A Partial Summation of Spring 2013...

Below you will find a very partial summation of some of the new professional experiences and exquisite collaborations I had during the Winter/Spring semester of 2013. This time of this year was amazingly productive, now that I can take a step back and reflect, with finishing a 200-page dissertation and graduating with a DM from Northwestern University and accomplishing what you will read below!

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February, 2013

Matthew Coley visited the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA last February for a week long residency to perform Andrew Ardizzoia's "Glass House Concerto" with the wind ensemble conducted by Gerard Morris. Andrew and Matthew began collaborating on GHC in 2010, and did a partial premiere with Iowa State University's Wind Ensemble, Michael Golemo, conductor in April of 2012. The full premiere of four movements with two solo stone xylophone interludes, almost totally 40 minutes of music, was done with the UPS Wind Ensemble, and can be watched on YouTube by searching the title and composer or soloist. While in Tacoma Matthew and Andrew also held a variety of master classes and lectures. Matthew gave a master class to percussion students and Andrew worked with conducting and composition students. Together they gave lectures in the business school on collaboration and music business.

The concerto came about by several coincidental forces in the collaboration. The first being, Matthew heard Andrew's orchestral piece, "*Some Assembly Required", premiered by the ISU Symphony in 2010 and had been working on a glass project, "CLEARLY", with Co'Motion Dance Theatre at the time as well. Through other concerti, commissioning projects, and collaborations, Matthew had assembled a large collection of consorts of odd percussion instruments; i.e. glass gongs, temple blocks and woodblocks, glass and stone xylophone, and tuned bottles, and had in mind a concerto featuring these collections of instruments. Soon after Matthew approached Andrew about the concerto, Andrew happened to visit the Philip Johnson "Glass House" in New Canaan, CT, which exhibits stark juxtapositions of glass, metal, wood, and stone all over the property. Thus the concerto was born, and the soloist performs on only glass, metal, wood, and stone instruments inside a cage. Future performances and a recording are in the works.

Upon returning from Tacoma Matthew jumped into collaborations with percussionist and duo partner, Lynn Vartan. Lynn visited Iowa State University to perform with the percussion ensemble and teach a master class. Lynn, Matthew, and the ISU Percussion Ensemble performed a joint concert at ISU in late February. Lynn and Matthew's duo, Solstice, then went on tour and performed concerts and master classes at the University of Northern Iowa (Randy Hogancamp and Matt Andreini, hosts) and the University of Iowa (Dan Moore, host). Solstice will be performing in Chicago and LA during their 2013-2014 season.

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April 2013

On April 5 and 6, Matthew Coley hosted the 2013 Iowa Day of Percussion at Iowa State University! The event brought in guest artists from Texas, California, North Dakota, and Arizona, as well as students and other professional percussionists from all over Iowa, and was sponsored by the Iowa Arts Council, ISU, and the Percussive Arts Society.

The Crossing 32nd Street ensemble performed a concert with students, Matthew, and guest artist Cory Hills on April 5.

April 6 kicked off with FUNdamental clinics by snare drummer Brian Nozny, who had also taught a master class at ISU on April 4, and timpanist Jacob Theiben.

During the morning sessions of April 6 Marshalltown High School Percussion Ensemble received a two-hour clinic with Iowa Percussion Group artists Matt Andreini, Dan Krumm, and Stan Dahl. The High School and Collegiate Competitions were held, and Ames High School student Grant Simmons and ISU student Ryan Pearson won!

Crossing 32nd Street held a master class on their repertoire including a demo of Steve Reich's "Drumming" with ISU students, Matthew, and Cory Hills.

Guest Artist Jamal Mohamed held a master class on hand drums and world music in the afternoon with a preview of the evening concert to come.

The afternoon and evening of April 6 was a tour de force of performances. The Recital Hall at ISU had music performed constantly for about 7.5 hours!

Organist Lynda Hakken began the afternoon with a concert featuring the Iowa Percussion Group on Lou Harrison's Concerto for Organ and Percussion Orchestra.

Following that the Iowa Percussion Group rehearsed Gary Ziek's "Concerto for Solo Percussion and Percussion Ensemble" with the Collegiate Competition Winner, Ryan Pearson.

