Tuesday
April 1
7 p.m.
Rialto Center for the Arts
Starfall (2022)
James Vilseck | b. 1992
Starfall by James Vilseck magically captures the wonder one has while staring up into the sky and appreciating the beauty of the stars. The piece combines many simple patterns to create one homogenous canvas, similar to the way each individual star helps create the night sky. Utilizing complex but alluring harmonies and quick rhythmic patterns juxtaposed against long melodic arcs, Starfall effortlessly transports the listener and performer to an ethereal setting.
— James Vilseck
meditation for metal pipes (2021)
EMMA O’HALLORAN | B. 1985
meditation for metal pipes by Emma O’Halloran was commissioned as part of the “Everybody Hits” Project by Adam Groh and a consortium of percussionists, including Dr. Stuart Gerber. This piece is scored for 15 just-tuned metal pipes and has been designed to be performed in a very reverberant space.
In the score, Emma states...
“This piece is about really listening to each other and realizing how everything is connected.”
Irish composer Emma O’Halloran is interested in joy, wonder, hope, and connection, and her music is driven by a desire to capture the magic of what it means to be human. Freely intertwining acoustic and electronic music, Emma has written for folk musicians, chamber ensembles, turntables, laptop orchestra, symphony orchestra, opera, and theatre. She's known for her unique ability to fuse elements of pop, rock, and electronic music while exploring the colours and textures of acoustic instruments.
Sequences (2000/2024)
Bruce A. Russell | b. 1968
“I composed Sequences at the start of a 20-year hiatus from the arts world, when I was composing in private and before any of my notated music had been played. I’d always hoped it would one day be performed, and it’s wonderful that it can have its own rebirth and reach listeners.”
The title refers to sequences both in the sense of a musical phrase that repeats with a variation in pitch each time (in this case, with a variation in rhythm as well), and in the sense of arrangements programmed electronically using a sequencer.
The piece is a study in diatonic rhythms (the different phases of a 7-stroke pattern in a 12-beat cycle) which are paired with harmonically diatonic melodic canons. With each change of chord root, the overall pattern changes once or more.
— Bruce A. Russell
Bon Temps (2019)
Joe W. Moore III | b. 1986
“Bon Temps was written for my good friend Gustavo Miranda and his students at Nicholls State University. The title Bon Temps comes from the Louisiana saying, "Laissez les bon temps rouler" or "Let the good times roll." NSU premiered this piece on their percussion ensemble the fall semester of 2018. I hope you have a good time learning and performing this piece!”
— Joe W. Moore III
Dr. Moore is active as a percussionist, educator, and composer. He has served on many music faculties and performs as a soloist and chamber musician as a member of the Omojo Percussion Duo, the Ninkasi Percussion Group, and Dead Resonance. His performances have included appearances at New Music on the Bayou, the Texas Music Educators Association Convention, the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. Dr. Moore's compositions have been performed and heard across the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia.
Evanescence (2023)
Austin Keck | b. 2000
Evanescence, for percussion quartet, is composed for the trio 3D percussion in collaboration with Austin Keck. The piece follows a narrative arc that is evanescent in nature, both in its form and musical motifs. The idea of music slowly disappearing and dissipating into nothing has always fascinated me, and it is the main inspiration for this piece. Another inspiration of mine is the idea that music evokes physical imagery, whether that be an abstract or something tangible. The ideas I present are developed only to be quickly faded out of the texture before moving on to the next idea. All of these motifs presented stem from a single idea that is manipulated and morphed into something new, almost unrecognizable from its original form. As you listen to the piece, my goal is that the audience is taken on an experience that is linear in form, but memorable for the emotion and feeling it evokes rather than the thematic or motivic material. In the end, there is a return of the opening but only to fade quickly into oblivion and be forgotten forever. My hope is that this music and quality of being fleeting or vanishing quickly is evocative and creates an image in the listener's head, whether it be the beauty of nature, or something more ethereal and other worldly.
— Austin Keck
recover (2020)
Aeryn Jade Santillan | b. 1990
Aeryn Jade Santillan is a composer, guitarist, and bassist whose work is heavily influenced by the DIY punk scene and actively aims to blur the lines between band/ensemble and song/composition.
Santillan’s recover was commissioned as part of the “Everybody Hits” Project by Adam Groh and a consortium of percussionists, including Dr. Stuart Gerber. This piece implements the use of shakers, flowerpots, melodica, tambourine, kalimba, floor tom, glass jars, glockenspiel, bubble wrap, and crumpled paper.
Shimmer (2022)
Kevin Shah | b. 1981
“Shine with a soft tremulous light”
Kevin Shah’s Shimmer, written for mallet quartet and digital audio, is described by the composer as “Shine with a soft tremulous light.” This piece was commissioned by Omar Carmenates and the Furman University Percussion Ensemble for their 2022 PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Convention) Percussion Ensemble performance. The composer gives a description of this piece, which is dedicated to his daughter.
