonic Diffusions” on Thursday, November 18, at 7:30 PM in the Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall.

The SOU Percussion Ensemble and percussion quartet Compás have been praised throughout the northwest for their performances of contemporary percussion music that entertains, challenges, and excites listeners of all ages.  Composer William Kraft (former Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence, Associate Conductor, and Principal Timpanist) said of the ensemble, "I have never – repeat, never – been so pleased with performances of my works."

Compás will perform the west coast premiere of “Tak-Nara” by Serbian composer/percussionist Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic, one of the artists featured at SOU’s Day of Percussion last May.  This virtuosic work for an enormous arsenal of percussion instruments is inspired by the Canary Islands, the volcanic eruptions that formed them, and various myths of the islands.

Compás will also present Christopher Deane’s “Vespertine Formations” for marimba quartet, a work inspired by the composer’s chance observation of flock maneuvers of a huge number of birds, their wing motions, and their fantastic choreography of movement.

The SOU Percussion Ensemble will perform Eric Ewazen’s monumental symphonic percussion work “The Palace of Nine Perfections.”  Ewazen states that “the three-movement work is inspired by a spectacular painting on 12 adjacent hanging scrolls by the 17th century painter, Yuan Chiang.  The three movements depict scenes from this majestic artwork.”

The concert will also feature SOU Music Performance graduate and recent recipient of the Master of Music degree from California State University, Sacramento, Bryan Jeffs.  Jeffs has recently joined the adjunct faculty of SOU and will be featured as soloist on Christopher Rouse’s “Bonham” a piece which celebrates the drumming of Led Zeppelin’s late drummer John “Bonzo” Bonham.  Other works featured will be “Apple Blossom” by Peter Garland and traditional Zimbabwean marimba composition “Isu Tauya Pano.”

Tickets for this performance are $5 for general admission and free for students.  Tickets and season passes may be purchased by calling 541-552-6101 or at the Music Box Office prior to the performance.  For more information, please visit Southern Oregon University’s Music website at http://www.sou.edu/music 

August in Guanajuato, México!

Hello all - OK, I know, I've been away a long time!  I'll try and be better about regular updates!  A lot of amazing stuff happened last spring but since it's so late, I'll just resume with current events....

August has been very exciting.  I have been in Guanajuato for the entire month.  I was invited by my good friend and flamenco/classical guitarist extraordinaire Rafael Cuen Garibi.  I taught Master Classes to the percussionists of the University of Guanajuato and I've been enrolled in a month-long Spanish language intensive course.  Every day, classes in grammar, conversation, literature, and history - completely in Spanish.  It's been intense, but wonderful, and just the "jump-start" I needed for my Spanish.  Que Bueno!  Special thanks to Southern Oregon University for helping to make this trip possible!

My family joined me for 2 weeks and we had a wonderful time. I've made many new friends here, and I look forward to returning soon.  Here are some pictures:

The colors here are so increíble!  The Guanajuato Basilica against the sky:

Los Tiempos Pasados in the Teatro Juárez with poet Pedro Vázquez Nieto.  Wonderful concert!  Rafael is on the far right and my nuevo amigo Ramon is on the far left.

At the top of "El Pipila".

Rafael and his AMAZING paella - que rico!

About to dig in - Rafael, Max, Maddy, me, and Georgina:

Cathedral in San Miguel de Allende - day trip:

Amazing garden at Casa-Museo Gene Byron in Marfil (Guanajuato) - I could live here!

Mis amigas del estudio de español - Stacey and Victoria:

Amazing quartet - "The Sconek-T" - thanks Adrián for the great percussion playing and for trading cajón licks!

Hangin' post-master class with the percussionists of Guanajuato.  What a great group - thank you all!  "Que chido!"

Post concert whew!

It was a crazy week of concerts over the last couple of weeks, but they all went really well and I'm winding down now, getting to know my family again!  Here are some pics from the past couple of weeks:

A beautiful day of fishing on the East Fork of the Walker River (near Bridgeport, CA) on my one day off while in Carson City, NV.

I worked with the percussion students at Carson High School while there - here I am with Carson High School Band Director, Jarod Sorum, and Carson City Symphony Conductor David Bugli.

A little Venezuelan maraca and cajón demo with the students.

A beautiful hike in the hills above Carson City.

Dúo Flamenco y Sol Flamenco after the concert!

Concerts in the next week!

I am currently in Carson City, NV to perform Ricardo Lorenz's "Pataruco: Concerto for Venezuelan Maracas and Orchestra".  The performance is this Sunday, February 28, at 4 PM.  First rehearsal was Wednesday night and by the end the orchestra was starting to groove nicely on this challenging piece.  It will be a fun concert!

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The widely acclaimed Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensembles, under the direction of Dr. Terry Longshore, will present “Foreign Objects” on Tuesday, March 2, at 8:00 PM in the Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall.

