“Who Turns Out the Light”: Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion featuring Ringdown

Music from Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion’s Grammy-nominated album Rectangles and Circumstance, as well as their first album Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. 

“this performance’s quietly quirky stagecraft — conceived by Mark DeChiazza — made it as interesting to watch as to listen to. The troupe and their arsenal are the perfect companions for the bold genre-adventuring singer-composer-violinist Caroline Shaw…”

• The Times of London

Explore distinctive rhythms of breath art

Grammy winners Sō Percussion join forces with Shodekeh Talifero to explore distinctive rhythms with breath art, vocal percussion, beatboxing, and physical percussion in Vodalities, a collaboration dedicated to three towering vocalists: Bobby McFerrin, Ella Fitzgerald, and Doug E. Fresh, the Original Human Beatbox.

“We love making music with Sho’! Texas won’t know what hit ’em….”
Sō Percussion

From the venue:

Sō Percussion and Caroline Shaw’s latest collaboration is Rectangles and Circumstance, the “hypnotically beautiful” (BBC Radio 3) new album from Nonesuch Records. The current tour of the album is augmented by songs from their previous collaborative work Let the Soil Play its Simple Part as well as an interlude from Caroline’s cinematic pop duo Ringdown, featuring co-songwriter and partner Danni Lee, plus recent compositions for Sō by members Jason Treuting and Eric Cha-Beach. The evening-length performance is a band-generated theatrical experience, featuring staging and design by director Mark DeChiazza. The musicians gradually place lights and reveal novel instruments as the show builds from a lone spotlight on Shaw singing “I’ll Fly Away” to the ecstatic full ensemble performing thrilling up-tempo songs like “Sing On” and “To the Sky,” as films by Sō Percussion member Jason Treuting splash across canvases throughout the stage. This production melds DIY design with dazzling original songs, to sensational effect.

from the venue:

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). For their ArtPower debut, they are joined by Ringdown, an “ecstatically blissful” (Night After Night) and “irresistible” (Feast of Music) cinematic electro-pop duo featuring composer-musicians Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan. They create music that floats up from the dusty record bin between Brahms and Brandi Carlile, and centers around joy, human connection, and trying to inspire people to feel more love.

Dubbed a ‘visionary’ by the San Diego Troubadour, Gloria Yehilevsky is a London-based composer, percussionist, and researcher championing transdisciplinary and collaborative music.

Works by Nathalie Joachim, Pamela Madsen, Jason Treuting, Olivier Tarpaga and Pauline Oliveros.

Back to Jason’s alma mater for an exciting show in the middle of beautiful Rochester winter! Bring ear muffs…

“This ambitious suite from the saxophonist and composer Charlotte Greve contains guitar parts that might appeal to fans of jazz musician Nels Cline. And its choral writing should excite devotees of Roomful of Teeth. Yet it’s the effortless feel of Greve’s fusion that feels most notable — and capable of creating new audiences of its own.”

— New York Times, The 25 Best Classical Music Tracks of 2021

America’s percussion superstars return to the Gardner Museum for the first time in over a decade, joined by a coterie of friends to perform Eastman’s joyful minimalist anthem, Stay On It. Julia Wolfe’s contemplative Forbidden Love finds Sō performing on the instruments of a string quartet, but in novel ways: “everything you aren’t supposed to do to stringed instruments,” in the words of the composer.

Photo Credit: Anja Schutz

Works (In Order of Composition

Julius Eastman: Stay on It (1973)
Julia Wolfe: Forbidden Love (2019)

You cannot possibly describe how super-cool is this collective of Sōper Friends Tropos. They’ve got a new record and the improv chops of forty lumberjacks. Just a $10 donation – and the night is yours for the taking! I mean just look at these kool kats!

