So Percussion is an American percussion quartet based in New York City.

Composed of Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Eric Beach, the group is well known for recording and touring internationally and for its work with composers such as Steve Reich

Steve Reich

Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

, David Lang

David Lang (composer)

David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...

, Paul Lansky

Paul Lansky

Paul Lansky is an American electronic-music or computer-music composer who has been producing works from the 1970s up to the present day .-Biography:...

, Martin Bresnick

Martin Bresnick

Martin Bresnick is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music.-Education and early career:Bresnick was born and raised in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and Art. He was educated at the University of Hartford ,...

, Steven Mackey

Steven Mackey

Steven Mackey is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator.-Life:As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions are informed by rock and jazz, though in an avant-garde vein...

, Fred Frith

Fred Frith

Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...

, Dan Trueman

Dan Trueman

Dan Trueman is a composer, improviser, new instrument creator and software designer. He plays the violin and the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. Trueman studied physics at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, composition and theory at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in...

, Evan Ziporyn

Evan Ziporyn

Evan Ziporyn is an American composer of post-minimalist music and music for Balinese gamelans. He plays the clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and metallophone, borrowing from classical music, avant-garde, and jazz...

, and Arvo Pärt

Arvo Pärt

Arvo Pärt is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from...

. Originally formed when the members were students of Robert van Sice

Robert van Sice

Robert van Sice is an American percussionist and marimba player. He has toured and recorded extensively, currently teaches at the Yale School of Music and the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and was recently invited to join the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music...

 at the Yale School of Music

Yale School of Music

The Yale School of Music is one of the twelve professional schools at Yale University and one of the premier music conservatories in the world....

, the group also continues to play works from the standard repertoire of percussion ensemble music—including works by composers such as John Cage

John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...

, George Crumb

George Crumb

George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...

, and Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis

Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...

. In addition to their work with composers, the members of So Percussion produce original music, including large scale evening-length works.

So Percussion frequently collaborates with other musicians and groups from around the world, including Dave Douglas

Dave Douglas (trumpeter)

Dave Douglas is an American jazz trumpeter and composer whose music derives from many non-jazz musical styles, including classical music, folk music from European countries and Klezmer. He has been a member of the experimental big band Orange Then Blue...

, Matmos

Matmos

Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore signed to the Matador Records label. M. C. Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their performances, including...

, Kneebody, Dan Deacon

Dan Deacon

Dan Deacon is an American composer and electronic musician based out of Baltimore, Maryland. Since 2003, Deacon has released eight albums under several different labels...

, The Dirty Projectors, Glenn Kotche

Glenn Kotche

Glenn Kotche is an American drummer and composer, best known for his involvement in the band Wilco. He was named the 41st greatest drummer of all time by Gigwise in 2008.Prior to working with Wilco, Kotche released a four-track album...

, Bobby Previte

Bobby Previte

Robert "Bobby" Previte is a drummer, composer and bandleader. Previte earned a B.A. in Economics at the University at Buffalo, where he also studied percussion. He moved to New York City in 1979, and became active in the city's thriving jazz and experimental music scenes...

, Project Jenny, Project Jan

Project Jenny, Project Jan

Project Jenny, Project Jan is a laptop rock band from Brooklyn, New York. The band consists of singer Jeremy Haines and programmer/keyboardist Sammy Rubin. Formed in late 2004/early 2005, they have released an EP called EP in 2005 and an album, XOXOXOXOXO in 2007...

, Trollstilt, and The Princeton Laptop Orchestra

PLOrk

The Princeton Laptop Orchestra is a Princeton University ensemble of computer based meta-instruments. It is the first ensemble of its kind in the history of computer music, both in scale and in approach.-Background:...

. The group is also well known for its use of unusual and exotic instruments in performance and on recordings, including glockenspiel

Glockenspiel

A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...

, bowed marimba

Marimba

The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...

, aluminum pipes and an amplified cactus

Amplified cactus

An amplified cactus is a cactus plant used as a musical instrument. It harnesses the acoustic properties of a cactus , by applying contact microphones and amplifying their projection and tone. The effect is somewhat ethereal, making it a suitable genre over which modern dance might be choreographed...

.

