an intermedia percussion experience
Program:
Green Yellow Green Red (2013) | Nick Zammuto
vibraphone, scratched records, and video collage
as a treat (2021) | Yaz Lancaster
wood, stone, metal, tambourine animation by Miles Inada
Aphasia (2010) | Mark Applebaum
gestures and electronic audio
CoronaVibe Etudes (2020) | Terry Longshore
I: Social Distancing
vibraphone
Cornerstone (2021) | Joe W. Moore III
wood, stone, metal, tambourine
animation by Miles Inada
meditation for metal pipes (2021) | Emma O’Halloran
quintet for 15 just-tuned metal pipes drenched in reverb
video by Miles Inada, Terry Longshore, Christopher Lucas, and Sean O’Skea
Twos and Threes (2015) | Erik Griswold
I. Tender & Intimate
II. Reverent: Wistful
III. Fiery
IV. Tough & Grooving
vibraphone
RELATIVE RATES OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT:
a microstudy of macro-macroeconomics for solo percussion (2021) | Phong Tran
stone and metal
animation by Miles Inada
Trap Hat (2022) | mackxswell and Terry Longshore
hi-hat and electronic audio
Kangaroopak Sardha (2015) | Terry Longshore
quintet for hand drums
video by Terry Longshore
Program Notes:
balance | flow is a solo intermedia percussion performance of music by a diverse body of composers integrating live performance with digital audio, video, and integrated lighting. The music and visuals are immersive and inspirational and draw from my own works, new commissions, and established works in my repertoire.
balance and flow are both important words to me in all aspects of my life.
balance reflects my deep commitment to balance in my life – striving to maintain optimal harmony between family, work, play, etc. It’s a constant work in progress, and one that I’m always learning from. In my professional work I also endeavor to achieve this balance – in commissioning, collaborating with, and programming composers of diverse backgrounds and voices; in instrumental choices and timbres; and between solo and ensemble work. Although this is a “solo” performance, to me it truly feels like the collaborative experience it has been, working with composers and other creative artists.
flow has also been an important part of my process and presentation. I care deeply about the sensory experience of a performance, and how every element flows together. I want the audience to breathe with me and feel like they are immersed in the aural and visual experience.
I first heard Green Yellow Green Red, by Nick Zammuto, when my former grad student, Drew Wright, brought it to a lesson. We ended up playing it as a duet, touring with it and having much fun. It is accompanied by brilliant audio and video, created by Zammuto, of scratched records playing on various phonographs. A six-bar loop of scratched record sounds plays throughout the piece, and the vibraphonist plays ever-increasing, polyrhythmic sets of notes in unison with those sounds. Starting with two notes in the right hand against one in the left, each hand steadily increases its complexity until the end, when a scale of 14 notes in the right hand weaves around 10 notes in the left hand.
Nick Zammuto was one-half of the beloved experimental collage-pop duo, The Books. He lives and works in the Green Mountains of Southern Vermont, where he writes, records, mixes, and masters his records in a small tractor garage converted into a studio. Just yards away from his studio is his house, which he designed and built himself, and large gardens where he and his wife manage to grow most of their own food for their three sons. This self-sufficiency and constant drawing of inspiration from his surroundings is synonymous with his musical vision; a statement about returning to a life in balance, while at the same time pushing the capacity of cutting-edge music technology to extend human emotion, rather than suppress it. Making music that sounds and feels like no one else is nothing new for Zammuto, but making music that doesn't even sound like his own past is a whole other impressive feat in itself.
mini works 2021 was a commissioning consortium organized by New Works Project featuring three composers, each writing a very short piece (about one minute) for four small percussion instruments of the same materials – wood, stone, metal, and a tambourine. My instrument choices are as follows:
a small slat of purple heart wood (this much-loved piece has been in my collection since 1995 and has expressed music from Applebaum to Skin & Bones to Xenakis)
a 12” x 12” ceramic tile purchased at ACME Garage, a funky antique shop in Medford, Oregon
a small “Chanchiki” gong used in Japanese taiko – a lovely gift from Jordan Curcuruto
a Black Swamp TD1S SoundArt tambourine
All three mini works 2021 compositions are featured in balance | flow, and the brilliant animator Miles Inada, my colleague at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University, created incredible animations for them. I have been a long-time fan of Miles’ work, and I was thrilled when he was excited to join this project! The characters Miles developed for each composition are intriguing, comical, and exhibit his darkly humorous style.
