Brooklyn Bound - So Percussion

The loft scene is alive!

Now in its fifth year, Brooklyn Bound is a popular series of concerts at Sō’s working studio in the Navy Yard section of Brooklyn. Casual and intimate, the concerts feature us and emerging ensembles from our local scene. The groups are encouraged to try out new material, premiere new commissions, completely experiment, or just get another performance under their belt.

When Sō Percussion first started performing in New York City, there were many venues – Galapagos, The Stone, 285 Kent, The Tank – where artists could play for small groups and experiment. We’d try new music and get feedback from other artists and avid fans of our scene. In recent years these venues moved away or closed as rents skyrocketed. We want to keep some of that spirit alive in our own studio, both for ourselves and for younger artists who need to play those gigs as well.

Brooklyn Bound is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

Upcoming Shows

May 7, 2019 – 3 Amigos, Daniel Matei, and Troika

Brooks (Marc Brooks), Franklin (Odie Franklin), and Williams (Kendall K Williams) make up the “3 Amigos” who were originally brought together in 2013 by newly formed group called Brooklyn Steel Orchestra. At that time, the steel pan ensemble was formed in order to audition for America’s Got Talent under the musical helm of the 3 Amigos. After two consecutive attempts to appear on the show, the group decided to participate in the first ever International Conference and Panorama held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2015. This competition invited steel orchestras (24 total) from all over the world, to compete against one another for a cash prize, trophy, and bragging rights as the best steel orchestra in the world. The 3 Amigos collaborated on a musical piece landing them and the steel orchestra fourth place overall in the world. Since then they have landed a position as arrangers for the Skiffle Steel Orchestra from Trinidad and Tobago , now four years and counting, as well as arrangers of the Brampton Golden Harps Steel Orchestra from Brampton, Ontario. Each individual offers a different history and musical background, that combined makes for a unique musical offering of various styles.

Daniel Matei, a graduating undergrad from Hungary, studies at the Bard College Conservatory with members of Sō Percussion. He’s majoring in Percussion and Italian Studies, and he is a recipient of the John Cage Trust Scholarship. He recently got accepted to the Contemporary Performance Program at Manhattan School of Music, where he will pursue his Master’s degree. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Daniel has premiered several new works by composers at Bard and at the Sō Percussion Summer Institute. This is where composer Darian Thomas and he met last summer, leading to their collaboration on a new vibraphone solo, Animate Glint. Daniel wrote his thesis for his BA on Luigi Russolo and the Italian Futurist movement. As part of his thesis, he composed a six-movement piece called Noi Vogliamo… using texts from Futurist manifestos, or in this case, Futurist sound poetry.

Troika is a New York City and Seattle based percussion trio that began in 2016. Troika is made up of Paulina Michels, Kasey Blezinger, and Shelby Blezinger. The three have been working together musically for years through overlapping relationships and academic involvement. They have performed with nationally recognized ensembles, traveling across the United States, China, and Poland. Their collective experiences have built the foundation of their vision to invite cross-cultural musical styles into percussion, to promote collaborative efforts, and to invite more women to compose for percussion.

May 8, 2019 – An evening curated by DITHER

Drummers Clara Warnaar and Shayna Dunkelman formed F*ck Ton O Money to embrace their mutual love for sounds 60 Hz and below, because who doesn’t want more kick drums in their lives? They have 6 unreleased albums filled with dreams, chaos, anger, tears, and f*ck ton of bass drums. For this show, they invite Dutch-Indonesian electronic musician Sannety because she says awesome stuff like: Sannety’s work takes form in time based proposals that incorporate limits to challenge standardized formats of experiences with boundaries based on gestures, using elements of hybrid space.

F*ck yes. We like that. And she has mad electronic kicks, FYI.

Forever House is a raucous avant-grunge outfit comprised of Meaghan Burke (vocals/cello), James Moore (guitar), James Ilgenfritz (bass) and Pete Wise (drums). Drawing from their experiences as performers in NY’s indie and experimental scenes, Forever House performs an explosive blend of twisted anthems, subversive ballads, sloppy math waltzes and wasted love themes. Eaves, their debut album on Infrequent Seams provides the perfect twisted mix-tape for your post-apocalyptic road trip.

The electric guitar quartet DITHER is dedicated to an eclectic mix of experimental repertoire which spans composed, improvised and electronic music. Hailed by the NY Times for “sophisticated, hard-driving and stylistically omnivorous music-making”, the quartet has performed across the country and abroad, presenting new commissions, original compositions, multimedia works, and large guitar ensemble pieces. Dither has performed and collaborated with a wide range of artists including Nels Cline, Fred Frith, Mary Halvorson, Ikue Mori, Phill Niblock, Lee Renaldo, Steve Reich, Lois V. Vierk, and Yo La Tengo. Their latest release Dither plays Zorn on Tzadik was named one of the Rolling Stone’s top avant albums of 2015. Dither’s members are Taylor Levine, Josh Lopes, James Moore & Gyan Riley. For this show they will be joined by special guest guitarist Brendon Randall-Myers.

Doors at 7:45pm
First come first served
$10 suggested donation

Sō Percussion studio
20 Grand Ave, #205, Brooklyn
(between Flushing and Park)

email John Stapleton for more information.

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