WHO TURNS OUT THE LIGHT
Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion
featuring Ringdown
Directed by Mark DeChiazza

7:30
Performance
BAM Fisher Stage

After
Cocktails, Canapés and Concert
BAM Fisher 4th Floor

Tickets:  $500*

From BAM:  Globally celebrated for peerless virtuosity and unbounded curiosity, Grammy-winning new-music powerhouse quartet Sō Percussion has thrilled BAM audiences alongside composer Steve Reich, and in their own genre-mashing triumphs Where (we) Live, Imaginary City, and A Gun Show. For this intimate eight-concert residency, the pulse is unstoppable as these hometown heroes weave together classical and pop music styles into something new, original, and inviting.

Week one brings Sō together with Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw to perform a staged work of selections from their two most recent acclaimed collaborations, Rectangles and Circumstance and Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part. The show also features Ringdown, Shaw brilliant art-pop duo with partner Dannie Lee. The evening-length show is called Who Turns Out the Light, a theatrical creation staged by visionary director and filmmaker Mark DeChiazza.

Then during week two, Sō welcomes genre-bursting innovators This Is the Kit (Kate Stables) and Helado Negro (Roberto Carlos Lange) for four evenings of unpredictable musical fusion. Look for reworked songs from each composer’s beloved catalog and brand-new collaborations bursting with sonic invention and rhythmic joy.

It’s not just a concert series—it’s a sonic revolution in eight acts.

Efraín Rozas is a Peruvian interdisciplinary artist, researcher and robotics maker. His work was described as “an incredible physical presence that transformed the stage into a soundscape” by The New York Times, “a heady confluence of technology, culture and cognition” by The New Yorker, and “a deep psychonautic dive” by Wire Magazine. He is a Jerome Artist Fellow 2023-2025 for combined arts. He was a resident at The Kitchen on 2021. He has performed at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Brooklyn Museum, Queens Museum, Museum of Contemporary art of Lima and Central Park Summerstage Fania Records 50th anniversary. His experimental salsa album Roza Cruz was named one of the best Latin American albums of the decade by Zona Sucia and Estereofonía.

Rozas will perform percussion interacting with a light/percussive robotic sculpture which generates rhythmic patterns in real time with algorithms created on Max MSP. Special guests Michael Liu, Karl Lee, James Hyun and Xiaopeng Ma who will perform 2 pieces by Rozas.

From Cenk:

– MAY 23: I am in a band with two of my favorite humans, JEFF SNYDER & JASON TREUTING. The band is called DEM and comprises Jeff & I on electronics, & Jason on drums. On this evening we will be celebrating our new album ABSOLUTELY. Each track on this album features a vocalist we admire. One of them, the inimitable CHARMAINE LEE will be joining us for a solo set, and for a special performance together with DEM.

You can check out the album here and please consider supporting it on this beautiful Bandcamp Friday.
The album release show is presented by SO LABORATORIES ~ 20 GRAND AVENUE #205 BROOKLYN NY 7:30 PM

Other Faces is a multimedia electroacoustic trio creating radiant, bold, and expansive work fusing visual and sonic textures. The trio, composed of Adam Lutz, Dan Langa, and Kristian de Leon, has built their collaboration on a process parallel to folk traditions of aural transmission and embracing the fusion of disparate subject matter or production techniques. Other Faces is currently a Sō Percussion Studio Residency Partner for 2024-2025.

Zachary Mezzo kicks things off! Gonna be a great night of experimental mad science.

from Caramoor:
WHO TURNS OUT THE LIGHT is a very special evening-length staged performance of some of the most dynamic, ecstatic, and just plain gorgeous music being made anywhere by anyone. Built around the current tour of their “hypnotically beautiful” (BBC Radio 3) new album Rectangles and Circumstance, this performance will be augmented by songs from their previous collaborative work Let the Soil Play its Simple Part, as well as an interlude from Caroline’s cinematic pop duo Ringdown. Recent compositions by Sō members round out this band-generated theatrical experience.