as a treat, by Yaz Lancaster, is a sprite, quirky, and fun piece that perfectly introduces the four instruments, starting with wood and then adding the others one by one. I love the fact that Yaz gives each instrument a voice and a little time to hear it before bringing in the next one, creating a lovely conversation. I also love that they included a drawing of a pie on the title page of the score – as a treat! Yum!
Yaz Lancaster (they/them) is a Black transdisciplinary artist. They are most interested in practices aligned with relational aesthetics & the everyday; fragments & collage; and liberatory politics.
Yaz performs as a violinist, vocalist & steel-pannist in a wide variety of settings; and their work is presented in many mediums & collaborative projects. It often reckons with specific influences ranging from politics of liberation & identity to natural phenomena & poetics. Their ongoing independent studies navigates prison-industrial-complex abolition, Marxist theory, and internet/social media cultures. Their writing appears in various online & in-print publications including I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, Afternoon Visitor, the tiny, and Underblong, where their poem “Ratios” was awarded the 2021 Blongprize, as well as a Pushcart nomination.
Yaz has had the privilege & opportunity to build community & create with artists like A Far Cry, Andy Akiho, Beth Morrison Projects, ContaQt (with Evan Ziporyn), Contemporaneous, JACK Quartet, Jacolby Satterwhite, Leilehua Lanzilotti, and Wadada Leo Smith. Most recently they have been developing post-genre duo laydøwn with Canadian guitarist-producer Andrew Noseworthy; and working on new music with BlackBox Ensemble, Bearthoven, and the National Sawdust Ensemble. Yaz has recording credits on recent/upcoming projects with BAKUDI SCREAM, Massa Nera, Miss Grit, & Nyokabi Kariũki. Their debut album of commissioned music for violin/voice & electronics with video AmethYst is forthcoming on people | places | records.
Yaz holds degrees in violin and poetry from New York University where they studied with Cyrus Beroukhim, Robert Honstein, Joan La Barbara & Terrance Hayes (among others). They currently live in Lenapehoking (NYC) with their little dog Nori; and they enjoy chess, horror movies, and jalapeños.
Mark Applebaum’s Aphasia has become one of his most performed and well-known pieces, and launched a cadre of subsequent works that utilize its unique compositional language of invented choreographed gestures set to music. Originally composed for virtuoso vocalist Nicholas Isherwood, as Applebaum states in the score, “The piece is essentially a choreographed dance work. As such, the role of the ‘singer’ may be taken by any performer of suitably enthusiastic inclination and conviction.” Indeed, the composition has been championed by scores of percussionists, which must say something of our enthusiasm.
The electronic audio consists exclusively of transformed vocal samples sung by Nicholas Isherwood. The score includes graphic representation of electronic waveforms, as well as a sophisticated notational system including traditional musical notation and descriptive glyphs denoting the gestures, which are described in painstaking detail in an appendix to the score. With the exception of two gestures which come from American Sign Language, all of “the gestures are named by corresponding real world physical actions….however, the composer’s interest resides in the concrete physicality of each gesture, not its association with an action that has a meaning and utility beyond the stage.”
Mark is one of my closest friends, and I have long championed his music, having premiered, commissioned, and recorded many of his works and collaborated on many projects. I’ll never forget my first exposure to Aphasia – After presenting the finished score to Isherwood, Mark was told it was “impossible.” Discouraged, he set about learning the piece himself to test this hypothesis. While my wife Jennifer and I were visiting, he asked if he could show us something. We sat on the couch in his living room while he performed Aphasia for us. I was astounded – the sheer brilliance of the audio track coupled with the bizarre world of Mark’s gestures, and the intimacy of an unexpected and new form of communication shared between us, was stunning.
