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Williams Percussion Ensemble

Fri, November 1st, 2019
7:30 pm

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The Williams Percussion Ensemble (WiPE) presents Aperture, a program of new sounds, lush noises, and rippling beats. The program features classic works by Steve Reich and Morton Feldman and recent music for percussion and mixed ensembles by Annika Socolofsky, Caroline Shaw, and Gabriella Smith. Audience seating is onstage for an experience produced by all manner of drums and cymbals, marimbas and vibraphones, strings, winds, piano, electronics, and a large collection of flowerpots. Steve Reich’s groundbreaking percussion work, Drumming, Part I from 1970-71 employs four pairs of bongos played by four percussionists constructing a tightly wound grid of rhythmic patterning of extraordinary detail and power. Pulitzer Prize winner Caroline Shaw’s Taxidermy playfully explores the phrase “the detail of the pattern is movement” through an intricate lattice of rhythms and melodies performed on marimba, vibraphone, and flowerpots. Annika Socolofsky and Gabriella Smith each create lush and rhythmically propulsive soundscapes for mixed ensemble with a sense of who and Number Nine. For Morton Feldman’s meditative the viola in my life (1) the music and the performers surround the audience in delicate lines and rich colors.

In programs featuring cutting-edge new music and important works of the twentieth-century, the Williams Percussion Ensemble (WiPE) surveys a vast terrain of sound and rhythm. The ensemble employs all manner of percussion instruments, found sounds, and electronics to create music that resonates across boundaries of genre and discipline. In addition to music for percussion alone the group presents works for mixed ensembles and new and experimental music for a range of instruments.  The ensemble often works directly with composers and collaborates with artists in diverse media in order to explore the connections between sound, form, image, and movement. WiPE strives to offer creative programming, innovative presentation, and immersive experiences in which the listener is invited to hear music in new ways.

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