The Collegiate Percussion Ensemble Showcase Concert then took place with performances by: University of Northern Iowa, Central College, Iowa State University, Davenport North High School, and University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

The evening concert was an awesome array of performances by guest artists, including Jamal Mohamed, Cory Hills, Iowa Percussion Group, and Crossing 32nd Street, as well as competitions winners and other students.

Pictured below is Jamal Mohamed with Matthew, John Kizilarmut, Mike Giles, Stan Dahl, Cory Hills, and Brian Nozny (photo by Robin Doty). The evening concluded with a FULL performance of Steve Reich's "Drumming"!

Arthur Lipner visited ISU for a week at the end of April and performed with the Jazz Bands,
Percussion Ensemble, and Jazz Combos. He also taught private lessons and a master class with ISU percussionists and presented his documentary Talking Sticks to the music school. 

The Percussion Ensemble performed his composition "Mallet Fantasia", a concerto for vibraphone and marimba soloist with percussion ensemble and choir. The Ames Children's Choir, Gene LeVasseur, director, were also guest performers on April 24.

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Super-duper Independent Artist Feature 2

Composer, Steven Ricks
CD: Mild Violence

I'm excited to write the second installment of the "Super-duper Independent Artist" feature I recently added to my monthly e-letters. In August 2012 I would like to present composer, Steven Ricks. If you read the first feature of this kind you may notice that I featured the composer, Neil Thornock, from Brigham Young University, and Steven Ricks also happens to be from BYU.

I met Steve on a trip for which I was performing some of Neil's music. Steve actually conducted the performance of Steve Mackey's "Micro-Concerto" I did with the BYU New Music Ensemble. He is an excellent guy, enthusiastic through and through about new projects, a modern composer with a unique and resonating voice, and a mover and shaker. His latest CD is Mild Violence; a mixture of contemporary chamber and solo pieces with electronics. After releasing my second album, "Souvenirs", with an alternation of solo tracks and chamber tracks, I am tending to be drawn to CD's that cover vast territories and varieties of repertoire, especially in contemporary music, and Steve's does just that.

I was drawn mainly to the title track, "Mild Violence", a Pierrot quintet plus percussion piece, that starts in a curious way much akin to tinkering with the percussion set-up, and then goes on to evoke fascinating punches of composers, Lee Hyla and Steve Mackey, but only to be smashed out by none other than Steven Ricks. The title refers to the clinical label for videogames alerting about "cartoonish malice", but also the piece can tend to delve more into the realistic malice of humanity.

As most things seem to fall, in a serendipitous way, once I had settled on a topic for my dissertation; "Pierrot Plus Percussion; A Trend Shaping Contemporary Chamber Music, Composition, and Percussion Repertoire", all roads led back to Steve and Mild Violence. And another coincidence being that he conducted my last performance of Mackey's "Micro-Concerto" in October 2011, which is also a Pierrot plus percussion piece.

"American Dreamscape" is the third track for alto saxophone, piano, percussion, contrabass, and electronics, and opens suggesting "uncontrolled kinetic motion--a runaway train, or perhaps a runaway tape reel, spinning faster and faster until it melts onto the tape head." A cosmic exploration of texture at times, and the chaos of a city club strip at others. Track 5, "Beyond the Zero" for solo violin and electronics got my blood boiling the most...in a good way. A very suggestive piece for real violence in war and the world, the interaction between the acoustic and electronic players creates a wonderfully crafted spectral malaise.

I highly recommend checking out this disc for new music connoisseurs, percussionists, and everyone interested in the path of contemporary music.

Visit Steve's awesome webpage here!

Percussion Contributions of Marcin Błażewicz

I feel that many aspects of my career have been charmed. One being the numerous composers I get to collaborate and interact with. I met Marcin Błażewicz in Stuttgart, Germany as I was going onstage to perform his "Concerto Rustico" for the final round of the Stuttgart World Marimba Competition. He was very appreciative of the performance I gave and we began a cherished friendship. I stayed in touch with him through that year and then brought him to Chicago to see me do the US (Chicago) premiere of the same concerto and then record it for my first solo album "Circularity". The next stone in our path together was the duo he composed for me and Ronni Kot Wenzell to premiere on tour in Denmark, Sweden, and later the Midwest. I then saw him again in 2011 in Aalborg, Denmark for the premiere of "Piece for Two Marimbas". I have also recorded his marimba solo, "Sonata for Marimba" on my second album. Nonetheless, it has been a top-rated friendship between two creative people.

