Sō Percussion, Princeton’s Edward T. Cone Performers-in-Residence, invite student musicians to participate in two large works by Julius Eastman: Stay on It and Gay Guerrilla. These sprawling and electrifying works of 1970s minimalism involve groove, improvisation, and creative decision making.
Join Sō and Shaw at the Kennedy Center for a performances of new works by Angélica Negrón, and Caroline Shaw as well as Julia Wolfe’s Forbidden Love (co-commissioned by the Kennedy Center)!!
Join Sō and Caroline Shaw in a concert in the newly renovated Hill Hall at UNC Chapel Hill in North Carolina. So will perform new works by Nathalie Joachim and Angélica Negrón as well as Caroline Shaw and Eric Cha-Beach!
Join Sō and Caroline Shaw for a night of Caroline Shaw’s percussion works! The program includes taxidermy, Narrow Sea, and Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part.
Grammy Award-winning composer Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion bring their captivating artistry to 92NY in their only NYC appearance together this season.
Join So Percussion in their residency at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia as they showcase new works by Nathatlie Joachim and Angélica Negrón as well as works by Eric and Jason!
There will also be a free masterclass with Old Dominion Students on Feb. 7th at 12:30pm in the Chandler Recital Hall, Diehn Center. https://oduartstix.universitytickets.com/w/event.aspx?id=2835&p=1
ONEPPO CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES – This group of YSM alums “has helped to ignite an explosive new enthusiasm for percussion music old and new” (The New York Times).
The adventurous percussion group Sō Percussion is joined by groundbreaking beatboxer Dominic “Shodekeh” Talifero.
Our newest Brooklyn Bound features Sō w/Michael Love, Brian Ellis and the Brooklyn Motion Capture Dance Ensemble, and Paul Pinto!
The adventurous percussion group Sō Percussion is joined by groundbreaking beatboxer Dominic “Shodekeh” Talifero.
Sō Percussion, Pan in Motion, and WIADCA present Brooklyn Steel!! Join Pan Evolution Steel Orchestra, Pan in Motion Steel Orchestra, Kendall K Williams, and Sō Percussion for an evening of steel and percussion at the Major R. Owens Health and Wellness Community Center in Brooklyn (1516 Bedford Ave).
$10 suggested donation
There will be food and drinks, Tyler Cohen, a discussion with Dr. Dawn Batson and more!
Join us for our first Sō Labs!! Hosted in the same space as Brooklyn Bound we are introducing a new series of artists and collaborations at 20 Grand.
Our first performance will include Noise Catalogue, Jemina Brechoir, and Gabriel Garcia!!
$10 suggested donation at the door! $5 drinks!
Pulitzer Prize-winner Caroline Shaw joins Sō Percussion as vocalist for ten songs she co-composed with the quartet members.
The brilliant multi-genre quartet, Sō Percussion, joins forces with two preeminent collaborators to present a mesmerizing evening of new music.
Sō Percussion performs with Vân-Ánh Võ; and Nathalie Joachim‘s Note to Self at BRIC House’s ballroom as part of Bang On A Can’s 2023 Long Play Festival.
A fearless musical explorer, Vân-Ánh Võ is an award-winning performer of the 16-string đàn tranh (zither) In addition to her mastery of the đàn tranh, she also uses the monochord (đàn bầu), bamboo xylophone (đàn t’rung), traditional drums (trống) and many other instruments to create music that blends the wonderfully unique sounds of Vietnamese instruments with other genres, and fuses deeply rooted Vietnamese musical traditions with fresh new structures and compositions.
Sō joins forces with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw as guest vocalist, in a luminous new set of 10 songs Shaw co-composed with the members of the quartet. Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, an exploration of soil cultivation as a metaphor for creativity and collaboration, exploits Shaw’s remarkable ear for melody and harmony and Sō’s playful sense of rhythmic invention. The artists draw inspiration from James Joyce, ABBA, American roots music, plainchant, Christian hymns, and stories from the Old Testament. “Whether inverting an old song or sculpting a whirlwind from dust, Shaw’s work highlights the divine in the ordinary” (Pitchfork).