Includes songs from Rectangles and Circumstance (2024) and Let the Soil Play its Simple Part (2021)

by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion
Staging and Design by Mark DeChiazza

8:15pm / Post-concert conversation with the artists

We are thrilled to announce the 17th annual Sō Percussion Summer Institute, an all-out extravaganza with special guests Steve Reich, Caroline Shaw, Angélica Negrón, Ayano Kataoka and Clara Warnaar

Usually we’re too busy with SōSI to make it to the coolest new music festival of the summer. But in this, our 25th year, we had to get there! We’ll be performing four different shows, including Steve Reich’s landmark Drumming. Be there!

As the contemporary musical landscape continues to evolve and thrive, Princeton’s own Sō Percussion operates at the forefront of a diverse international movement to champion forward-thinking composers. On this concert, the Edward T. Cone performers-in-residence focus on the work of four visionary women who challenge the way we listen and experience sound. With world premieres of works written for Sō by Claire Rousay and Leilehua Lanzilotti, plus important pieces by trailblazers Pauline Oliveros and Pamela Z, Sō will explore various spaces in the Lewis Center for the Arts in a truly immersive concert experience.

Piektdien, 8. martā, Rīgā, kultūras telpā “Hanzas perons” ar savu līdz šim vienīgo kopkoncertu viesosies godalgotais perkusiju ansamblis ‘Sō Percussion’ un Pulicera balvas laureāte, dziedātāja Kerolaina Šo (Caroline Shaw) no Amerikas Savienotajām Valstīm.

Yes! A beautiful neo-classical concert hall in Germany’s most vibrant city. We’re stoked to be heading to Deutschland with our good friend Caroline Shaw and some classics from our repertoire. Can’t wait.

To DC with monster composer/performer and breath artist  Dominic “Shodekeh” Talifero for his piece “Vodalities: Paradigms of Consciousness for the Human Voice!” With amazing new music from composer Angélica Negrón, Nathalie Joachin, Eric Cha-Beach, Pauline Oliveros, and Jason Treuting.

Pre-concert Conversation with the Artists: 6:30 pm, Whittall Pavilion

Two of our favorite collaborators – Caroline Shaw and Shodekeh – join us onstage for a night of revelry and revelation. Here we come Blacksburg!!

NGU says: 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.

Presented in collaboration with Iowa Percussion at the University of Iowa School of Music 

Part of Hancher’s 51st season

Composer and vocalist Caroline Shaw returns for a second collaboration in this season after performing with the Attacca Quartet in September (a Shaw composition is also on the program for Roomful of Teeth‘s performance in November). This time, the collab is with the adventuresome Sō Percussion, a quartet that has truly redefined chamber music for the 21st century leading The New Yorker to describe the ensemble’s music-making as an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam.”

Together, Shaw and the quartet composed Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, a journey across the soul’s landscape undertaken through distinctly contemporary songs. The artists drew inspiration from sources as varied as James Joyce, ABBA, American roots music, plainchant, Christian hymns, and stories from the Old Testament to create a set of 10 songs that explore working in the soil as a metaphor for collaboration and creativity.

The concert will open with Go Placidly in Haste, a new work composed by Sō Percussion’s Jason Treuting that will be performed with Iowa Percussion from the University of Iowa School of Music.

For these performances, the audience will be seated on the Hadley Stage with the musicians to take in the full power and vibrancy of the music.

CONCERT: Sō Percussion
Sō Percussion
Wednesday, April 3, 2024 at 7pm
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center {120 College Street}
TICKETS – $15 General Admission / $10 BMCM+AC members + Students w/ID

Join Sō and Carolina Shaw for a rocking evening featuring a collective performance with Western Carolina students of Julius Eastman’s mesmerizing “Stay On It,” as well as selections from Caroline/Sō’s most recent album Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part and more recent compositions from its upcoming Nonesuch release titled Rectangles and Circumstance.

With music by Dan Trueman and Angélica Negron and Olivier Tarpaga and Ledah Finck, this is likely to be the classical “club date” of the Spring in NYC!