Mark Applebaum, Ph.D. is the Edith & Leland Smith Professor of Composition at Stanford University. His solo, chamber, choral, orchestral, operatic, and electroacoustic work has been performed throughout North and South America, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Asia, including notable commissions from the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Fromm Foundation, the Spoleto Festival, the Kronos Quartet, Chamber Music America, and the Vienna Modern Festival. Many of his pieces are characterized by challenges to the conventional boundaries of musical ontology: works for three conductors and no players, a concerto for florist and orchestra, pieces for instruments made of junk, notational specifications that appear on the faces of custom wristwatches, works for an invented sign language choreographed to sound, amplified Dadaist rituals, a chamber work comprised of obsessive page turns, and a 72-foot long graphic score displayed in a museum and accompanied by no instructions for its interpretation. His TED talk has been seen by more than three million viewers. Applebaum is also an accomplished jazz pianist and builds electroacoustic sound-sculptures out of junk, hardware, and found objects. At Stanford Applebaum is the founding director of [sic]—the Stanford Improvisation Collective. He serves on the board of Other Minds and as a trustee of Carleton College.
Photo: Joe Sofranko
Social Distancing was composed at the beginning of the pandemic when I, like many others, was driven to create. It developed out of some improvisations I experimented with in the spring of 2020, not long after being shut down and thick in the mode of working remotely. It is intended to be the first movement of three, in a set called the CoronaVibe Etudes. I have generated ideas for the other two movements, but am yet to compose them. Its mood is melancholic, and reflects my mood at the time.
Cornerstone by Joe W. Moore III is the second mini works 2021 composition, and uses the instruments quite differently than in Yaz Lancaster’s as a treat. Moore treats them as a true multi-percussion instrument, using all four voices from the very beginning as one instrument. He also mixes sonic timbres using mallet handles, rubber mallets, and a special technique depressing the tambourine into foam with the hand. Miles’ animation brings the composition to life with a character I fell in love with immediately - I hope you do too!
Joe W. Moore III currently serves as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Texas Arlington. Prior to this he served on music faculties at the University of Louisiana Monroe, Benedict College, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and the University of Texas at Brownsville. Moore earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Central Florida, a Master of Music degree from the University of South Carolina, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a minor in composition from Louisiana State University. His primary percussion teachers include Jeff Moore, Kirk Gay, Scott Herring, Jim Hall, Brett Dietz and Troy Davis. His composition teachers include Jay Batzner, Brett Dietz, and Dinos Constantinides.
Active as a soloist and chamber musician, Moore performs as a member of the Omojo Percussion Duo, the Ninkasi Percussion Group, 2x2 Percussion, and Dead Resonance. His performances have included appearances at New Music on the Bayou, the Sugarmill Music Festival, the South Texas College Marimba Festival, the Texas Music Educators Association Convention, the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, and the 2018 Percussive Arts Society International Convention.
As a composer, Moore's works have been performed and heard across the United States, South America, Europe, and Asia. C. Alan Publications, Alea Publishing and Recording, Percussion Music Europe, and Musicon Publications publish Dr. Moore's music. He also self-publishes many of his own manuscripts, which can be found in the store of this website.
Dr. Moore's sponsors include Pearl Drums/Adams Musical Instruments, REMO Drumheads, SABIAN Cymbals, Black Swamp Percussion, and Vic Firth sticks and mallets.
meditation for metal pipes by Emma O’Halloran was a work that I co-commissioned as part of the “Everybody Hits” project organized by Adam Groh. Written for “reverb-drenched percussion quintet,” the piece is performed on 15 just-tuned metal pipes, three per player. When the SOU Percussion Ensemble performed the piece in 2021, I fell in love with its rich sonic world and melodic beauty.
