THE HUDSON VALLEY CHAMBER MUSIC CIRCLE PRESENTS “PERCUSSION PLUS!,” A CONCERT BY THE SO PERCUSSION GROUP WITH CLARINETIST SARA PHILLIPS, ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, AT BARD COLLEGE

Concert is free to students, their parents and teachers and will feature drums, cowbells, chimes, wooden slats, tom-toms, and castanets!

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—So, in Japanese, means “to play,” and on Friday, November 14, the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle (HVCMC) presents the So Percussion Group in a lively, loud, and lilting concert at Bard College titled “Percussion Plus!” The program, sponsored by The Bard Center, will begin at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. Free to students, their parents and teachers; general admission is $10 for others.

The centerpiece of “Percussion Plus!” will be a piece newly commissioned by the HVCMC, composed by Bard graduate Chandler Litterst ’02 and performed by clarinetist Sara Phillips, herself a 1999 Bard graduate. She will be joined by Adam Sliwinski on the marimba. Phillips will also play Bard professor Joan Tower’s solo clarinet work, “Wings.” Other pieces on the program include Dennis Desantis’s “Shifty,” a six-minute rock-and-roll chamber music piece; John Cage’s “3rd Construction,” an 11-minute piece written in the early 1940s, the oldest in the So repertoire; and the second movement of David Lang’s quartet, “The So-Called Laws of Nature,” a piece for an array of diverse instruments, including pipes, walnut planks, and over-turned flower pots.

“Percussion Plus!” begins a new chapter for the Hudson Valley Chamber Music Circle, which was founded more than 50 years ago by a small group of Hudson Valley residents who wished to listen to music in the drawing rooms of their riverfront homes. According to Larry Osgood, president of the HVCMC board of directors: “This is a concert that will please, surprise, and perhaps even astound both new and regular audiences. We will be presenting special programs in area schools before the concert and hope that students will attend.”

The So Percussion Group was founded in 1999 by Todd Meehan, Timothy Feeney, Douglas Perkins, and Jason Treuting and is known for its exciting performances of new percussion music. The Yale Daily News wrote that the group “can always be counted on to astound” and the New York Times called them “endlessly interesting.” The group has been featured at the Bang on a Can Marathon, BAM Next Wave Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Miller Theatre, and Roundtop Festival, and has been heard on WNYC's New Sounds and Soundcheck. So’s work with student composers and musicians has led to residencies at the University of Texas at Austin, Williams College, King's College, and performances with the Harvard Group for New Music and Columbia Composers. So Percussion’s aim is to combine the thrill and physicality of percussion playing with the sophistication and intimacy of classical chamber music.

This concert is made possible in part with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and through the generosity of the Homeland Foundation and the Leon Levy Foundation at Bard College. Admission is free to students, their parents and teachers; $10 general admission for others. For further information, call 518-537-3504 or e-mail [email protected].

A performance by the Da Capo Chamber Players, free and open to the public, highlights another upcoming music program presented by The Bard Center on Wednesday, November 19, at 8:00 p.m., in Olin Hall.

This event was last updated on 11-18-2003

Back to Top