BoaC ricefall — Terry Longshore

Friday, April 29, 7:30pm

Mark Morris Dance Center

Brooklyn, New York

Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensemble

Terry Longshore, Artistic Director

Bryan Jeffs, Director

ricefall

by Michael Pisaro-Liu

Performers:

Program:

ricefall (2004) Michael Pisaro-Liu (b. 1961)

Program note:

ricefall is for 1x16, 2x16, 3x16 or 4x16 performers, rice, materials and a performance location.
the duration of the piece is 18 minutes.

the performing space is divided up into a square surface, 12 by 12 meters (ca. 40 x 40 feet), although smaller spaces might work.
there are sixteen squares of ca. 3 x 3 meters, with four units in each direction.
one performer (or the multiple thereof) will occupy each square. if there is more than one person per square, the performers may divide it equally, or may multiply the total area of the square.

in each square there is a material (on the floor) and a small table (with a container of rice).

there are eight kinds of material on the floor: metal, wood, stone, paper (on a hard surface), hard plastic, rice, dry leaves and ceramic (or glass).
the material should cover as much of the square as possible, given the performer a large surface on which to let the rice fall.

each kind material is used in two different locations, but there should be a clear difference in sound (resonance and/or pitch) between the two, as between, for instance a metal platter and a metal bowl, or different kinds or weights of paper.

the materials, with their different resonances are laid out by chance or choice.

all of the sounds in this piece are created by rice falling. the performers should use dry, uncooked rice of any kind and size (though it would be ideal to mix the various kinds and sizes). performers will probably need ca. 2 to 3 pounds of rice each. perhaps, afterwards, it can be cleaned and cooked.

there are sixteen individual parts, one for each player. these may be distributed at random. where multiples of two, three or four are involved, the players sharing the same square should have the same part.

the performance begins and ends with a minute of silence.

Biographies:

Michael Pisaro-Liu (born, Michael Pisaro, 1961 in Buffalo, New York) is a guitarist and composer and a long-time member of the Wandelweiser collective. While, like other members of Wandelweiser, Pisaro-Liu is known for pieces of long duration with periods of silence, in the past fifteen years his work has branched out in many directions, including work with field recording, electronics, improvisation and ensembles of very different kinds of instrumental constitution.

Pisaro-Liu has a long-standing collaboration with percussionist Greg Stuart, with over thirty collaborations (pieces and recordings) to date, including their 3-disc set, Continuum Unbound from 2014 and Umbra & Penumbra for amplified percussion and orchestra premiered by the La Jolla Symphony in February, 2020. Pisaro-Liu also has recurring (intermittent) duos with Christian Wolff, Keith Rowe, Taku Sugimoto, Antoine Beuger, Graham Lambkin, Toshiya Tsunoda and Reinier van Houdt. There are several recent compositions for orchestras of various kinds and constitutions – including commissioned work for the BBC Scottish Symphony, INSUB MetaOrchestra and the Grand Orchestre de Muzzix. Much of his current work takes the form of mixed-media assemblages, in collaboration with filmmaker/artist/writer Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Pisaro-Liu.

Recordings of his music have been released by Edition Wandelweiser Records, erstwhile records, New World Records, elsewhere music, Hubro, Potlatch, another timbre, meena/ftarri, Senufo Editions, Intonema, winds measure, HEM Berlin and on Pisaro's own imprint, Gravity Wave. His work is regularly performed throughout the US, Europe, South America and Southeast Asia.

Pisaro-Liu is the Director of Composition and Experimental Music the California Institute of the Arts.

The Southern Oregon University Percussion Ensemble, directed by Bryan Jeffs, is dedicated to the performance of contemporary percussion repertoire and providing the members with a variety of musical experiences. The ensemble frequently collaborates with notable composers on premieres of new works, performing repertoire ranging from contemporary music to world traditions to jazz- and rock-inspired compositions.

The ensemble gives several concerts every year at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, as well as many performances throughout the Southern Oregon community and the Pacific Northwest. The ensemble performs yearly at the Northwest Percussion Festival and has appeared at the Teatro Principal in Guanajuato, Mexico, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), Stanford University, the Trinity Alps Performing Arts Center, and the Oregon Fringe Festival. In 2022 the ensemble will perform at the Bang on a Can Long Play Festival in New York City.

The ensemble has collaborated with many guest artists including Ivan Trevino, Steven Schick, Mark Applebaum, Hands On’Semble, Steve Smith, Bonnie Whiting, William Kraft, Erik Griswold, Vanessa Tomlinson, Ivan Manzanilla, Dana Reason, Tatsuya Nakatani, Lynn Vartan, Matthew Coley, Brad Dutz, and Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic. The ensemble has commissioned, co-commissioned, or premiered works from Mark Applebaum, Michael Gordon, Elliott Cole, Ivan Trevino, Bryan Jeffs, Jared Brown, Chris Burton Jácome, Jodi French, Mark Knippel, Colin Malloy, Jeff Richmond, Stephen Truelove, and Terry Longshore.