I was starting to plan the balance | flow program at that time, and had the idea to create a solo version of meditation, with four of the parts prerecorded, spatialized in the stereo field, and drenched in reverb. I then had the idea to record video of each of the four players, and to shoot those recordings in a cathedral to visually suggest the reverb present in that type of environment. I happened to be meeting with another favorite collaborator, SOU Digital Film Professor Chistopher Lucas, and described the project to him. He asked if I had ever heard of Unreal Engine and I said, “no.” Chris described this 3D computer graphics environment creation software to me, and said that Miles Inada and SOU Theatre Arts Professor of Scenic Design Sean O’Skea had been working with it. Chris said, “Sean could build you a cathedral!”
The next thing I knew the four of us were meeting and beginning to plan the creation of the version of meditation you are experiencing today, with four of me set in four different “reverb-suggestive” virtual environments: a cave, the NYC Time Square Subway Station, a factory, and St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin, Ireland - a hat’s off to Emma. I had the pleasure of visiting St. Patrick’s this past October, and also visiting Emma while in Ireland. When I showed her some of Sean’s early renderings, she pointed to where she sang as a child in St. Patrick’s!
This collaboration with Chris, Miles, and Sean has been a delight – each of us bringing our own areas of expertise to the project and working on it together for several months. I am thrilled with the outcome, and excited to share this new version of meditation for metal pipes with you!
Emma O’Halloran is an Irish composer and vocalist. Freely intertwining acoustic and electronic music, O’Halloran has written for folk musicians, chamber ensembles, turntables, laptop orchestra, symphony orchestra, film, and theatre. Her work has been described as “intensely beautiful” (Washington Post) and “unencumbered, authentic, and joyful” (I Care If You Listen), and has won numerous competitions, including National Sawdust’s inaugural Hildegard competition and the Next Generation award from Beth Morrison Projects.
O’Halloran’s music aims to capture the human experience, exploring complex emotions felt at specific moments in time. This approach has found a wide audience: her work has been featured at Classical NEXT in Rotterdam, the Prototype Festival in New York, New Music Dublin Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, and MATA Festival. Additionally, her music has been performed by Crash Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, the Refugee Orchestra Project, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and the Irish National Symphony Orchestra, amongst others.
Along with composer Amanda Feery and in collaboration with the Irish National Concert Hall, O’Halloran founded the Creative Lab, a mentorship programme for young composers from traditionally underrepresented groups in music composition. She holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton University and is currently working as a freelance composer. Current and future projects include works for F-PLUS, Friction Quartet, the Irish Youth Training Choir, and an evening-length song-cycle.
Miles Inada is an animator, cartoonist, game designer, and human being seeking shelter from the death storm of global capitalism. His work has been screened at the Tribeca Film Festival (New York, NY), San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (San Francisco, CA), Ausstellungsraum Klingetal (Basel, Switzerland), and The Ashland Independent Film Festival (Ashland, OR). He has won awards at the Atlanta Film Festival (Atlanta, GA), Riverrun International Film Festival (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), Berkeley Video Festival (Berkeley, CA), Rochester International Film Festival (Rochester, NY), and Film Fest New Haven (New Haven, CT), and been awarded production grants from the City of Cincinnati and the Civil Liberties Public Education Fund. He is a Professor of Art and Emerging Media at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon.
Christopher Lucas was awarded a doctorate in media studies from the University of Texas in 2011 with specializations in media industry studies and film studies. He teaches courses in documentary and non-fiction cinema, screenwriting, cinematography, film editing, and online journalism. He produced the documentary Above All Else, which premiered at SXSW in 2014, and numerous shorts and commercial projects as a staff producer with Fiege Films in Austin, Texas. He was an associate producer on The Sensitives (Tribeca, 2017) and Living Springs, an interactive environmental documentary about Barton Springs in Austin. He has been a participant in the Spotlight On Documentaries Forum at IFP’s Film Week and Doc Society’s Climate Story Lab.
Sean O’Skea is the author of “Painting for Performance” Focal Press; he is a frequent contributor to Dramatics and Teaching Theatre magazine. He is also a Freelance Designer with 3rd Rail Rep and Broadway Rose Musical Theatre Company.
