Dessner’s fascinating piece for the newly designed “chordstick” instrument added a new large work to Sō’s repertoire. This unusual instrument feels like something between an electric guitar and a hammer dulcimer.
Sō Percussion Series at the Lincoln Center Festival
“the players … in the course of 15 years of professional ensemble playing, seem to have developed telepathic powers of communication.”
Over three nights, Sō performed “15 Years of Commissions,” plus favorites from the repertoire, as well as an epic performance of Steve Reich’s Drumming at Alice Tully Hall.
Sō travelled on multiple site visits to Northern England to research the rich history of the coal mining communities. This four movement multi-media show toured the UK on 2017 on a “Sacred Spaces” tour of churches.
Life Is Blank and Fire Escapes by Jason Treuting at James Madison University
March 2018
Sō at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with JACK Quartet
Performing Dan Trueman’s epic octet Songs that are Hard to Sing, as well as Donnacha Dennehy’s Broken Unison.
April 2018
Caroline Shaw at The Kennedy Center with Dawn Upshaw and Gil Kalish
Sō’s collaboration with Dawn and Gil began with an epic George Crumb song cycle. Together, they commissioned Shaw’s Narrow Sea through the Music Accord program.
June 2019
Julia Wolfe’s “Forbidden Love” premieres at the LA Phil
Julia Wolfe’s quartet for Sō Percussion is also her fifth string quartet. Written for amplified violins, viola, and cello, the piece asks the percussionists to do everything except play them normally.
December 2019
“A Percussion Century” at Carnegie Hall
A giant retrospective of the art form, featuring music by Varese, Reich, Wolfe, Lang, Chavez, Cage, and more.
February 2020
Sō Travels to Trinidad and Tobago
During our first trip to Trinidad and Tobago, we performed in the finals of the Panorama steel band competition with the Skiffle Bunch Steel Orchestra! We also conducted an amid the noise residency at the University of Trinidad and Tobago.
July 2020
SOSI 2020 goes virtual
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, nobody quite knew what to do. Sō continued the annual Sō Percussion Summer Institute virtually, offering participants the option to attend online or defer until the next year – which, as it turned out, would also still be online.
September 2020
Sō collaborates with Shodekeh Talifero
Sō’s first-ever collaboration with a beatboxer — who also identifies as a breath artist and vocal percussionist — began as a virtual collaboration in the summer of 2020. It then expanded into multiple performances across the country, including at Carnegie Hall in 2021.
May 2021
Music video for “Other Song” with Caroline Shaw is released
June 2021
Sō and Caroline Shaw release “Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part” on Nonesuch Records
December 2021
Sō at Zankel Hall with Nathalie Joachim, Shodekeh Talifero, Caroline Shaw
March 2022
Sō at the Big Ears Festival
Sō opened the 2022 Big Ears Festival with a rousing amid the noise. The big weekend also included a feature performance of Let the Soil with Caroline Shaw, and a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet performing Angélica Negrón
April 2022
Narrow Sea wins a Grammy
Caroline Shaw’s Narrow Sea – written for Sō Percussion with Dawn Upshaw and Gil Kalish, wins the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.
December 2023
Carnegie Hall w/premieres of Olivier Tarpaga, Vijay Iyer and Angélica Negrón
December 2023
Sō Travels to West Africa
Sō embarks on our first trip to Africa with our colleague Olivier Tarpaga. Performances in Benin and Burkina Faso, featuring Tarpaga’s piece Fēfē.
Sō and Caroline Shaw release “Rectangles and Circumstance” on Nonesuch Records
November 2024
Sō and Caroline Shaw nominated for Grammy
Sō Percussion and Caroline Shaw were nominated in the category of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for Rectangles and Circumstance, our second album of co-composed songs.