The SOU Percussion Ensemble has been praised throughout the northwest for its performances of contemporary percussion music that entertains, challenges, and excites listeners of all ages. Composer William Kraft (former Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer-in-Residence, Associate Conductor, and Principal Timpanist) said of the ensemble, "I have never – repeat, never – been so pleased with performances of my works."

The concert will also feature the debut of ensemble compás, the newly formed resident percussion quartet at SOU. In Spanish flamenco, compás means the rhythmic cycle of a given musical form, but also refers to a musician’s “feel”. ensemble compás is comprised of the top undergraduate percussion students at SOU who audition to actively perform a variety of new music, classic percussion chamber music, and world music. The ensemble is dedicated to the creation of new music for percussion quartet and collaborations with other instruments. ensemble compás commissioned and will premiere Chris Burton Jácome’s new work for solo flamenco guitar and marimba quartet, “la alma del árbol, la resonancia de una rama” (“the soul of the tree, the resonance of a branch”) in May, 2010.

Ensemble compás will perform two works, Nigel Westlake’s “Omphalo Centric Lecture” for marimba quartet, and Steve Reich’s “Music for Pieces of Wood.” In Westlake’s words, “The title comes from a painting by Paul Klee - the direct & centered simplicity of which was an inspiration to me during the writing of this piece. The piece also owes much to African Balofon (or xylophone) music, with its persistant ostinati, cross - rhythms & variations on simple melodic fragments. Like African music it seeks to celebrate life through rhythm, energy & movement.” Reich’s work grew out of his desire to make music with the simplest possible instruments. It is performed by five percussionists with five tuned pairs of claves, cylindrical pieces of hardwood used in Cuban music, among other Latin genres.

Also featured will be two classic works for percussion: Henry Cowell’s “Pulse” and Lou Harrison’s “Simfony #13”. Cowell’s work is interestingly scored for percussion quintet, with a sixth performer who moves around between the other performers’ setups and serves as a sort of “utility player”, dampening others’ instruments and sometimes playing from their setups. Harrison’s “Simfony”, a quartet, was written for John and Xenia Cage and features Harrison’s trademark orchestration for families of instruments grouped by timbre and use of canons in the structure. The ensemble will also perform two arrangements of Zimbabwean marimba and mbira music.

The program will close with the entire ensemble performing John Bergamo’s “Foreign Objects”, a Zappa-esque romp that alternates between meters of 7 and 2 and features an arsenal of electronic and acoustic keyboard instruments overlaying a rock & roll rhythm section of bass, drums, and junk percussion.

Tickets for this performance are $5 for general admission and free for students. Tickets and season passes may be purchased by calling 541-552-6101 or at the Music Box Office prior to the performance. For more information, please visit Southern Oregon University’s Music Department website at http://www.sou.edu/music

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Join Dúo Flamenco for our monthly First Friday Flamenco at the Standing Stone Brewing Co. in Ashland - Friday, March 5, 8:30-10:30 PM.

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The Sol Flamenco Dance Company will perform on Saturday, March 6th at 8:00 p.m. at the SOU Music Recital Hall in Ashland. The show, entitled "Fiesta Flamenca", showcases the gipsy style of flamenco dance and music from Andalucia in the south of Spain. The program will include both traditional and contemporary flamenco dances, songs and guitar solos. To complete the Spanish theme, Elements Tapas Bar and Lounge of Medford will sell Spanish appetizers and wine before the concert at 7:00 p.m. and during intermission.

Sol Flamenco is a Santa Rosa-based dance troupe dedicated to the fiery art of flamenco. The dancers are Joelle Gonçalves and Liz Bortolotto. They will be joined by Spanish classical and flamenco guitarist Mark Taylor, as well as local percussionist Terry Longshore, who is Director of Percussion Studies at SOU. Sol Flamenco and Mark Taylor have been working together for many years, and it shows in the dancer’s precision footwork, the guitarist’s bold accompaniment and the company’s strong stage presence. Sol Flamenco has been delighting its audiences with sold out performances throughout California for years. 

L. Pierce Carson of The Napa Valley Register called Mark Taylor "The Bay Area’s Best flamenco guitarist" and stated, "Mark Taylor amazed an attentive crowd of more than 300 with his technical skills, lightning-fast fingerings and perfect tone. Taylor has a feel for the music’s innate sensuality."  With a high quality of music and the powerful dancing of Sol Flamenco, "Fiesta Flamenca" is an evening not to be missed!

Sol Flamenco and Mark Taylor will also teach beginning workshops on flamenco dance and guitar. Call 482-2826 for more information.

The show is presented by the Jefferson Classical Guitar Society and the Southern Oregon University Department of Performing Arts. Tickets for this performance are $15 for general admission and FREE for students. Tickets may be purchased by calling 541-552-6101 or at the SOU Music Box Office prior to the performance. For more information, please visit SOU's Music Department website at http://www.sou.edu/music or the JCGS website at http://JeffersonGuitar.org.