So Percussion records for Bang on a Can

Bang on a Can

Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon...

 record label Cantaloupe Music

Cantaloupe Music

Cantaloupe Music is a record label founded in March 2001 created by the three founders of New York's legendary Bang on a Can Festival: Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, and Bang on a Can Managing Director Kenny Savelson. Cantaloupe Music has made a massive impact in the new music...

 and is represented by Alliance Artist Management. The group endorses Zildjian, Vic Firth

Vic Firth

Vic Firth is an American musician and is the founder of Vic Firth Company , a percussion stick and mallet manufacturing company that he started in 1963. The company bills itself as the world's largest manufacturer of drum sticks and mallets...

, Remo

Remo

Remo is a male given name of Latin origin - see Romulus and Remus.Remo may also refer to:* Remo, an American drum skin company* Remo , another name for the German wine grape Riesling* Remo language, a Panoan language of Brazil and Peru...

 and Pearl

Pearl Drums

Founded in 1952, the is a multinational corporation based in Japan with a wide range of products, predominately percussion instruments.-History:Pearl was founded by Katsumi Yanagisawa, who began manufacturing music stands in Sumida, Tokyo on April 2, 1946...

/Adams

Adams Musical Instruments

Adams Musical Instruments is a manufacturer of percussion instruments based in the Netherlands. The company was founded by amateur musician André Adams, who started repairing brass instruments in 1971...

.

Discography

Sō Percussion (2004)

Steve Reich: Drumming (2005)

Amid the Noise (2006) *CD/DVD

Five (and-a-half) Gardens — with Trollstilt (2007)

Treasure State — with Matmos (2010)

Paul Lansky: Threads (2011)

Steve Reich: WTC 9/11 - Mallet Quartet Recording (2011) *CD/DVD

Steve Mackey: It Is Time (2011) *CD/DVD

Martin Bresnick: Caprichos Enfaticos with Lisa Moore, piano (2011)

Bad Mango with Dave Douglas, trumpet (2011)

David Lang: The Woodmans - Music From the Film (2011)

Princeton University

So Percussion has been involved with Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 in a number of ways. Most recently, the members of So Percussion were named Edward T. Cone

Edward T. Cone

Edward Toner Cone was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, and philanthropist.Cone studied composition under Roger Sessions at Princeton University, receiving his bachelor's in 1939...

 ensemble-in-residence for the 2011-2012 school year. The group has commissioned and recorded major works from Princeton composition faculty Steve Mackey

Steve Mackey

Steve Mackey is a British musician and record producer best known for playing bass guitar in the band Pulp. He also played bass for Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker in the latter's solo career, and worked as a songwriter and producer with artists such as M.I.A...

, Paul Lansky

Paul Lansky

Paul Lansky is an American electronic-music or computer-music composer who has been producing works from the 1970s up to the present day .-Biography:...

, and Dan Trueman

Dan Trueman

Dan Trueman is a composer, improviser, new instrument creator and software designer. He plays the violin and the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. Trueman studied physics at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, composition and theory at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in...

, as well as collaborating many times with the Princeton Composer's Ensemble and Princeton Laptop Orchestra.

So Percussion Summer Institute

The annual So Percussion Summer Institute (SoSI), founded in 2009, also takes place on Princeton's campus. The program features teaching and performing with the members of So Percussion and with Princeton faculty and student composers. Each year includes a number of concerts on Princeton's campus, in New York, outdoors in downtown Princeton, and in Small World coffee shop.

Bard College Conservatory

In 2010, the four members of So Percussion were appointed as codirectors of a new percussion department at the Bard College Conservatory of Music

Bard College Conservatory of Music

The Bard College Conservatory of Music is a program of Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Founded in 2005, the program is unique among music conservatories in the United States in that all undergraduate students are required to participate in a five-year dual-degree program, in which...

. The first students were admitted into this five-year, double-degree undergraduate program in August, 2011. Additional guest faculty for the program include Jan Williams, Garry Kvistad

Nexus (percussion ensemble)

Nexus is a Toronto-based percussion ensemble that performs jazz, world music, and western avantgarde music.The ensemble is made up of percussionists Bob Becker , Bill Cahn , Robin Engelman, Russell Hartenberger, John Wyre, and Garry Kvistad. Founding member Michael Craden died of liver cancer in 1982...

, Tzong-Chin Ju, Greg Zuber, Daniel Druckman, and Jonathan Haas.

Original Music

Amid the Noise

A series of short pieces written by group member Jason Treuting, Amid the Noise was the first project of original music created and recorded by members of So Percussion. The project also features videos created by video artist Jenise Treuting, which were included in the CD/DVD release of 2006.