Erik Griswold composed Twos and Threes for me in 2015, following my residency at Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, supported by an Oregon Arts Commission Career Development Grant. A long-time proponent and innovator of the prepared piano, Erik was interested in what sounds could be created by preparing the vibraphone. We experimented with different materials – coins, paper clips, folded paper, cardboard pads, aluminum foil, etc. – and found many intriguing sounds. For logistical reasons, I often perform Twos and Threes without the preparations, and Erik and I agree that the music stands alone well-enough for an “unprepared” version.
The title comes from my oft-quoted response to students when they ask about a difficult rhythm, “It’s all twos and threes!” Erik used this as an organizing principle throughout the piece, structuring rhythmic cells, pitch classes, and preparation groupings.
Erik recorded some of my improvisations, and the first movement, Tender & Intimate, was inspired by one of those improvisations. A “quasi bossa nova,” this movement begins in a meter of 7/4, then quickly changes to 2/2, while grouping the rhythms in each hand in fives and sevens, further divided into twos and threes. The second movement, Reverent: Wistful, is a beautifully relaxed movement featuring the sustained resonance of bowing some of the notes. Fiery, the third movement, utilizes a scale based on three half-step interval pairs which create an intense resonance paired with the vibrato of the vibraphone motor. Finally, Tough & Grooving lives up to its name and closes the piece in a style akin to many of Erik’s prepared piano compositions.
Erik Griswold is a composer and pianist working in contemporary classical, improvised, and experimental forms. Particular interests include prepared piano, percussion, environmental music, and music of Sichuan province. Originally from San Diego, and now residing in Brisbane, he composes for adventurous musicians, performs as a soloist and in Clocked Out, and collaborates with musicians, artists, dancers, and poets.
His music has been performed in Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Cafe Oto, Chengdu Arts Centre, Melbourne Festival, OzAsia Festival, and Brisbane Festival, among others. He is a recipient of an Australia Council Fellowship in Music, a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, and numerous individual grants. He has collaborated with musicians Steven Schick, Margaret Leng Tan, the Australian Art Orchestra, Decibel Ensemble, Zephyr String Quartet, Ensemble Offspring, and many others. His music can be heard on Mode Records, Innova, Room40, Move, Clocked Out and Immediata.
Together with Vanessa Tomlinson, Griswold directs Clocked Out, who create original music for prepared piano, percussion, found objects, and toys. Their albums include Time Crystals, Foreign Objects, Water Pushes Sand, and Every night the same dream. Clocked Out also produces innovative concert series, events and tours, for which they have received the APRA-AMCOS Award for Excellence by an Organisation (2011) and two Green Room Awards (2000).
Phong Tran’s RELATIVE RATES OF TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT: a microstudy of macro-macroeconomics for solo percussion, the third and final mini works 2021 composition, pares down the instrumental voices to only two: stone and metal. The simple instrumentation is mirrored by a simple approach of using accents to introduce complexity, tension, and release to the music. Again, Miles Inada complements the music beautifully with his otherworldly animation.
Phong Tran is a Brooklyn-based composer and visual artist primarily working in digital and electronic mediums. His work revolves around emotions and experience in nonphysical spaces. His most recent album, “The Computer Room” is a thank you to virtual worlds, video games, message boards, and the people that filled them in the early 2000s.
Phong’s work has been released through New Amsterdam Records, people | places | records and slashsound, and performs live using all analog and modular synthesizers. Phong works in MEDIAQUEER with fellow composer and visual artist Darian Thomas. MEDIAQUEER is an interdisciplinary project with Phong performing synthesizer and Darian on violin as well as working together to create visual art and video.
Trap Hat was created in 2020 with my son, Maxwell Longshore (aka mackxswell), who was home for the holidays and wanting to learn some new chord progressions for use in his music production. I played him a chord progression I had heard jazz pianist Robert Glasper use, and then I went to my vibraphone and started improvising with a re-voiced version of the progression. Max immediately asked, “can I record you?” We set up a microphone, recorded a basic groove and some improvised ideas based on it, and Max disappeared into his bedroom and emerged a while later with essentially what you are hearing today. I loved what he did with the hi-hat on the track, and told him I’d like to perform a version with trades between his electronic hi-hats and my own live hi-hats. Trap Hat is the result of that collaboration, and in January 2023 became the theme music for Jefferson Public Radio’s Jefferson Exchange program. I premiered the live version in October, 2022 at The Rugby School in England.