This solstice addition of So Labs will feature an eclectic group of some of Brooklyn’s amazing improvisational voices. Shara Lunon weaves together her crafts as a poet, vocalist, composer, and improviser, to find the “ethereal in the chaotic”. Two inimitable musicians in the world of contemporary music, saxophonist Angela Morris and cellist Lester St. Louis, will meet for sonic exploration. And a quintet led by Sō intern Aaron Edgcomb and featuring Alfredo Colon, Noah Becker, Max Light, and Carmen Rothwell will present new compositions.
$10 suggested donation at the door! $5 drinks!
Sō Percussion performs the opening concert of the 2023 Sō Summer Institute!
*All SōSI performances are free and open to the public.
Sō Percussion performs the opening concert of the 2023 Sō Summer Institute!
*All SōSI performances are free and open to the public.
PROGRAM:
A Better Genome by Jason Treuiting & Michael Love
Performed by Sō Percussion & Michael Love
Rolling Meditation by Pauline Oliveros
intermission
Torque by Vijay Iyer
Panorama for Mallet Quartet by Kendall K. Williams
Join us for the All Abilities Music Creation Project at SōSI 2023!
Featuring performances by young people written especially for them. Courtesy of Legacy Arts International and their unique programming, led by Christina Altamura. Learn all about L.A.I. here.
* This event is free and open to the public.
The 2023 SōSI composers present small scale compositions!
*All SōSI performances are free and open to the public
This performance highlights the brilliant composers of Princeton University as part of the 2023 Sō Summer Institute!
* All SōSI performances are free and open to the public.
Join us for an evening of world premieres by SōSI 2023 composer fellows!
* All performances are free and open to the public.
Join us for the final day of SōSI 2023 as we present a day of sonic exploration!
Performances will be held at the following locations:
11 am Princeton Record Exchange
12 pm Princeton Public Library
1 pm Hinds Plaza (outside the public library)
2 pm Arts Walk
3:30 pm & 7 pm Lewis Center for the Arts
Big show at Princeton with a new work from Angélica Negrón, a preview of a new piece by Olivier Tarpaga and a guest-studded version of Jason Treuting’s Go Placidly With Haste. FREE!
We take a very special edition of Sō Laboratories to Manhattan this month! Join us at Ain Gordon’s Soho loft for a reading of Ain and Josh Quillen’s latest collaboration – featuring dramaturgy by Talvin Wilks and lighting design by Jennifer Tipton. “Relics and Their Humans” builds on the team’s last collaboration “Radicals In Miniature” which premiered at Baryshnikov Arts Center (NY Times Critic’s Pick). Where “Radicals…” tributed personal icons from Gordon’s youth on NY’s performance scene, “Relics…” frames a story from Quillen’s Ohio family: their 3-year odyssey following his father Jerry’s 2006 ALS diagnosis.
Three “relics” undergird this work. First, in 2019, Gordon & Quillen visited Quillen’s mom, Sue, recording an interview from her perspective as caretaker during Jerry’s illness. That transcript serves as foundational text with Ain voicing Sue and Josh voicing himself. Second, Sue offered up Jerry’s journal chronicling the arc of his disease in headlines: “feel better” only to reverse the next day with “limp, tired.” Third, Jerry made a 17-track playlist (sorry but you must see the work to learn why). The playlist is reimagined by Quillen and Gordon from song elements (a 3-note key progression or a foot stomped rhythm) – overlayed by text – or morphing into newly composed songs utilizing phrases from Jerry’s journal (“I’ve a little drag in my foot”). These elements are framed by Gordon’s recall of his first visit with Sue over dinner in Quillen’s childhood home – and the surprising extra person seated at that dining room table.
No Late Seating!
Previewing Olivier Tarpaga’s Fē Fē on Oct 1!We honestly CANNOT WAIT to share our latest with you, the new Sō collab with choreographer / composer / creator Olivier Tarpaga called Fē Fē.
In fact, we’ll be previewing the piece THIS SUNDAY at Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, so why not join us?
Djandjoba – “The Big Gathering”
Sunday, October 1, 4PM
Richardson Auditorium, Princeton University
Tickets $15 General | $5 Student
Djandjoba is the final performance of the Timbuktu Grooves Festival (Sept 29-Oct 1) celebrating the vibrant sounds and rhythms of the African continent and its diaspora.