Join NYC experimentalists Erin Rogers (sax) and Dennis Sullivan (percussion) as they fill the Grand Ave loft with their wild inventions. They’re joined on this performance by Sō studio warlock Dani Matei and guitarist Luis MacDougal. Suggested donation just $10, and we’ll be selling beer, wine and seltzers to whet your whistle (whistles not included.)

From David Lang: “I have worked with So Percussion for a very long time now and I know them really well. When I got the opportunity to write a concerto for them I wanted to make it specifically for them, for the things that they have been concentrating on for the past few years. They are frequently theatrical, they invite found objects into their performances, they build their own instruments, etc. I wondered if I could make the unusualness of their musicality the centerpiece of this concerto, but how could an orchestra of ‘normal’ instruments doing mostly ‘normal’ things find common ground with them? My solution was to set up a kind of ecology between the soloists and the orchestra, using the orchestral percussionists as ‘translators.’ An idea begins with the soloists on an invented instrument, the percussionists in the orchestra hear the solo music and translate it into something that can be approximated by more traditional orchestral percussion, the rest of the orchestra hears and understands the orchestral percussion, and they join in. The opening, for example begins with the soloists snapping twigs, which the orchestral percussionists translate into woodblocks, marimba and xylophone, which the orchestra takes up and embellishes, eventually overwhelming the soloists. This process of finding something intricate and unique, decoding it, regularizing it, and mass producing it reminded me of how a lot of ideas in our world get invented, built and overwhelmed, so I decided to call it ‘man made.’”

Next Fri, April 26: SōSI director Alex Appel puts together a great evening with Kai Mara, Gamma Vibes and Peretsky!

Forbidden Love – all the things you aren’t supposed to do to string instruments. Julia Wolfe’s string quartet for four percussionists is a creative collaboration conceived by us and embraced by the ever-brilliant composer. Together, we share this beautiful, ethereal, and crunchy discoveries from this iconic quartet of instruments.

Blending toy piano, electronics, and multimedia into genre-fluid concerts, installations, and long-term residencies at colleges + cultural institutions, Chromic Duo cultivates spaces + partnerships that share their commitment to inclusivity, equity, and innovation. Oh, and the music is WAY cool!

Princeton University’s Edward T. Cone Performers-in-Residence, Sō Percussion, perform two concerts—each with a different program—over two consecutive nights featuring new works by Princeton University graduate student composers.

May14 Program

Francisco del Pino
Tattarrattat

Gladstone Deluxe
Confluent Spirit

Bobby Ge
System Haptics Off

Isaac Santos
etude II “bomba”

Nathan Schram
So Flamenco

INTERMISSION

Hannah Ishizaki
Redacted

kennedy taylor dixon
blah, blah

Ellie Cherry
Breaking News

They’re back! And tighter than ever. The Bard Percussion program brings the heat in this super eclectic mix of compositions from Julia Wolfe, Paul Lansky, Rodney Clark, Daniel Matei and Ivan Trevino. Come for the music, stay for the beer and cider and hang.

BUY TICKETS

Don’t miss the record release concert and bash at ShapeShifter Lab in its brand new location on Union Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn, celebrating the release of Jason Treuting’s Go Placidly With Haste. The album comes out on May 10 on Cantaloupe Music. This performance features very special guests Cenk Ergun, Clara Warnaar, Amy Garapic, Grey McMurray, Beth Meyers, and members of Sō Percussion.

Sō Laboratories is a chance for artists to take chances! Try out new ideas, practice for new shows, dig deeper into practices and partnerships. Join the fun! Suggested donation of $10, good beer in the fridge, good friends in the space. Relive the glory days of loft concerts – right here, right now, right? This show features sinonó, with Isabel Crespo Pardo, Henry Fraser and Lester St. Louis. Plus special set by Melissa Almaguer.