Third Construction (1941)
John Cage | 1912-1992
Finally, we present John Cage’s Third Construction, an early classic in the percussion ensemble repertoire. As an early proponent of percussion music, Cage explored the vast array of sounds available to percussionists, as demonstrated by the wide variety of instruments used in this performance. This piece incorporates an arsenal of instruments from different world cultures: Chinese tom-toms and cymbals, a teponaxtle (log drum) and quijadas (the jawbone from a donkey) from Mexico, maracas from Venezuela, as well as instruments from the American tradition of “found” and homemade instruments, such as tin cans, lion’s roars (friction drums), homemade shakers, and a very memorable conch shell! The piece has a highly formal rhythmic structure—24 sections, each consisting of 24 measures, with each player following a unique numerical phrase structure in each section—yet it comes across as a groovy, rhythmic, and exciting composition.
Lauded as having “consummate virtuosity” by The New York Times, percussionist Stuart Gerber has performed extensively throughout the US, Europe, Australia, and Mexico as a soloist and chamber musician. He is Professor of Music at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
As an active performer of new works, Stuart has been involved in a number of world-premiere performances. He gave the world premiere of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s last solo percussion work Himmels-Tür in Italy, and his percussion trio Mittwoch-Formel at the annual Stockhausen-Courses in Kürten, Germany. He has also given the US and Australian premieres of Stockhausen’s duo version of Nasenflügeltanz for percussion and synthesizer, and the US premiere of his solo percussion work Komet. Dr. Gerber was the faculty percussionist for the Stockhausen-Courses from 2005-2010 and has recorded a number of pieces for the Stockhausen Complete Edition released by the Stockhausen-Verlag.
In addition to his work with Stockhausen, Stuart has worked with many other notable composers, such as George Lewis, Vinko Globokar, Kaija Saariaho, Steve Reich, Tristan Murail, Frederic Rzewski, George Crumb, Tania Lèon, Michael Colgrass, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and John Luther Adams.
Recent engagements include: The Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video, and Music Festival, the Montreal New Music Festival, Electronic Music Malta Festival, The Eduardo MATA Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico, the KLANG Festival at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico, the Now Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, the Chihuahua International Music Festival in Mexico, the Gulbenkian Center in Lisbon, Portugal, the South Bank Centre in London, the Ultraschall Festival in Berlin, Germany, the Melbourne Recital Centre, Australia, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, as well as, a performance with Stewart Copeland (the legendary drummer for The Police) at the Savannah Music Festival in Georgia.
Stuart has extensive recording experience and can be heard on Cantaloupe Records, Oberlin Records, Albany Records, Centaur Records, Innova Records, Urtext Digital Classics, Aucourant Records, Bridge Records, Capstone Records, Telarc, Code Blue Records, Mode Records, Wesleyan University Press, the Stockhausen-Verlag, and Vienna Modern Masters.
As a pedagogue Dr. Gerber has recently presented a lecture-recital at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) as well as papers at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and Hawaii International Conference on Arts and Humanities in Honolulu. He has given numerous master classes at conservatories and universities around the US and abroad. Recent master classes include: the Curtis Institute, the New England Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, Arizona State University, the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, the University of Montreal, the Tallin (Estonia) Conservatory of Music, the Southbank Centre (London), and the Sydney Conservatory and the Victoria College of Arts in Australia.
Stuart is a founding member of the Atlanta-based new music group Bent Frequency, performs internationally as one half of the synthesizer-percussion duo Poèmes Électroniques, and is regularly heard as extra percussionist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Gerber received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied with Michael Rosen and a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). His teachers at CCM were Allen Otte, Russell Burge, and James Culley of the Percussion Group Cincinnati. He has also done advanced studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover, Germany, with Professor Andreas Boettger.
Dr. Kellen King is currently an Artist Affiliate at Georgia State University and Reinhardt University. Prior to his appointments at GSU and RU, he was Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at Western Oregon University. Kellen has most recently been published in the August 2022 Edition of Percussive Notes and has presented at OMEA in 2021 and 2022 in addition to performing at PASIC, TMEA, and MMC. He is currently a member of the Percussive Arts Society Music Technology Committee and has previously served as the Oregon PAS Chapter Secretary. Kellen is an avid educator, researcher, and well-versed performer in classical and contemporary percussion, having spent most of career focusing on solo, chamber, and electroacoustic music. As an educator, Kellen has previously instructed at Western Oregon University, Mercer University, The University of Texas at Austin, Ithaca College, and Cornell University.
Kellen has taught and arranged music at an array of music organizations across the United States; teaching elite competitive marching band, applied lessons, steel pan ensembles, jazz ensembles, masterclasses, and chamber music. During his education, Kellen studied with Dr. Thomas Burritt, Gordon Stout, Judy Moonert, Tony Edwards, Conrad Alexander, and Greg Evans.
Kellen earned his degrees from Western Michigan University (B.M. Music Education and Music Performance), Ithaca College (M.M. Percussion Performance), and The University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A. Percussion Performance).
Kellen is an artist and clinician for Innovative Percussion, Black Swamp Percussion, Zildjian Cymbals, and Remo Drumheads.