Fostering commissions and world premieres through all phases of their creation
In our New Work Development Program, we draw from our years of experience as percussionists and composers, experimenting alongside composers and other artists to imagine percussion from the ground up. The premieres that result from these collaborations reinvent what music can and will be. Explore our process in the video below.
Projects within our New Work Development Program are supported at three key stages:
- Experimentation, exploration, and workshop time;
- Sharing projects through prominent premieres;
- Disseminating works through long-term touring, album releases, and more.
New works are created through our own programs, such as the Flexible Commissions and the Andrew W. Siegel Composition Fellowship, as well as in partnership with concert halls and foundations.
Here is out current slate of collaborators:
Vijay Iyer
Nathalie Joachim**
David Lang
Leilehua Lanzilotti *
Steve Mackey
Angelica Negron **
Claire Rousay *
Caroline Shaw
Dominc Shodekeh Talifero *
Olivier Tarpaga
Darian Donovan Thomas *
Jason Treuting
Kendall K. Williams *
Julia Wolfe
Bora Yoon *
* Part of the Flexible Commissions program
** Andrew W. Siegel Fellow
Contact tim@sopercussion.com to learn more about New Work Development and the program’s Producing Circle.
*The Flexible Commissions program is Sō Percussion’s in-house commissioning initiative where we work with a broad array of artists to create new works. We ask them to consider the idea of “flexibility” as a starting point. This can mean flexible instrumentation, a dynamic back-and-forth collaboration process with Sō Percussion, or any number of other things.
The following pieces have been commissioned and premiered through the Flexible Commissions program:
Kendall K. Williams – Walk, March, Run
Darian Donovan Thomas – Individuate
Doinc Shodekeh Talifero – Vodalities: Paradigms of Consciousness for the Human Voice
Bora Yoon – the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
**The Andrew W. Siegel Composition Fellowship honors a composer every two years who will be showcased through a world premiere by Sō Percussion. The Fellowship provides a prestigious opportunity for its composers, allowing them to experiment with percussion in new ways. Each Siegel Fellow receives two years’ worth of rehearsal, workshop, and incubation time with Sō’s performers, culminating in a premiere. Our inaugural Siegel Fellow was Brooklyn born Haitian-American flutist, composer, and vocalist Nathalie Joachim. Her new work Note to Self premiered at Carnegie Hall in December 2021.
The current Siegel fellow is Angélica Negrón, who will be extending her work Gone into a multi-movement piece.
The Composition Fellowship continues Andrew W. Siegel’s commitment to Sō Percussion and its emphasis on bold new works. Most recently, Siegel commissioned Vijay Iyer’s Torque, which was written for Sō Percussion in 2018. He served as a lead supporter of Sō Percussion’s evening-length project Where (We) Live in 2012. Siegel, JD, PhD, is a Research Scholar in the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. He has served as Staff Philosopher for President Clinton’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Legislative Fellow for Senator Edward M. Kennedy and the Labor and Human Resources Committee, and Staff Attorney for the Task Force on Genetic Testing of the Working Group on the Ethical, Legal and Social Issues of the Human Genome Project.