Sō Laboratories is a chance for artists to take chances! Try out new ideas, practice for new shows, dig deeper into practices and partnerships. Join the fun! Suggested donation of $10, good beer in the fridge, good friends in the space. Relive the glory days of loft concerts – right here, right now, right?

FYI no tickets, just come and you can donate and by drinks with cash or Venmo.

Sō Laboratories is a chance for artists to take chances! Try out new ideas, practice for new shows, dig deeper into practices and partnerships. Join the fun! Suggested donation of $10, good beer in the fridge, good friends in the space. Relive the glory days of loft concerts – right here, right now, right?

Tristan Perich has created a body of work unparalleled in today’s contemporary art scene. You just gotta experience his one-bit creations to fully comprehend what he’s managed to do with the simplest of square waves in myriad settings. Read and listen here.

JUST ADDED! CAROLINE SHAW WILL JOIN US FOR TUNES FROM THE NEW ALBUM RECTANGLES & CIRCUMSTANCE!

We’re gobsmacked by the fact that it’s been five years since we threw a Benefit party!

It took a serious village – actually more like a small city – to help us survive and even thrive throughout the pandemic. To each and every one of you who offered support along the way, THANK YOU!

This past year has been one of the most productive and creatively explosive seasons of our nearly 25 years as Sō Percussion. But we still need to raise money in order to finish the fiscal year on solid footing. Rather than revert to the Gala model of old, we thought we’d try something a bit different. If it works, maybe we’ve got a new model for how to provide for our future. Regardless, we’re planning to have a hell of a time and an awesome party with friends and great music from tremendous tap artist Michael J. Love and stupendous steel drum band Pan In Motion with Dr. Kendall K. Williams and more. Join us!

Enjoy the vibrant collaboration of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion in an electrifying program blending voice and percussion quartet as we share the music from our newest album Rectangles and Circumstance. Co-written by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, the genre-blending songs use verses from nineteenth-century poems by Christina Rosetti, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and William Blake. Chamber music meets singer-songwriter storytelling in this extraordinary performance showcasing vital, expressive, and imaginative music-making.

SōSI 2024, our 16th year, will once again take over Princeton, NJ with performances throughout our 2 week residency. See the schedule below for details on our shows!

From the BCCC description:  Enjoy the vibrant collaboration of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw and the innovative So Percussion in an electrifying program blending voice and percussion quartet as they share the music from their newest album Rectangles and Circumstance. Co-written by Caroline Shaw and So Percussion, the genre-blending songs use verses from nineteenth-century poems by Christina Rosetti, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and William Blake. Chamber music meets singer-songwriter storytelling in this extraordinary performance showcasing vital, expressive, and imaginative music-making.

We’re thrilled to welcome the üeber-talented and wildly inventive Christina Wheeler for a special loft-style concert to start off the new season of Sō Laboratories!

Composer, vocalist, musician, and multimedia artist Christina Wheeler’s creative practice focuses on electronics and technology, with sonic forays that span an array of styles and forms. Wheeler blends an amalgam of structured and improvised electronic music and sound design from voice, sampler, theremin, QChord, autoharp, and Array mbira. Wheeler has performed and recorded with numerous artists, including Ryuichi Sakamoto, Chaka Khan, John Cale, Laraaji, Roscoe Mitchell, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Matana Roberts, Marc Ribot, Murcof, and A Guy Called Gerald. Wheeler’s work with David Byrne included international tours and appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman and PBS’s Sessions at West 54th Street. MTV’s AMP featured Wheeler’s music. Recordings include work with Fred P, Benjamin Brunn, Shinedoe, Ripperton, Vernon Reid, DJ Logic, Mocky, and Jamie Lidell. Recent commissions include Bang on a Can, Märzmusik, and CTM Festivals. Releases include That Was Then, This Is Now, and Songs of S + D. Iridescent, Recent commissions include Bang on a Can, Märzmusik, and CTM Festivals. Wheeler’s duo with Nicole Mitchell, has appeared at Roulette, and the Burlington and Angel City Jazz Festivals; their album, Luminous Bayou, will be released on FPE Records. Wheeler continues to develop and present new, immersive, multimedia works, and compose for numerous, unique instruments, including the glass armonica, kora, and balafon.