The SOU Percussion Ensemble has self-released two CDs, La Alma del Árbol – The Soul of the Tree, and Electric Rebel Poetry, and is featured on two Innova Recordings CDs of the music of Stanford University composer Mark Applebaum: 30 (2015) and Speed Dating (2018), as well on the Cantaloupe Music recording of Michael Gordon’s Natural History (2018) and the PBS documentary, Symphony for Nature (2018). The SOU Percussion Ensemble endorses Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets.

Terry Longshore is a percussionist whose genre-crossing work exhibits the artistry of the concert stage, the spontaneity of jazz, and the energy of a rock club. Based in Ashland, Oregon, he maintains an energetic career as a performer, composer, and educator. He serves as Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, where he directs Left Edge Percussion and is Chair and Graduate Coordinator of the Music Program.

Whether collaborating with artists of diverse media, composing live music for dance and theatre, or premiering works by today’s most ground-breaking composers, Terry Longshore brings a dynamic voice to every musical encounter. He is the co-artistic director of flute and percussion duo Caballito Negro and intermedia duo Left Edge Collective, and performs actively as a member of the Portland Percussion Group and Flamenco Pacifico. He has also performed extensively with prominent ensembles Skin & Bones, Conundrum, Sonoluminescence, and red fish blue fish. He has appeared at numerous festivals and concert series including the Bang on a Can Marathon (NYC), the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, the Britt Music & Arts Festival, Makrokosmos Project (Portland), the Transplanted Roots International Percussion Symposium (Montreal and Guanajuato), Musik i Väst Festival (Sweden), the Cabrillo Music Festival, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Festival of New American Music, the Northwest Percussion Festival, The Oregon Fringe Festival, Center for New Music (San Francisco), and numerous times at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). His compositions for percussion have been performed at festivals and competitions throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Longshore has premiered over 100 compositions for solo percussion, percussion ensemble, chamber ensemble, symphony orchestra, and the theatre. With nearly 100 tracks on Spotify and other music platforms, his recordings include multiple CDs for composer Mark Applebaum on the innova and Tzadik labels, the percussion music of Iannis Xenakis on Mode Recordings, music of percussion maverick William Kraft on Albany, and Michael Gordon’s Natural History on Cantaloupe Music. He also champions new solo and chamber works for percussion by commissioning, organizing, and participating in consortium commissions from a diverse body of composers. Terry Longshore is a Marimba One Vibe Artist, a Yamaha Performing Artist, and an artist endorser for Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, Remo Drumheads, Gon Bops Percussion, and Beato Bags. He is a member of the Black Swamp Percussion Education Network, and is a trained HealthRHYTHMS facilitator.

Terry Longshore holds bachelor’s degrees from the California State University at Fresno (Business Administration – Computer Applications and Systems) and Sacramento (Music – Percussion Performance) and master’s and doctoral degrees in Contemporary Music Performance from the University of California, San Diego. His education includes significant study of Spanish flamenco and the classical music of India, including study at the Ali Akbar College of Music. His teachers include Steven Schick, Daniel Kennedy, Swapan Chaudhuri, Ronald Holloway, David Glyde, Chuck Flores, and Kartik Seshadri. He enjoys fly fishing, cycling, hiking, and especially traveling the world with his wife Jennifer and hanging out with his children, Madeleine and Maxwell.

Bryan Jeffs is a Southern Oregon-based percussionist, educator, composer, and general musical tinkerer. Blending a passion for pop music and the avant-garde, his work encompasses a wide variety of interests and influences. As a composer he has created numerous works for percussion utilizing both traditional and graphic notation while also utilizing a variety of physical media. His compositions and performances evoke a sense of lighthearted playfulness balanced with complexity and technical demand. This is best exemplified in his “Rebel Frog” trilogy of pieces for percussion ensemble.

Notable festival appearances include the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), Northwest Percussion Festival, the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, The Oregon Fringe Festival, and numerous Day of Percussion events around the Pacific Northwest. His piece Contactual Constellations, an innovative graphic score with the notation printed directly onto drum heads, was premiered at PASIC in 2014. In 2016, the Oregon Fringe Festival commissioned the work Ashland, Oregon, a graphic score based on the geography of Ashland, Oregon.

In 2007, Bryan graduated from Southern Oregon University, where while studying under Dr. Terry Longshore he earned the bachelor’s degree in music performance and music education. Following that, he earned his Master’s degree in percussion performance while studying under Dr. Daniel Kennedy at California State University, Sacramento.

Currently, Bryan serves as an adjunct faculty member at Southern Oregon University where he directs the SOU Raider Band and SOU Percussion Ensemble, teaches percussion and a wide variety of general music courses spanning rock and roll, world music, and hip hop. Bryan is an educational artist for Remo Drumheads and Vic Firth sticks and mallets as well as a member of the Black Swamp Percussion Educator Network.

Select compositions are available through APAKA Music LLC and The Rebel Frog’s Workshop.