STICKS & STONES

Roger Braun, Majorie Bagley, Michael Carrera

Percussionist, Roger Braun, is the project director of works for solo string instruments and percussion ensemble.

Lou Harrison's Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra, creatively dated by Harrison1959-1940, reflects the composer's diverse musical interests. He creates a kind of “imaginary gamelan” from a percussion orchestra that includes metal pipes, flowerpots, automobile brake drums, sistra, coffee cans, resonated clock coils, gongs, washtubs, and a contrabass laid down and played with metal beaters. But it is the violin solo, with its rigorously controlled melodic material consisting of three intervals, that serves as the focus of the piece and demonstrates Harrison's mastery of mid-twentieth century compositional techniques. — Roger Braun

“Tan Dun, a winner of today's most prestigious honors — the Grawemeyer Award for classical composition, Grammy Award, Academy Award (Oscar) for the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" film score, and Musical America’s "Composer of The Year." Born in Hunan, China. Tan Dun served as a rice-planter and performer of Peking opera during the Cultural Revolution and later studied at Beijing's Central Conservatory. The image of Elegy: Snow in June comes from the 13th-century Chinese drama by Kuan Han-Ching; the cello "sings" of pity and purity, beauty and darkness, and is a lament for victims everywhere and at other times, joining forces with the percussion.”
Paraphrased from © 1991 by Crossings

Mark Phillips, Ohio University Distinguished Professor, won the 1988 Barlow International Competition for Orchestral Music, leading to a collaboration with conductor Leonard Slatkin. His music has been performed by groups such as the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra and has been recorded by Richard Stoltzman and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lark Quartet, and several solo artists. Porch Music came to be out of daydreams about childhood stories about Appalachian workers’ days filled with strenuous physical labor in fields, forests, factories, and coal mines; when Saturday was just another day for hard work and weekends didn't begin until Saturday night; when porches provided escape from the heat on a summer evening and a place for informal social gatherings; a time whenalmost everything was homemade, including music and other entertainments. — Mark Phillips

Roger Braun