Piano  marvel turned impressario Erika Dohi has put together a tremendous evening of new sounds featuring some truly talented friends including percussionist Natasa Hadjiandreou, composer Anuj Bhutani, producer and composer Dan Langa, with help from string sensation Madeline Hocking.

Don’t miss!

Sō Percussion’s 2012 celebration of John Cage’s explosive legacy blew the roof off Carnegie’s Zankel Hall! More than a decade later, we have updated the program, which features both Cage’s work and that of our current collaborators, to include cutting-edge music along with Cage’s timeless provocations. Favorite works such as the ultra-virtuosic, genre-defining Third Construction mix with ethereal chance-based pieces to express the huge range of Cage’s ideas and influence. Other composers featured include Pauline Oliveros, Jason Treuting, Caroline Shaw, claire rousay, Pamela Z, and Dan Deacon.

Composer/saxophonist Travis Laplante celebrates the release of his latest album The Golden Lock featuring Erika Dohi (piano), Charles Overton (harp), Lizzie Burns (bass), Eduardo Leandro (percussion), and Laplante (tenor saxophone). The evening will begin with three premieres of Laplante’s recent work: “String Quartet No. 1” featuring The JACK Quartet, “No Distance” (for two vibraphones and four percussionists) featuring Sō Percussion, and “A Room With No Walls” featuring Erika Dohi (piano) and Laplante (saxophone). This evening promises to be a joyful and intimate night of music.

Travis Laplante Quintet:
Travis Laplante composer, tenor saxophone
Erika Dohi piano
Charles Overton harp
Lizzie Burns double bass
Eduardo Leandro percussion

The JACK Quartet:
Christopher Otto violin
Austin Wulliman violin
John Pickford Richards viola
Jay Campbell cello

Sō Percussion:
Eric Cha-Beach
Josh Quillen
Adam Sliwinski
Jason Treuting

Travis Laplante/Erika Dohi duo:
Travis Laplante saxophone
Erika Dohi piano

Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, with composer Caroline Shaw
For two decades, Sō Percussion has revolutionized 21st-century chamber music, praised for blending precision with anarchy by The New Yorker. Admired for their live performances’ telepathic communication, they explore percussion’s vibrant repertoire. Their collaborations span classical, pop, indie rock, dance, and theater, expanding artistic boundaries. Sō’s commitment to education fosters community engagement, showcasing the vast possibilities of contemporary art. Continuing their partnership with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, they unveil a new song collection, alongside Grammy-winning Narrow Sea and co-composed Let the Soil Play its Simple Part.

Straddling the worlds of classical and pop music, Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw composes radiantly exploratory music. She joins forces with the Sō Percussion quartet for an evening of transcendent rhythm and vocals drawn from their collaborative albums Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part (2021) and Rectangles and Circumstance (2024). With inspirations from Emily Dickinson to ABBA, these songs journey between tightly crafted orchestrations and inspired spontaneity, creating a sonic world that feels fresh and ecstatic.

Copresented with Schubert Club Mix.

The album is finally here! The follow up to Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part is called Rectangles and Circumstances, and it’s already becoming a modern classic, a refining of a collaboration that has criss-crossed the globe and wowed audiences with its sophistication, nuance and sheer sonic joy. These are songs that have been called “magical” and “hypnotically beautiful” by BBC Radio and The Guardian. Come hear what the fuss is all about! And featuring a very special performance by the brilliant soprano Alicia Olatuja.

