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new music percussion

my percussion debut

IMG_7122.JPG | Originally uploaded by nobleviola
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I’m playing with the Third Angle New Music Ensemble next week, in a concert centered around the music of New York ‘downtown’ composer David Lang, who is a member of the illustrious new music group Bang on a Can, and a member of the composition faculty at Yale.

I’m playing middle and high brake drum, triangle, and glockenspiel. It’s humbling to play percussion (and 3A artistic director Ron Blessinger kept rubbing it in by stating that “you can’t un-ring the bell”) – as the one true percussionist in evidence, Gordon Rencher, kept saying “it’s hard to play an instrument that you can’t touch”. So true, and my respect for the oft-maligned percussionist has grown 1000 percent since rehearsal this morning!

The decidedly alien view that greeted me at my percussion "station".
Ron Blessinger (R) watches as Janet Coleman, Hamilton Cheifetz, Gordon Rencher, and Todd Kuhns rehearse.
3A's stalwart leader, Ron Blessinger, addresses the troops.

2 replies on “my percussion debut”

Cheating, lying, stealing all sound great — I’ll be there 🙂 Nice that there’s going to be at least three musicians I know, Mr. Cheifetz, Mr. Ewer and Mr. Noble.

The following evening is the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields at the Reed College, but there’s not going to be one that I know 😉

try “bowing” the brake drums with a chain saw.

i learned that trick from the einsturzende neubauten guide to anarchestration.

even xenakis would perk up a dead ear at that.

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