Sō Percussion is an American percussion quartet formed in 1999 and based in New York City. Composed of Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Eric Cha-Beach, the group is well known for recording and touring internationally and for their work with composers such as Steve Reich, David Lang,

Caroline Shaw Caroline Adelaide Shaw (born August 1, 1982) is an American composer, violinist, and singer. She was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2013 for her a cappella piece '' Partita for 8 Voices'' and the 2022 Grammy Award for Best Contemporar ...

Bryce Dessner Bryce David Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American composer and guitarist based in Paris, as well as a member of the rock band the National. Dessner's twin brother Aaron is also a member of the group. Together they write the music, in coll ...

Julia Wolfe Julia Wolfe (born December 18, 1958) is an American composer and professor of music at New York University. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', Wolfe's music has "long inhabited a terrain of its own, a place where classical forms are re ...

Vijay Iyer Vijay Iyer (born October 26, 1971) is an American composer, pianist, bandleader, producer and writer based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' has called him a "social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, histori ...

, Fred Frith, Angélica Negrón, Nathalie Joachim, Dan Trueman, Tristan Perich, Paul Lansky,

Steven Mackey Steven ("Steve") Mackey (born February 14, 1956) is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator. Life As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions are i ...

Shara Nova Shara Nova (previously Worden) is the lead singer and songwriter for My Brightest Diamond. As a composer she is most recognized for her choral compositions and the baroque chamber opera "You Us We All". New music composers Sarah Kirkland Snider ...

, Martin Bresnick,

Oscar Bettison Oscar Bettison (born 19 September 1975) is a British/American composer known for large-scale chamber and large ensemble works. He has been described as possessing "a unique voice". His work has been described as having "An unconventional lyricis ...

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, and Arvo Pärt. Originally formed when the members were students of

Robert van Sice Robert van Sice is an American percussionist and marimba player. He has toured and recorded extensively, currently teaches at the Yale School of Music (where he was appointed Director of Percussion Studies in 1997) and the Peabody Conservatory of ...

at the

Yale School of Music The Yale School of Music (often abbreviated to YSM) is one of the 12 professional schools at Yale University. It offers three graduate degrees: Master of Music (MM), Master of Musical Arts (MMA), and Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), as well as a join ...

, the group also continues to play works from the standard repertoire of percussion ensemble music—including works by composers such as John Cage, Julius Eastman,

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Cente ...

, George Crumb, and

Iannis Xenakis Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; el, Γιάννης "Ιωάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde c ...

. In addition to their work with composers, the members of Sō Percussion produce original music, including large scale evening-length works. The group is also known for their use of non-standard instruments and found sounds in performance and on recordings, such as scrap metal, rocks, flower pots, and an

amplified cactus An amplified cactus is a cactus plant (preferably a '' Denmoza'' or '' Geohintonia'') used as a musical instrument. It harnesses the acoustic properties of a cactus by applying contact microphones and amplifying their projection and tone. Vivien ...

. Sō Percussion has released albums on

Cantaloupe Music Cantaloupe Music is a Brooklyn-based record label that produces and releases contemporary classical music and other forms of avant-garde music. The label was founded in 2001 by Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and Kenny Savelson. Gordo ...

Nonesuch Records Nonesuch Records is an American record company and label owned by Warner Music Group, distributed by Warner Records (formerly called Warner Bros. Records), and based in New York City. Founded by Jac Holzman in 1964 as a budget classical label, No ...

Thrill Jockey Thrill Jockey is an American independent record label established by former Atlantic Records A&R representative Bettina Richards and based in Chicago. History Richards started the label in 1992 with $35,000 of family and personal capital, while ...

Brassland Records Brassland is an independent record label founded in 2001 by Alec Hanley Bemis, Aaron Dessner, and Bryce Dessner. History In Brassland's early years, Bemis worked as a freelance journalist for ''LA Weekly'' and ''The New York Times''. The Dessners ...

, and

New Amsterdam Records New Amsterdam Records is a record label in New York City that was formed in 2008 by Judd Greenstein, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and William Brittelle to promote classically trained musicians who fall between traditional genre boundaries. Often abbrev ...