Music for Trains

In 2008 So Percussion developed the Music for Trains project in southern Vermont

Vermont

Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...

. The month-long residency project centered around performances in and around the towns of Brattleboro and Bellows Falls, including concerts in the train stations of those two towns, pre-recorded mp3 players listened to on the trains, and materials gathered from the local community. The project also included original video created by Jenise Treuting and an on-stage sculpture created by local artist Ahren Ahrenholz.

Imaginary City

In 2009 So Percussion wrote and produced an evening-length production called Imaginary City. Inspired by the Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino

Italo Calvino was an Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels. His best known works include the Our Ancestors trilogy , the Cosmicomics collection of short stories , and the novels Invisible Cities and If on a winter's night a traveler .Lionised in Britain and the United States,...

 novel Invisible Cities

Invisible Cities

Invisible Cities is a novel by Italian writer Italo Calvino. It was published in Italy in 1972 by Giulio Einaudi Editore.-Description:The book explores imagination and the imaginable through the descriptions of cities by an explorer, Marco Polo...

, the project used as inspiration the six cities that are home to the presenters that commissioned it: The Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

 in Brooklyn, NY; The Myrna Loy Center in Helena, MT; The Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, OH; The Flynn Center in Burlington, VT; Diverseworks Art Space in Houston, TX; and The Newman Center in Denver, CO. The project again included original video created by Jenise Treuting as well as theatrical direction by Rinde Eckert.
Martin Kersels: 5 Songs

In 2010 the Whitney Museum commissioned the members of So Percussion to write new original music for performance in connection with Martin Kersels

Martin Kersels

Martin Kersels is an American contemporary artist born in 1960 in Los Angeles. Who focuses his shows on sculpture, while also incorporating photography and video. He now lives and works in Sierra Madre, CA...

' sculpture project for the Whitney Biennial: 5 Songs.

Q2

In 2010 the members of So Percussion composed and recorded the station-identifying "stings" for the internet radio station Q2, operated by WQXR

WQXR-FM

WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...

.

Shen Wei - Undivided/Divided

The members of So Percussion are composing the music for a new work with choreographer Shen Wei

Shen Wei

Shen Wei is a Chinese choreographer and dancer. He lives and works in New York City and is director of the modern dance company Shen Wei Dance Arts...

 to be premiered at the Park Avenue Armory

Seventh Regiment Armory

The Seventh Regiment Armory, located at 643 Park Avenue also known as in New York, New York, United States, is an historic brick building that fills an entire city block on New York's Upper East Side.- History :...

 in November, 2011.

shhh Productions

In 2007, the members of So Percussion launched the record label shhh Productions in order to pursue projects outside the scope of their normal recording work with Cantaloupe Music. A CD/DVD of Dan Trueman's 5.5 Gardens, recorded by So Percussion and Trollstilt and including video art from Judy Trueman, was the first project released on the new label. In 2008, shhh Productions formed a distribution partnership with New Amsterdam Records

New Amsterdam Records

New Amsterdam Records is a New York City based record label. It was formed in 2008 by Judd Greenstein, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and William Brittelle to promote classically-trained musicians who fall in between traditional genre boundaries. Often abbreviated as NewAm, the organization has been hailed...

.

Awards

American Music Center Trailblazer Award - 2011

Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming - 2004, 2006, 2010

ASCAP John Cage Award - 2009

International Percussion Competition Luxembourg 2nd Place - 2005

Selected Works Commissioned

Dennis DeSantis: Shifty (2000)

David Lang: the so-called laws of nature (2002)

Paul Lansky: Threads (2006)

Martin Bresnick: Caprichos Enfaticos (2007)

Steve Mackey: It Is Time (2010)

Dan Trueman: neither anvil nor pulley (2010)

Steve Reich: Mallet Quartet (2010)

Bobby Previte: Terminals (2011)

Dan Deacon: Ghostbuster Cook: The Origin of the Riddler (2011)

Glenn Kotche: Drumkit Quartets (2011)

External links

• SoPercussion.com
• Cantaloupe Records Artist Page
• Facebook Page
• Myspace Page
• Vic Firth Artist Page
• New Amsterdam Artist Page
• Alliance Artist Management Artist Page
• shhh Productions
• Zildjian Artist Page
• So Percussion Blip TV Channel
• So Percussion videos on YouTube
• So Percussion video of Steve Reich's Drumming Part 1 at the Peabody Conservatory for Aural States (Sept 2009)