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The Yale Percussion Group, hailed as “truly extraordinary” by composer Steve Reich, brings high-energy works by Reich and David Lang to the Galapagos stage.

The dynamic ensemble will present the so-called laws of nature, a monumentally virtuosic percussion quartet by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang. Written for So Percussion in 2002, this piece explores explore the limits of the scientific method through varied forms of fractured repetition, and features instruments built by the percussionists specifically for the piece. These instruments range from tuned metal pipes and planks of wood to teacups and flowerpots. Fresh from their performance of Steve Reich’s Sextet in Zankel Hall last December, the ensemble will also perform Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood, a polyrhythmic tour-de-force of sound.

Founded in 1997 by Robert van Sice, the Yale Percussion Group is composed of talented and dedicated young artists who have come from around the world for graduate study at the Yale School of Music. The YPG earned acclaim for its performances at Make Music New York’s Xenakis festival in Central Park last summer and two appearances last year in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Members of the YPG have gone on to form the acclaimed quartet So Percussion and to perform with Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two, the Carnegie Hall Academy Ensemble and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Yale percussion students and graduates have recently won the Linz International Marimba Competition in Austria and the Concert Artist Guild Competition.

The current members of the Yale Percussion Group are Yun-Chu Chiu, Michael Compitello, John Corkill, Leonardo Gorosito, Ian Rosenbaum and Adam Rosenblatt. This concert is part of the 2010-11 Yale in New York concert series, presented by the Yale School of Music.

$15 General Admission | $10 Student Admission w/ ID

Tickets and more information here.

Moving Painting/Live Piano

NEW MUSIC NORTHWESTERN PRESENTS
STEVE REICH 70th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION OCTOBER 3

New Music Northwestern presents A Steve Reich 70th Birthday Celebration, comprising three events that will take place on October 3 at Northwestern’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive on the Evanston Campus,
beginning at 6:45 p.m.  The celebration offers an overview of the entire span of Reich’s compositional career and includes a pre-concert lecture by Reich specialist DJ Hoek, a sampling of Reich’s electronic pieces, and a concert focusing on his seminal and innovative minimalist works of the late
‘60s and early ‘70s. The event is curated by Aaron Cassidy, Co-Director of New Music Northwestern and a member of Northwestern’s composition faculty, and features Northwestern’s Contemporary Music Ensemble and School of Music alumni, all under conductor Ryan Nelson, assistant director of bands.

Tickets, priced at $6.50/4.50/3.50 (full price/seniors/students), are
available at the Pick-Staiger Box Office; by phone at (847) 491-5441; or
online at www.pickstaiger.com. Campus maps and driving directions can be found at www.northwestern.edu/visiting/maps/

D. J. Hoek, Head of the Northwestern University Music Library, is the author of the Steve Reich Bio-Bibliography (Greenwood Press).  In his lecture, he will address Reich’s life, work, and wide-ranging influence on young composers and musicians in the classical, rock, and experimental music
communities.

Following Hoek’s presentation, Reich’s electronic music will be featured in a mini-concert in the Pick-Staiger Hall Lobby, including a rare presentation of Pendulum Music (1968), performed by generating feedback from swinging
microphones suspended from the ceiling above several loudspeakers, and Come Out (1966), one of Reich’s earliest acknowledged works.

Closing the evening will be a concert devoted to notable examples of Reich’s “phasing” process pieces, Piano Phase (1967), Violin Phase (1967), and Clapping Music (1972), plus later works demonstrating his evolution as a composer away from the more rigorous and gradual processes of his earliest music, including Eight Lines (1983), New York Counterpoint (1985), and Nagoya Marimbas (1994).

A pioneer of musical minimalism, Reich is arguably America’s most influential living composer.  His use of static diatonic harmonies, significant repetition, colorful and percussive textures, and musical processes designed to be both gradual and easily perceptible were revolutionary responses to the predominately atonal, pointillist, rhythmically unstable, and structurally complex works in vogue among mid-century American composers.

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A STEVE REICH 70th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
October 3, 2006, at 6:45 p.m.
Pick-Staiger Concert Hall

6:45 pm Lecture by DJ Hoek, Head of the Northwestern Music Library and author of the Reich Bio-Bibliography, discussing the life, work, and influence of Steve Reich. Concert Hall

7:00 pm Mini-Concert featuring Reich’s early electronic music: Come Out
(1966) for tape and
       Pendulum Music (1968) for 3-5 microphones and loudspeakers.
Pick-Staiger Lobby

7:30 pm Celebration Concert
       NU Contemporary Music Ensemble
       Ryan Nelson, conductor
       David Yonan, violin

       Clapping Music (1972) for two musicians clapping, amplified
       Piano Phase (1967) for two pianos
       New York Counterpoint (1985) for amplified saxophone quartet & tape
(arr. by NU alumna, Susan Fancher)
       Violin Phase (1967) for violin and tape
       Nagoya Marimbas (1994) for 2 marimbas
       Eight Lines (1983) for amplified large ensemble