As Marcin is very well-known in Poland for his accomplishments as a composer, I feel that that renown does not carry beyond to other parts of the world as it should. I hope that this post will help percussionists worldwide become aware of exquisite contributions Marcin has made to the breadth of quality music we have available. Most of the pieces listed can be found at Edition Svitzer (www.editionsvitzer.com) or Schott Music.

Compositions for percussion:
Arista, Death Omen; for solo percussion and live electronic (1988)
AS; for harp, solo percussion and live electronic (1992)
Kundalini; for 6 percussions and live electronic (1997)
Sahay Manush; for 2 percussions (2005)

Sonata for Marimba (2009)

Second Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra (2005)

Concerto Rustico for marimba and string orchestra (2007)

Piece for Two Marimbas (2011)

And of course Marcin has composer an amazing amount of music for other instruments. The last 5 pieces on the list above can be found on recordings by myself, Mark Ford, or Marta Klimisara.

Marcin Błażewicz – a composer and teacher, born in 1953 in Warsaw. He  started his music education at the age of thirteen. His first compositions come into being then.In between 1974 and 1975, he studied philosophy. In 1982, he graduated with honors from the composition class under Professor Marian Borkowski at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music, in Warsaw (currently the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music). In 1983, he published a proclamation of  his critical attitude to the cultural policy of the Polish authorities and artists’ associations. The composes voices his critical attitude even currently, stating that the system transformation has not altered anything for Polish musicians. Since that time his compositions have been performed more frequently abroad than in Poland. In 1985, he participated in the Iannis Xenakis composition courses and in 1987 being an SACEM grant holder – in the Oliver Messiaen courses.In between 1983 and 1987, Marcin Błażewicz was the artistic director of the independent International Forum of  New Music, which was created by him and a handful of his friends. Since 1985 he has been employed at the Fryderyk Chopin Academy of Music, in Warsaw, where he has had composition and instrumentation classes since 2004.

Super-duper Independent Artist

While doing several miles of traveling this summer I was contemplating the self-promotion that I do online and wondering what more could make it all seem more useful. I came up with the idea, or the expansion of ideas already in place, to specifically feature/help promote other independent artists and collaborators through my email newsletter. I mean, after all, helping each other should be a part of what we artists are about. It ultimately makes our lives better with an abundance of opportunities always there for the taking, or participating.

So, here it is, the first entry of the "Super-duper Independent Artist" Feature.

Neil Thornock's CD, "No Stopping, Standing, or Parking" is the first one I have chosen. Neil gave me his CD in October of 2011 when I was at Brigham Young University collaborating with him and performing his music. I actually drove that trip from Iowa to Utah...yes, 1200 miles! So I popped the disc in the player as I left Utah, and BAM!, it was awesome! I listened to it twice through on the drive back.

After having the idea to add this bit to my newsletters I immediately knew which disc I wanted to start with, so I popped it back in the player recently driving from La Crosse, WI to Chicago and enjoyed it even more than I did the first 2 times 6 months earlier.

It is a saxophone CD. Yes, I have gone bonkers for saxophone. I have always liked the sound of a good saxophone quartet, but Neil has taken it further with saxophone and harpsichord, saxophone and processed carillon, and other great chamber combinations. My favorite track would have to be Traptalk, for saxophone and harpsichord.

One thing you should know about Neil is that he has written me a percussion ensemble and carillon piece and a hammer dulcimer solo. I was originally turned on to him through his carillon solo piece. So, in short, this composer is a cool kat, and will attempt anything with great success!

We are working on recording a CD of his percussion works, to be released...in the future.

Check Neil and his music out at www.neilthornock.net.

What is the right dissertation topic? Dance, Dulcimer, Percussion, Theory?