. The group endorses

Zildjian :''Zildjian leads here. For people with the surname, see Zildjian (disambiguation)'' The Avedis Zildjian Company, simply known as Zildjian (), is a musical instrument manufacturer specializing in cymbals and other percussion instruments. Founded ...

Vic Firth Everett Joseph "Vic" Firth (June 2, 1930 – July 26, 2015) was an American musician and the founder of Vic Firth Company (formerly Vic Firth, Inc.), a company that makes percussion sticks and mallets. Biography Vic Firth was born June 2, ...

Remo Remo Inc. is an American musical instruments manufacturing company based in Valencia, California, and founded by Remo Belli in 1957. Products manufactured include drum kits, drumhead A drumhead or drum skin is a membrane stretched ov ...

and

Pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

/ Adams.

Naming

The group's name was suggested by Jenise Treuting, Jason Treuting's sister. Jenise writes,

Collaborations

Sō Percussion frequently collaborates with other musicians and performers from around the world, including The National (appearing on Grammy-winning album ' Sleep Well Beast'),

Buke and Gase Buke and Gase (formerly spelled Buke and Gass) ( and ) is a Brooklyn-based musical duo named after the musical instruments invented and built by founders Arone Dyer and Aron Sanchez; the ''buke'' is a six-string former-baritone ukulele and the ...

, Dave Douglas,

Matmos Matmos is an experimental electronic music duo originally from San Francisco but now residing in Baltimore. M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel are the core members, but they frequently include other artists on their records and in their per ...

Medeski Martin & Wood Medeski Martin & Wood (or MMW) is an American jazz fusion band formed in 1991, consisting of John Medeski on keyboards, Billy Martin on drums, and Chris Wood on bass. The band is influenced by musical traditions including funk and hip hop and ...

Dan Deacon Daniel Deacon (born August 28, 1981) is an American composer and electronic musician based in Baltimore, Maryland. Deacon is renowned for his live shows, where large-scale audience participation and interaction is often a major element of the pe ...

The Dirty Projectors Dirty Projectors is an American indie rock band from Brooklyn, New York, formed in 2002. The band is the project of singer-songwriter David Longstreth, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The b ...

Glenn Kotche Glenn Kotche (born December 31, 1970 in Roselle, Illinois, United States) is an American drummer and composer, best known for his involvement in the band Wilco. He was named the 40th greatest drummer of all time by Gigwise in 2008. Prior to w ...

Bobby Previte Bobby Previte (born July 16, 1951 in Niagara Falls, New York) is a drummer, composer, and bandleader. He earned a degree in economics from the University at Buffalo, where he also studied percussion. He moved to New York City in 1979 and began ...

Kid Millions/Man Forever

Eli Keszler Eli Keszler is an American percussionist, composer, and visual artist based in New York City. Known for his complex and intricate style of drumming, as well creating sound installations involving piano wire and other mechanisms to accompany his l ...

, Emily Johnson, Ain Gordon,

Shen Wei Shen Wei () is a Chinese-American choreographer, painter, and director who resides in Chinese Americans in New York City, New York City. Widely recognized for his defining vision of an intercultural and interdisciplinary mode of movement-based p ...

, and The Princeton Laptop Orchestra. Recent collaborative projects include the creation with

Jad Abumrad Jad Nicholas Abumrad ( ar, جاد نيكولاس أبومراد; born April 18, 1973) is an American radio host, composer, and producer. He is the founder and former host of the syndicated public radio program ''Radiolab'' with Latif Nasser and ...

of a score to the

Radiolab ''Radiolab'' is a radio program produced by WNYC, a public radio station in New York City, and broadcast on public radio stations in the United States. The show is nationally syndicated and is available as a podcast. Live shows were first off ...

story
The Heartbeat
" part of the episode "Radiolab Live: Telltale Hearts featuring Oliver Sacks," produced by Molly Webster and performed live by Sō Percussion at Brooklyn Academy of Music's "RadioLoveFest.". So Percussion worked with composer West Dylan Thordson as contributing performers on the score of The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst, a 2015 HBO documentary miniseries about Robert Durst.