So Percussion has redefined chamber music through their commitment to the creation and amplification of new work. The ensemble is celebrated for a dazzling range of work: live performances, contributions to education and community, and the creation of opportunities and platforms for music and artists. In their Middlebury debut, they’ll collaborate with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, featuring songs and highlights from their co-composed albums Let the Soil Play its Simple Part and Rectangles and Circumstance. Their concert will also feature Julius Eastman’s Stay on It, including Middlebury students performing along So Percussion on stage.

Prepare to be mesmerized by the innovative sounds of So Percussion. This ensemble pushes the boundaries of traditional percussion music, creating an immersive and dynamic performance that defies categorization.

Sō Percussion and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw present their album, Rectangles and Circumstance drawing inspiration from 19th-century poems by Christina Rosetti, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein and William Blake. The album is a follow-up to their Grammy Award-winning debut Narrow Sea and Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, both released in 2021. Shaw herself will provide the vocals.

The show has now been updated to include Ringdown — a new collaboration between Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee.

Ken Burns will screen clips from his forthcoming documentary on Leonardo da Vinci, and Caroline Shaw, who composed the original score for the film, will join Roomful of Teeth, Attacca Quartet, and Sō Percussion to perform selections from the soundtrack.

For over twenty years, Sō Percussion has redefined twenty-first-century chamber music through an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy” (The New Yorker). Celebrated for their diverse work, their live performances showcase “telepathic powers of communication” (The New York Times). Their recording Narrow Sea (Nonesuch Records) with Caroline Shaw, Dawn Upshaw, and Gilbert Kalish won the 2022 Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. They will collaborate with Williams College Department of Music for part of this special performance.

Tickets $10 ($8 members, $7 students, $5 children 15 and under).

Eric Cha-Beach
4+9

Leilehua Lanzilotti (b. 1983)
sending messages pt 1

Olivier Tarpaga
Bush Taxi
Four in Three from FēFē

Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016)
Future of Anonymity

Bryce Dessner (b. 1976)
Music for Wood and Strings

Program subject to change.

First — Join us for a special open workshop on Wed, Nov 6 at 7:30pm at the Sō Studio (20 Grand Ave in Brooklyn) of a new piece with Sō and composer/đàn tranh performer, Vân-Ánh Võ!

As with all Sō Labs shows, there’s just a $10 suggested donation at the door, with seltzers and beer available for purchase.

We’re thrilled to host the brilliant string quartet Rhythm Method in a self-curated program featuring the band’s terrific Leah Asher (violin), Marina Kifferstei (violin), Carrie Frey (viola) and Meaghan Burke (cello).

Listening to killer string quartets up close is a treat – don’t miss this one!

They’ll be bringing back inti figgis-vizueta’s resplendent worlds between bodies, which was premiered at Broad Statements in the spring. They’ll also be playing new and new-ish pieces by their own Leah Asher, Carrie Frey, and Meaghan Burke, and revisiting a favorite from last summer’s Lake George Composer’s Institute by Justine Leichtling.

The Performance

Coinciding with the annual Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), the Indianapolis Symphony presents a special concert featuring all things percussion.  The program opens with a special appearance by world renowned percussion quartet SO Percussion performing Pieces of Wood by Steve Reich. Virtuoso percussionist Ji Su Jung then joins the ISO led by Associate Conductor Su-Han Yang in Grammy and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts’ Marimba Concerto.  The percussive program rounds out with Shchedrin’s Carmen Suite , which takes the world famous melodies from Bizet’s opera Carmen, arranged for strings and a large battery of percussion instruments.

More info soon!

FREE (suggested donation only). Come hang, drink, talk and most of all, check out the latest artistic endeavors of our beloved Summer Institute Composition Director, the Carleton College professor and longtime “friend of the band.” If you’re a SōSI alum you probably already know and love him. Others take note – Andrea’s going to share writing as well as music, and he’s got mad skills in both forms.

The percussion ensemble Sō Percussion and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw are crossing the Atlantic Ocean to present their album, Rectangles and Circumstance. Shaw has drawn inspiration from 19th-century poems by Christina Rosetti, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein and William Blake. The album is a follow-up to their Grammy Award-winning debut Narrow Sea and Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, both released in 2021. Shaw herself will provide the vocals.