As I stare down at the deadline for finishing my Doctor of Music degree and ponder endlessly on what I should hunker down and do my dissertation on, I realize maybe it is a good time for a blog post.

There are so many collaboration topics and projects I should be posting about in this blog, but I just haven't made the time to do so. So I thought, why not take some time and put down all the ideas I have for a dissertation topic and maybe this will help facilitate the thinking process...?

Topics in chronological order:

1. A Comprehensive Study of the Dance and Music Collaboration "Genre" Postdating Cage and Cunnigham. As you may be saying to yourself, and as my committee said to me about this one; this could be a whole book. Appropriately, I have abandoned this one for now, and hope to get back to it later in life and write that book.

Following in the steps of Carolyn Brown's, "Chance and Circumstance: Twenty Years with Cage and Cunningham", and works by other authors, I feel there is a need for a user's manual to collaborating between dance and music. John Cage and Merce Cunnigham set a solid genre in motion with their long relationship, and since then there has been an explosion of new works created branching off from this path. A book that interviews collaborators, compiles lists of pieces and artists, defines some common approaches to collaborating, and provides an overall guide to possible ways to begin a collaboration could be very valuable.

2. Research into the trends of contemporary hammer dulcimer repertoire.

This topic is not developed enough in my own mind yet, and as I see it right now, most of the trend is currently coming from me. So I don't think there is enough to run with here...yet.

3. The contributions of composer, Marcin Blazewicz, to contemporary percussion repertoire. Here, I would have analyzed two works by Marcin; "Concerto Rustico for marimba and string orchestra" and "Piece for Two Marimbas", to show the breadth of his contribution to percussion. He is largely unknown in the US, but famous in Poland, and his voice for percussion writing will likely live on for a long time. I would also interview him for this paper, as we are in contact from time to time.

4. This topic idea was similar to # 3, but using the Danish composer, Andy Pape. Andy's output for percussion has been more focused on battery percussion pieces. I would include an in-depth analysis of a couple of his percussion works and attempt to show why his compositional voice resonates so well with percussion instruments.

And finally # 5.

This topic is becoming the most developed in my brain and will likely be where I settle.

A Survey and Analysis of the Use of Hammer Dulcimer in Contemporary Chamber Music. This dissertation will serve to examine and analyze the use of hammer dulcimer in contemporary chamber music from 1978-2006. I have chosen four pieces that utilize a variety of instrumentation with hammer dulcimer, one for each decade starting in 1978. Technical concerns, such as tuning and demands on the performer will be addressed, as well as the role of the instrument in each piece. Other works will be used to hopefully show a change or shift in the importance placed on the hammer dulcimer as an integral role in the texture. Theoretical analysis will be provided for the four pieces, and other repertoire will be presented to support trends on the use of hammer dulcimer.


Signing off to begin writing the outline.

Collab Notes >6< :: CLEARLY/Academic pursuit

CLEARLY is opening the next exhibit at the Brunnier Gallery on the campus at Iowa State University, December 2-3.  I am also looking for a space to open the installation for 4 months from January-April 2012.  This will lead up to the lecture performance I am required to do for my Doctorate of Music from Northwestern University.  News about this space will be coming soon.  Below I have included the proposal I submitted for my DM final project.  Not surprising, I hope, is that it is all about collaboration, and focusing on modern day collaborating duos as the basis for studying process and concepts.

This will likely change, but here is the initial proposal:

A large portion of my work as a percussionist and performer has been collaborating with dancers and choreographers, from accompanying class, performance improvisation, or composition, to directing choreographic, staging, and theatrical ideas.  I am also very interested in the physical connections between dance and percussion playing; both mediums use an intimate understanding of kinetic energy and a controlled combination of movements that originate from the core of the performer and end with variations on sound and rhythm at the distal end.

            My Final Project for a Doctorate of Music at Northwestern University would be an exploration into the process and collaboration between three duos of composer and choreographer.  I would begin with research into the famous and possibly most immediately recognizable duo, John Cage and Merce Cunningham.  I will begin by viewing and listening to several of their collaborative works, reading interviews and their thoughts about collaboration, as well as the thoughts from their dancers and colleagues.