Discography

* ''Sō Percussion'' (2004) * Steve Reich: ''Drumming'' (2005) * ''Amid the Noise'' (2006) *CD/DVD * ''Five (and-a-half) Gardens'' — with Trollstilt (2007) * ''Treasure State'' — with Matmos (2010) * Paul Lansky: ''Threads'' (2011) * Steve Reich: ''WTC 9/11'' - Mallet Quartet Recording (2011) *CD/DVD * Steve Mackey: ''It Is Time'' (2011) *CD/DVD * Martin Bresnick: ''Caprichos Enfaticos'' with Lisa Moore, piano (2011) * ''Bad Mango'' with Dave Douglas, trumpet (2011) * David Lang: ''The Woodmans - Music From the Film'' (2011) * ''Amid the Noise Remixes'' (2011) * Cage 100: Bootleg Series (2012) * ''Where (we) Live'' (2012) * ''neither Anvil nor Pulley'' (2013) * Cenk Ergun: ''Nana'' - Proximity Recording (2014) * Man Forever: ''Ryonen'' (2014) * Bobby Previte: ''TERMINALS'' (2014) * Bryce Dessner: ''Music for Wood and Strings'' (2015) * Glenn Kotche: ''Drumkit Quartets'' (2016) * Steve Reich and So Percussion: ''Drumming Live'' (2017) * Color Theory, with PRISM Sax Quartet (2017) * Dan Trueman: ''Songs That Are Hard to Sing'' - with JACK Quartet (2019) * ''A Record Of...'' - with Buke and Gase (2021) * Caroline Shaw: ''Narrow Sea'' - with Dawn Upshaw and Gil Kalish (2021) * Julius Eastman: ''Stay On It'' - with MEDIAQUEER, Adam Tendler, Beth Meyers, Grey Mcmurray, Shelley Washington & Alex Sopp (2021) * Paul Lansky: ''Angles'' (2021) * ''Steve Reich'' with NEXUS Percussion (2021) * ''Let The Soil Play Its Simple Part'' - with Caroline Shaw (2021) * ''Individuate'' - With Darian Thomas, Bergamot Quartet, Shelby Blezinger-McCay, and Kasey Blezinger (2022)

Education

Princeton University
Since 2014, the members of Sō Percussion have served as the

Edward T. Cone Edward Toner Cone (May 4, 1917 – October 23, 2004) was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, and philanthropist. Life and career Cone was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He studied composition under Roger Sessions at Prince ...

performers-in-residence at Princeton University. The group has commissioned and recorded major works from Princeton composition faculty

, Paul Lansky, and Dan Trueman, as well as collaborating many times with the Princeton Sound Kitchen and Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk). Sō Percussion Summer Institute
The annual Sō Percussion Summer Institute (SōSI), founded in 2009, also takes place on Princeton's campus. The program features teaching and performing with the members of Sō Percussion and with Princeton faculty and student composers. Each year includes a number of concerts on Princeton's campus, in New York, outdoors in downtown Princeton, and in Small World coffee shop. Bard College Conservatory
Since 2011, members of Sō Percussion have served as co-directors of the percussion department at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. The program is a five-year double degree. Additional guest faculty for the program include Jan Williams, Garry Kvistad, Tzong-Chin Ju, Greg Zuber, Daniel Druckman, and Jonathan Haas.

Original music

From Out a Darker Sea (2017)
From Out a Darker Sea explores the former coal mining communities of East Durham, UK in a collaboration with Forma Arts and Amber Films. A Gun Show (2016)
A Gun Show is an exploration of American gun culture using music, video, spoken text, and movement. The project was created collaboratively by the members of Sō Percussion together with director Ain Gordon and choreographer Emily Johnson. Where (we) Live (2013)
Where (we) Live was an original project exploring ideas about home and community, created together with guitarist Grey mcmurray, director Ain Gordon, choreographer Emily Johnson, and video designer Martin Schmidt. 2wice - Fifth Wall (2012)
Members of Sō Percussion composed the score for 'Fifth Wall' - an

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...

-based performance by dancer

Jonah Bokaer Jonah Bokaer (born October 1, 1981) is an American choreographer and media artist. He works on live performances in the United States and elsewhere, including choreography, digital media, cross-disciplinary collaborations, and social enterprise. ...