From the Saffron Trust: The pioneering quartet Sō Percussion have been rewriting the musical rulebook for over two decades, and in Pulitzer-Prize winning composer, violinist, vocalist and producer Caroline Shaw they find a kindred spirit.

Their jointly-written Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part is a collection of songs that enriches both of their musical and spiritual homelands and propagates something thrillingly new. They draw on shared cultural passions from James Joyce to ABBA’s Lay All Your Love on Me, the sacred harp tradition to medieval plainchant. The resulting sonic adventure is an engaging blend of intricate precision and freewheeling spontaneity, taut interlocking rhythms, and ruminative spirituality. Featuring Shaw herself on vocals and a nearly endless menagerie of percussion instruments, including keyboards, steel drums, electronics, tuned flower pots and musical toys. This is bold, genre-defying, warm-hearted and stunningly original.

From the Barbican:

Powerhouse percussion ensemble Sō Percussion and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and singer Caroline Shaw return to perform music from their upcoming album, Rectangles and Circumstance.

Continuing their mission to redefine chamber music, Sō Percussion joins forces with Caroline Shaw to perform music that takes inspiration from 19th-century poems by Christina Rosetti, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein and William Blake, with lyrics that echo the romanticism of the time. The album follows their 2021 Grammy Award–winning debut, Narrow Sea, and 2021’s Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, with Shaw on vocals.

Sō Percussion ‘gleefully trample across the boundaries of musical genres, and … constantly provoke reassessments of what a percussion group can do’ (Guardian). Shaw has ‘an audaciously uninhibited approach to music-making based on joy, omnivorous curiosity and congeniality — even as her work challenges your expectations and takes you by surprise’ (New York Times). Together, they’ll have you hooked.

Part of our new Inspirational Artists series.

Sō Percussion is a leading percussion quartet and nonprofit organization that fosters, creates, and presents adventurous new work with a unique focus on collaboration. Fuelled by a belief in the unifying power of music, Sō Percussion brings the joy, curiosity, and inherent connectivity of percussion in all its forms to an ever-broader audience.

CAROLINE SHAW & SO PERCUSSION (USA)

December 5, Thursday

Lithuanian National Drama Theatre

GPS [GAIDA POST SCRIPTUM]

CAROLINE SHAW & SO PERCUSSION (USA)

Concert programme:

Eric Cha-Beach. 4+9 (LT premiere)

Caroline Shaw, So Percussion. music from Rectangles and Circumstance and Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part (LT premiere)

Powerhouse percussion ensemble Sō Percussion “likes to deliberately and deliberately trample all musical genres and provocatively pushes the boundaries of what a percussion ensemble can be,” according to The Guardian. Equally averse to such genres: the Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer and songwriter Caroline Shaw. Once on stage together, they guarantee beautiful music and great surprises.

Powerhouse slagwerk ensemble Sō Percussion “vertrapt graag en met opzet alle muzikale genres en verlegt op provocerend manier de grenzen van wat een slagwerk ensemble kan zijn”, aldus The Guardian. Even wars van dergelijke genres: de Pulitzerprijs-winnende Amerikaanse componiste en songwriter Caroline Shaw. Eenmaal samen op het podium staan ze garant voor bloedmooie muziek en geweldige verrassingen.

Twas the night before Christmas…or actually, five nights before. Either way, it’s a party. We’re huge fans of Cassie Wieland and her Vines project. And Damsel, well, let’s just say we’re close and leave it at that. They’re phenomenal, folk with a twist, they’ll have you jigging, crying and laughing all in a heartbeat.

As always, Sō Laboratories shows are suggested donation and there’ll be beer, wine, seltzer and…maybe eggnog?

The adventurous percussion group Sō Percussion is joined by groundbreaking beatboxer Dominic “Shodekeh” Talifero.

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!

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

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