The concert will transports you spiritually to West Africa by the calming sound of the kora, the ancient 21-string African harp, in a duet performed by master griots Wassa Kouyate from Mali and Flatie Dembele from Burkina Faso. The program will also highlight contemporary African music played by yours truly and Dafra Kura Band, plus the Princeton University Afrobeat Ensemble.
So yes. Olivier’s Fē Fē is on the bill Sunday!
Clara Warnaar + The Click Track Experiment
w/ Special Guests: Pathos Trio
Plus Sō plays the music of Angélica Negrón
Thursday, October 26, 7:30PM
20 Grand Avenue #205
Brooklyn, NY 11205
$15 at the door suggested donation
Our experimental and personal music series, Sō Laboratories (formerly known as Brooklyn Bound!) continues this month with a performance by the brilliant percussionist/drummer/composer Clara Warnaar offering a new project, The Click Track Experiment – alongside the excellent Pathos Trio.
For 20 years and counting, Sō Percussion has redefined chamber music for the 21st century through an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam” (New Yorker). They are celebrated by audiences and presenters for a dazzling range of work: for live performances in which “telepathic powers of communication” (New York Times) bring to life the vibrant percussion repertoire; for an extravagant array of collaborations in classical music, pop, indie rock, contemporary dance, and theater; and for their work in education and community, creating pportunities and platforms for music and artists that explore the immense possibility of art in our time.
Members:
Eric Cha-Beach
Josh Quillen
Adam Sliwinski
Jason Treuting
Program:
Eric Cha-Beach – 4+9
Angélica Negrón – Inward Pieces
Olivier Tarpage – Fēfē, Bush Taxi, Tarpaga’s four in three
Bryce Dessner – Music for Wood and Strings
Saturday. October 28, 7:00 pm
Brattleboro Music Center
Tickets:
General Admission: $30
The perpetually groundbreaking Kronos Quartet welcomes a once-in-a-lifetime lineup of guest artists and ensembles, including Sō Percussion, to celebrate its 50th anniversary. This special concert includes a short film by award-winning documentarian Sam Green; the New York premieres of Carnegie Hall co-commissioned works by Michael Gordon and Gabriella Smith; and an extraordinary new “Sunrise Jam” version of Terry Riley’s Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector for 50 musicians.
Bard Percussion: Sō Laboratories
Friday, November 17th, 7:00PM
20 Grand Avenue #205
Brooklyn, NY 11205
$15 at the door suggested donation
Our experimental and personal music series, Sō Laboratories (formerly known as Brooklyn Bound!) continues this month with a performance by the brilliant Bard Percussionists. They will feature works by Victor Caccese, Dániel Matei, Steven Snowden, Juri Seo, and Shodekeh Talifero.
vv – Suri Jeo 12’
Bell Patterns – Victor Caccesse 5’
Vodalities – Shodekeh Talifero 15’
A Man With a Gun Lives Here – Steven Snowden 11’
There are two ways to escape suffering it…the second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension. – Daniel Matei 11
A group of today’s most rhythmically dazzling composers show that anything is possible in the hands of Sō Percussion—an ensemble that has “set the New York standard for percussion innovation” (The New Yorker). Hear New York premieres by MacArthur Genius and renowned jazz pianist Vijay Iyer; award-winning choreographer and percussionist Olivier Tarpaga, who will perform alongside the group; and the boldly imaginative multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón. The program also includes an original and evolving work by founding member Jason Treuting.
We are thrilled to travel to West Africa with Olivier Tarpaga, to play this piece, and to learn from master musicians at the In-Out Dance Festival in Bobo-Dioulasso, Le festival CONNEXION in Benin, and the Dialogue de Corps Festival in Ouagadougou.
This trip is made possible by the support of the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation’s United States Artists grant.
Sō Laboratories: Bergamot String Quartet w/Jake Harpster and Steven White
Sunday, December 17th, 7:00PM
20 Grand Avenue #205
$15 at the door suggested donation
Our experimental and personal music series, Sō Laboratories (formerly known as Brooklyn Bound!) continues this month with a performance by the brilliant Bergamot String Quartet!! The group will be joined by ace percussionists Jake Harpster and Steven White and the program is OUTSTANDING!
Jane Meenaghan – Somatic
Robert Honstein – Continuous Interior
Max Vinetz – lucite dreams