            I will continue this research by exploring the collaborative duos of Peter Martins/John Adams and Nico Muhly/Benjamin Millepied and the work they have produced together.  I hope to interview them to get a more accurate understanding of their thoughts about collaboration and creating a workable synthesis between the two mediums.

            I will then also interview separate choreographers and composers to gather a larger understanding of the experiences they have encountered when collaborating across artistic disciplines.  Some of these artists will include Molly Shanahan, choreographer and director of Mad Shak Dance Company, and Danish composer, Andy Pape.

            The fifth segment of this project will be the ideas and concepts from my collaboration with choreographer, Valerie Williams.  We have worked together for two years and the lecture recital will present our collaboration on the project, CLEARLY; an installation of glass percussion instruments, video, design, and dance.  We will strive to show how the concepts from Cage/Cunningham, Martins/Adams, Muhly/Millepied, and the other choreographers and composers come through in our collaboration, but also how our duo has individual characteristics.  Our unique process most likely circles back to the collaboration of Cage and Cunningham, by using improvisational methods, conceptual ideas, inspirational energy from each performer, and imagery and verbal descriptions for form development.

Collab Notes >7< :: GHC

The Glass House Concerto has quickly become one of those truly exciting collaborations where the actual interaction and upward motion of it is inspiration enough.  I have seen the first draft and reduction on the second movement of the concerto, and will be video recording it for YouTube in hopes to gather more interest in ensembles premiering the work in 2012-2013.  The world premiere will be April 27, 2012 with the ISU Wind Ensemble, and then we have possible engagements in the planning stages with other wind ensembles in Iowa, Pacific US, and Canada.

An updated soloist instrumentation list is here:

+Glass gongs

+Glass xylophone

+Stone xylophone

+Bottle-phone (1-octave tuned bottles)

+Wood blocks/temple blocks/log drums

+4 Hi hats of graduated sizes

+Almglocken

+Glass Wind Chimes

I have included the pros that I wrote about the collaboration in April 2011 here:

"I had the fortune of meeting Andrew and becoming familiar with his work as an artist when hearing the premiere of his composition *Some Assembly Required in November 2010 with the Iowa State University Symphony Orchestra, Jacob Harrison, conductor.  The piece immediately struck me in several exciting ways in that he was extremely clever with the use of all the elements of the modern orchestra (now incorporating numerous percussion instruments and players), the modern techniques of pseudo programmatic works (meter, ostinato, syncopation, pacing, harmony, etc.), and a masterful way of elevating a young orchestra to a resonating and fiery level.

I have had a passionate interest for some time in utilizing glass as a percussion instrument, as well as assembling many sounds from one material, whether found or manufactured, to stand along side the effect you get from a marimba or vibraphone (collections of 10+ woodblocks, 10 temple blocks, and metal objects that don’t exhibit any of the traditional timbre we associate with finely tempered percussion instruments [ie. gas cans from the 1950’s and cracked cymbals]).  I also am quite passionate about zithers, and have collected a 4-octave chromatic dulcimer, a 4.5 octave chromatic Hungarian concert cimbalom, and a 4-octave chromatic bowed psaltery. 

The main impetus for this concerto, which had been forming in my mind for some time, was the collection of glass instruments I was working on acquiring for collaborations with dance (ie. glass xylophone, tuned bottle-phone, glass gongs, wind chimes, glass bells, bowls, vases, and other items made by glass blowers).  Upon hearing Andrew’s work performed by the ISUSO, it immediately resonated with me that this was a composer that would thrive with the request I was about to present.  And the concerto was presented mainly to see what he could do using his choices from all the instruments I have mentioned.

Fatefully, it seems that it was meant to be, and I have to say that the whole connection with Philip Johnson’s Glass House and the coincidence of the events has made the project even more awesomely real, serendipitous, and pertinent to my artistic beliefs. 

The elemental main forces of this concerto will be the uniqueness of timbres presented by the soloist from the glass xylophone, stone xylophone, wood and metal percussion consorts, and other glass instruments added.  Assisting these elements will be an incendiary combination of the connection to the architectural, design, and aesthetics of the Glass House, Andrew’s compositional energy, my passion for the odder things we can make ‘percussion’, and the drive of a wind ensemble sound."