Maxwell Longshore (aka mackxswell) is one of Portland’s next up and coming producers who uses his influences from producers like Mike Dean, Dez Wright, and 808 Mafia to create a passionate yet emotionally driven style of music that fuses Hip-Hop and Trap together. Maxwell has had his work featured in a number of different advertisements for companies such as Guayaki, The Hundreds, and Half Evil. With familiarity in numerous softwares such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro, and Pro Tools Maxwell’s skillset is extremely versatile. Capable of sound design, composing, mixing, and mastering, Maxwell brings extremely valuable capabilities to the table. After receiving his bachelor’s degree in the Spring of 2022, Maxwell has been taking his music career to the next level by producing for some of Portland’s flourishing artists in the Hip-Hop scene and building the rising wave of Portland Hip-Hop.
Kangaroopak Sardha (2015) was composed and dedicated to Vanessa Tomlinson and Ba Da Boom percussion of the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, in Brisbane, Australia. It was premiered there on August 26, 2015 as part of the concert “Clocked Out presents Music of the Pacific Rim.”
Kangaroopak Sardha is inspired by the music of John Bergamo and the Hands On’Semble. In particular its form was inspired by Wart Hog #3 by Austin Wrinkle of the Hands On’Semble. Kangaroopak Sardha is based largely on the North Indian tala, or rhythmic cycle, of Sardha Roopak, a cycle in 10.5 beats. It also uses the North Indian tala of Jhaptal, a cycle in 10 beats.
Kangaroopak Sardha's notation uses a combination of western rhythm and Indian bols - mnemonic syllables used in India to compose, teach, and remember pieces of music. The syllables have no meaning; they are merely a rhythmic language. The syllables used in Kangaroopak Sardha are a combination of bols from North and South India. The bols have been simplified in order to make translation to other instruments more straightforward, and also to ease in the pronunciation. The North Indian practice of khali, or an “empty” portion of the tala, is not observed.
The instrumentation of Kangaroopak Sardha is open; any instruments may be used, or it may be performed a capella using only the bols. It was written with hand drums in mind, but it may be translated to any percussion, or non-percussion, instruments desired. Also, the parts may be doubled, tripled, etc. to accommodate more players.
Photo: Joe Sofranko
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. Blue Sky Music writes, “Longshore’s understated virtuosity is percussion poetry at its best.”
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 artistic director of Knock on Wood Percussion, and the co-artistic director of several ensembles: flute and percussion duo Caballito Negro with Tessa Brinckman, percussion duo Skin & Bones with Brett Reed, and Left Edge Collective with David Bithell. He is also Principal Percussionist of the Rogue Valley Symphony and performs actively as a member of the Portland Percussion Group, Flamenco Pacifico, and Dúo Flamenco, and was a founding member of Conundrum, Sonoluminescence, and red fish blue fish. He has appeared at numerous festivals and concert series including the Bang on a Can Long Play Festival (Brooklyn) and Bang on a Can Marathons (NYC), the Los Angeles Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, the Britt Music & Arts Festival, Makrokosmos Project (Portland), the Transplanted Roots International Percussion Symposia (Montreal, Guanajuato, and San Diego), 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 is currently touring his solo program, “balance | flow – an intermedia percussion experience” featuring the music of Mark Applebaum, Erik Griswold, Yaz Lancaster, Joe W. Moore III, Emma O’Halloran, Phong Tran, Nick Zammuto, and mackxswell and Terry Longshore and with visual creations by Miles Inada, Terry Longshore, Christopher Lucas, Sean O’Skea, and Nick Zammuto.