, published by dance magazine 2wice. Shen Wei - Undivided/Divided (2011)
The members of Sō Percussion composed the music for Undivided/Divided with choreographer

, which premiered at the

Park Avenue Armory __NOTOC__ The Park Avenue Armory Conservancy, generally known as Park Avenue Armory, is a nonprofit cultural institution within the historic Seventh Regiment Armory building located at 643 Park Avenue on New York City's Upper East Side. The ins ...

in November, 2011. Martin Kersels: 5 Songs (2010)
In 2010 the

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–194 ...

commissioned the members of Sō Percussion to write new original music for performance in connection with Martin Kersels' sculpture project for the Whitney Biennial: 5 Songs. Imaginary City (2009)
Inspired by the

Italo Calvino Italo Calvino (, also , ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian writer and journalist. His best known works include the '' Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the ''Cosmicomi ...

novel Invisible Cities, Imaginary City used as inspiration the six cities that are home to the presenters that commissioned it: The Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, NY; The Myrna Loy Center in Helena, MT;

The Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

in Cleveland, OH; The Flynn Center in Burlington, VT; Diverseworks Art Space in Houston, TX; and The Newman Center in Denver, CO. The project again included original video created by Jenise Treuting as well as theatrical direction by Rinde Eckert. Music for Trains (2008)
In 2008 Sō Percussion developed the Music for Trains project in southern

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

. The month-long residency project centered around performances in and around the towns of

Brattleboro Brattleboro (), originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The most populous municipality abutting Vermont's eastern border with New Hampshire, which is the Connecticut River, Brattleboro is located about no ...

and Bellows Falls, including concerts in the train stations of those two towns, pre-recorded mp3 players listened to on the trains, and materials gathered from the local community. The project also included original video created by Jenise Treuting and an on-stage sculpture created by local artist Ahren Ahrenholz. Amid the Noise (2006)
A series of short pieces written by group member Jason Treuting, Amid the Noise was the first project of original music created and recorded by members of Sō Percussion. The project also features videos created by video artist Jenise Treuting, which were included in the CD/DVD release of 2006.

Awards

* ''Bessie Award for Outstanding Musical Composition/Sound Design'' - 2016 * ''American Music Center Trailblazer Award'' - 2011 * ''Chamber Music America/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming'' - 2004, 2006, 2010 * ''ASCAP John Cage Award'' - 2009 * ''International Percussion Competition Luxembourg'' 2nd Place - 2005

Selected works commissioned

* Dennis DeSantis: ''Shifty'' (2000) * David Lang: ''the so-called laws of nature'' (2002) * Paul Lansky: ''Threads'' (2006) * Martin Bresnick: ''Caprichos Enfaticos'' (2007) * Steve Mackey: ''It Is Time'' (2010) * Dan Trueman: ''neither anvil nor pulley'' (2010) * Steve Reich: ''Mallet Quartet'' (2010) * Bobby Previte: ''Terminals'' (2011) *

: ''Ghostbuster Cook: The Origin of the Riddler'' (2011) *

: ''Drumkit Quartets'' (2011) * David Lang: ''man made'' (2013) *

: ''Music for Wood and Strings'' (2013) *

/So Percussion: ''Timeline'' (2015) * Paul Lansky: ''Springs'' (2016) *

: ''Narrow Sea'' (2017) with Dawn Upshaw *

Donnacha Dennehy Donnacha Dennehy (born 17 August 1970) is an Irish composer and leader of the Crash Ensemble specializing in contemporary classical music. According to musicologist Bob Gilmore, Dennehy's "high profile of his compositions internationally, togeth ...

: ''Broken Unison'' (2017) * Dan Trueman: ''Songs That Are Hard to Sing'' (2017) with JACK Quartet *

: ''TORQUE'' (2018) * Angelica Negron: ''gone'' (2018) *

: ''Forbidden Love'' (2019)

References

External links

SoPercussion.comFacebook PageSo Percussion on TwitterSo Percussion on InstagramSo Percussion on YouTubeVic Firth Artist PageZildjian Artist PageAlliance Artist Management Artist PageCantaloupe Records Artist PageOtherARTS
at the Peabody Conservatory fo
Aural States
(Sept 2009) {{Authority control

So Percussion Sō Percussion is an American percussion quartet formed in 1999 and based in New York City. Composed of Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Eric Cha-Beach, the group is well known for recording and touring internationally and for th ...

Musical groups from Brooklyn Nonesuch Records artists