Exploring American Life and Connection in Let's Talk: A New Song Cycle by Gabriel Kahane and Sandbox Percussion
The increasing omnipresence of technology in modern society has vacuumed a great of human interaction from our lives. We pre-order our coffee with a tap of our index finger, buy jeans from our laptop, and spend more time streaming the latest Netflix hit rather than going out to see theater or hear music. But at least for now, humans still do most of the driving, which means that taxis and ride shares offer the possibility of conversation with strangers.
In a new collaboration between singer-songwriter/composer Gabriel Kahane and Sandbox Percussion, Let’s Talk uses conversations between cab/Lyft/Uber drivers and the five performers as the basis for a new song cycle, which explores the texture of American life, its cultural rifts, its shifting economy, and the possibility of finding connection across difference.
Concert Program
On the first half, Sandbox Percussion offers conversation in a more abstract mode: transcriptions of fugues and canons by J.S. Bach, Shostakovich, John Cage, and Conlon Nancarrow, interspersed with contemporary works for percussion quartet written by Chris Cerrone, inti figgis-vizueta, and Missy Mazzoli. Program to include new commission titled "Let's Talk!"
Tour Dates
February 19-23, 2025 + general availability in 25-26 season
Described as “exhilarating” (The New York Times) and “utterly mesmerizing” (The Guardian), GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion is dedicated to artistry in contemporary chamber music. The ensemble was brought together in 2011 by a love of chamber music and the simple joy of playing together; today, Sandbox Percussion captivates worldwide audiences with visually and aurally stunning performances.
Sandbox Percussion is the newest addition to my musical community. We’ve admired each other from afar for a while, and they have a particular—and, to me, appealing—interest in moving the percussion quartet beyond the spectacle of highly “gridded” music. I recently spent a day with them in Portland, Oregon, when they were in town to perform Andy Akiho’s brilliant Seven Pillars. (It was a spellbinding performance!) As we sat in my backyard brainstorming for this project, I was struck by the gentleness of their spirits, and how thoughtful they are when it comes to the possibilities of the percussion quartet as a vehicle for expression. It is no secret that much of the percussion repertoire emphasizes the “vertical”: music on a grid, highly and often virtuosically coordinated, yet sometimes reduced to something of a spectacle. (“Look how fast they’re playing!”) It’s precisely this paradigm that Sandbox hopes to escape. To that end, we’ve talked about leaning into a more flexible sense of pulse, as well as a rich, chromatic harmonic palette. As with Teeth, I hope that this collaboration will interrogate the traditional relationship between composer and performer(s), blurring the lines between text and interpretation.
—Gabriel Kahane, August 2022
Contact Us
We invite you to contact us now about finding a date to bring Let's Talk to your series in the 2025/26 season.