Longshore has premiered over 100 compositions for solo percussion, percussion ensemble, chamber ensemble, symphony orchestra, and the theatre. In 2023 he premiered Teddy Abrams’ Mammoth with Yo-Yo Ma and the Louisville Orchestra in the Mammoth Caves of Kentucky. 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. His composition Trap Hat with his son, mackxswell, is featured as the the theme music to Jefferson Public Radio’s The Jefferson Exchange. Terry Longshore is a Marimba One Vibe Artist, and an Artist Endorser for Black Swamp Percussion, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, Remo Drumheads, Gon Bops Percussion, and Beato Bags.
As Professor of Music, Artist in Residence, and Director of Percussion Studies at Southern Oregon University, he directs Left Edge Percussion and the SOU Percussion Ensemble and in addition to the the percussion curriculum has taught courses including Recreational & Empowerment Drumming, Business of Music, Art & Music of the 20th Century to Present, and Music of the World. He is a trained HealthRHYTHMS facilitator, and has facilitated Recreational & Empowerment Drumming workshops and classes for hundreds of participants, including at the Interlochen Arts Academy and Portland Summer Percussion Academy.
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, Ronald Holloway, David Glyde, Chuck Flores, Swapan Chaudhuri, and Kartik Seshadri. He enjoys hiking, fly fishing, cycling, and especially traveling the world with his wife Jennifer and hanging out with his children, Madeleine and Maxwell.
Special Thanks To:
To this fabulous group of composers – I am so thankful to get to perform your music! Mark Applebaum, Erik Griswold, Yaz Lancaster, Maxwell Longshore, Joe W. Moore III, Emma O’Halloran, Phong Tran, and Nick Zammuto.
To my awesome collaborators – Miles Inada, Christopher Lucas, and Sean O’Skea. It was so fun to jam with you all!
To my incredible hosts on this tour: Michael Compitello, Arizona State University; Doug Nottingham, Glendale Community College; Morris Palter and Brett Reed, University of Arizona; Abby Fisher, Northern Arizona University; Scott Ney, University of New Mexico; Lynn Vartan, Southern Utah University, Andy Heglund, University of Nevada, Reno; Joel Garza, Western Oregon University; Chris Whyte, Portland State University; Ben Cobb, Oregon Shakespeare Festival Green Show; Mark Applebaum, Stanford University; Constantin Basica, CCRMA @ Stanford; Ron Samuels, Marimba One; Melanie Schauwecker, Arcata Playhouse; Joel Clifft, Azusa Pacific University; Joe McNalley, Hutchins Consort.
To my awesome sponsors: Marimba One, Black Swamp Percussion, Zildjian, Vic Firth, Remo, Gon Bops, and Beato Bags! I am so fortunate to play the best instruments available!
Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University
Dr. David Humphrey, Director – Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University
Dr. Vicki Purslow, Chair – SOU Music Program
Kim Andresen, Marketing and Box Office Manager – Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU
Beth Glosner, Program Assistant – SOU Music Program
Cathi Romero-Molay, Production Manager – Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU
Dr. Derek Keller, Assistant Professor of Music, SOU
Tom Knapp, Former Production Manager – Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU
Bryan Jeffs, Adjunct Instructor of Percussion – SOU Music Program
Dr. Iván Manzanilla, Visiting Instructor of Percussion – SOU Music Program/University of Guanajuato
Dr. Susan Walsh, SOU Provost
SOU Professional Development Committee
To Dean Kyle – my Ableton Production Consultant Extraordinaire!
To Delaney Jai for the beautiful logos!
To all of my students, past and present, for your constant inspiration!
To Laurie Kurutz and Jane Hickinbotham for the fabric and Denise Souza-Finney for making my screen skirt.
To Will Harris for making the pipes for meditation for metal pipes.
To Joe Sofranko for the great photos and video!
To Miles Inada for his amazing art, and Neal Thompson at NLT Designs for the beautiful t-shirts!
To Frankie Hernandez at The Sign Dude for the awesome stickers!
Drs. Prakash Chenjeri and Justin Harmon – SOU Campus Theme Directors
Dr. Daniel DeNeui and Dee Fretwell – SOU Creativity Conference
And finally, to Jennifer Longshore, for being my inspiration for everything – I couldn’t do it without you!