Juilliard Percussion Ensemble, Led by Daniel Druckman, Honors Princeton Composers With "Princeton's Presence" on Monday, December 3, 2018, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall

NEW YORK –– The Juilliard Percussion Ensemble, led by director Daniel Druckman, presents “Princeton’s Presence” on Monday, December 3, 2018, at 7:30pm in Alice Tully Hall. The program features works for percussion written by Princeton University faculty members and recent Princeton alumni. The Juilliard Percussion Ensemble will perform Juri Seo’s Four for Flexatones (2009); Juilliard Creative Associate Caroline Shaw’s Taxidermy (2012); Donnacha Dennehy’s Surface Tension (2015); Oscar Bettison’s Four Drums for Dresden (2012); Steven Mackey’s Madrigal (2014); and Andy Akiho’s Pillar IV (2014).

Free tickets are available at the Juilliard or Alice Tully Hall box offices. For more information, go to juilliard.edu/calendar.

Juilliard Percussion Ensemble members are Jacob Borden, Joseph Bricker, Benjamin Cornavaca, Tyler Cunningham, Omar El Abidin, Toby Grace, Simon Herron, Harrison Honor, Euijin Jung, Yoon Jun Kim, Mizuki Morimoto, Stella Perlic, Leo Simon, and Yibing Wang.

About the Program

Daniel Druckman writes in his program note: “Princeton University has long been a dynamic, vibrant environment for composers. Following years of steady guidance by Roger Sessions and Milton Babbitt, the composition department began to embrace a more robust eclecticism championed by the forward thinking and open-mindedness of Paul Lansky and Steven Mackey. More recent hires Barbara White, Dan Trueman, Juri Seo, and Donnacha Dennehy have enhanced this trend. Princeton is now one of the premier destinations for talented young composers, and the music world is filled with notable recent alumni of Princeton, including Julia Wolfe, Oscar Bettison, David Little, Gregory Spears, Judd Greenstein, Andy Akiho, Florent Ghys, and Caroline Shaw, to name a few.

“The presence of Sō Percussion as artists in residence at Princeton for the last few years has created an enhanced awareness of percussion ensemble repertoire and has inspired both faculty and students with the sonic possibilities of this idiom. The result is a fascinating growing body of work for percussion. On this concert, Juilliard Percussion Ensemble explores ‘Princeton’s Presence’ in a number of these works written by faculty members and recent alumni.”

About Daniel Druckman

Percussionist Daniel Druckman is active as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and recording artist. He has appeared in concert throughout the U.S., Europe, and Japan; in recital in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Tokyo; and as a soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic’s Horizons concerts, and the San Francisco Symphony’s New and Unusual Music series. He has been a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1991, serving as associate principal percussionist, and he has made numerous guest appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Da Capo Chamber Players, American Brass Quintet, Orpheus, Steve Reich and Musicians, and the Group for Contemporary Music. Druckman has also participated in chamber music festivals in Santa Fe, Ravinia, Saratoga, Caramoor, Bridgehampton, Tanglewood, and Aspen. An integral part of New York’s new music community, both as soloist and as a member of the New York New Music Ensemble, he has premiered works by Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, Jacob Druckman, Aaron Jay Kernis, Oliver Knussen, Poul Ruders, Milton Babbitt, Ralph Shapey, and Charles Wuorinen, among many others. He has also collaborated with Gilbert Kalish and Wu Han at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Leif Ove Andsnes at Zankel Hall, and Colin Currie at Carnegie Hall. Druckman is chair of Juilliard’s percussion department and director of the Percussion Ensemble. Born and raised in New York City, he is the son of composer Jacob Druckman and attended Juilliard where, in 1980, he received both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music. He undertook additional studies at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood.

About the Juilliard Percussion Ensemble

The Juilliard Percussion Ensemble was founded in the late 1960s by Saul Goodman and has since been led by Roland Kohloff, and its current music director Daniel Druckman. The ensemble appears annually in two concerts at Alice Tully Hall, where in recent seasons it has explored works by Gerard Grisley, Beat Furrer, and Rolf Wallin; celebrated the 85th birthday of George Crumb; surveyed the works of the founders of Bang on a Can: Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe; and honored the 50th anniversary of Les Percussions de Strasbourg with performances of three seminal works from the group’s extensive repertoire. The Juilliard Percussion Ensemble has appeared in concert throughout the New York area, making guest appearances at the Danish Wave festival at Merkin Hall, the New Works/October series at the Miller Theatre, the Cutting Edge series at Greenwich House, and at Carnegie Hall in several performances of the Perspectives series. It also performed Steve Reich’s Drumming with Colin Currie in 2014 and in 2016, joined forces with Juilliard’s AXIOM ensemble for a celebration of Reich’s 80th birthday performing Double Sextet, Mallet Quartet, City Life, and Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ. Last season the ensemble performed percussion music from China in a program titled Bell and Drum.

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PROGRAM LISTING:

Monday, December 3, 2018, 7:30pm, Alice Tully Hall

Juilliard Percussion Ensemble

Daniel Druckman, director

 

Juri SEO (b. 1981): Four for Flexatones (2009)

Caroline SHAW (b. 1982): Taxidermy (2012)

Donnacha DENNEHY (b. 1970): Surface Tension (2015)

Oscar BETTISON (b. 1975): Four Drums for Dresden (2012)

Steven MACKEY (b. 1956): Madrigal (2014)

Andy AKIHO (b. 1979): Pillar IV (2014)

 

Free tickets are available at the Juilliard or Alice Tully Hall box offices. For more information, go to juilliard.edu/calendar.