Third Coast Percussion (Photo: Saverio Truglia)
From a household object to a marimba, a percussion instrument can take many forms. And so can a percussion ensemble.
Third Coast Percussion is one of the most enterprising and creative ensembles working today. The first percussion group to win a Grammy in chamber music for 2017’s Third Coast Percussion | Steve Reich, the ensemble has made recordings with over 100 different artists, from Missy Mazzoli and Philip Gladd to Glenn Kotche and Jlin.
For the last 20 years, the group has given concerts in Chicago and around the world, commissioned new works, expanded the definition of a “percussion instrument,” and taught audiences everywhere about the joy of exploring sound.
This weekend, the ensemble holds an epic celebratory day of music and rhythmic exploration at Chicago’s Epiphany Center for the Arts. Rhythm Fest features interactive performances, installations, and events with appearances and music from Jessie Montgomery, Clarice Assad, ~Nois, Conrad Tao, and many more friends and collaborators.
WFMT sat down with two of the four members of Third Coast Percussion — executive director David Skidmore and technical director Sean Connors — to reflect on the group’s 20 year anniversary and preview the celebrations.
WFMT: Take us back to the first time Third Coast Percussion began to feel like a real idea. Did you ever dream back then that you would still be together all these years later?
David Skidmore: When we first started, we had this idea that percussion ensemble music should be played on the same stages as string quartets, jazz combos, and dance companies. We believed in the music we were playing… but I had no idea what 20 years in the future would bring!
It’s surreal because it feels in some ways not different at all from the beginning. If I could talk to myself 20 years ago, that person would be surprised and delighted to find out we’re still going.
WFMT: What had been your experience with percussion ensembles prior to Third Coast?
Skidmore: There were some wonderful professional percussion ensembles that we looked up to: NEXUS Percussion, Kroumata Percussion. Sō Percussion started about 5 years before us. But the majority of percussion ensemble performances at the time happened in schools, primarily focused on universities and conservatories. We had an interest in bringing percussion music to wider audiences.
We all studied at Northwestern University with a professor named Michael Burritt, who took percussion ensemble music as seriously as he took our orchestral or solo playing. That fueled the feeling that this music is just as exciting and engaging for audiences.
WFMT: What are some memorable moments that stand out from the beginning of your group?
Skidmore: Well our first official show was on June 25, 2005, on the campus of Northwestern University.
The early stuff was really DIY: I remember we rolled a marimba through the streets of Evanston to get to the Music Institute of Chicago. No one came to the first couple of shows because we didn’t do a good job of advertising. The first concerts we programmed called for four, 5-octave marimbas. We would spend 10 hours setting up for the show, only to play a 45 minute set, and spend 5 hours tearing down!
It was a lot of fun concerts — but hard lessons — that led to the idea of professionalizing the group.
WFMT: What would you say are the musical strengths of a percussion ensemble?
Sean Connors: Diversity of sound. Anything in the world that you strike or shake, can and will be a percussion instrument. In the same concert, we could play readily identifiable instruments like drums and a marimba, then transition to found objects from around your house, like tin cans or wood cut to a specific pitch. Then, transition again to using instruments from a different culture. The diversity that percussion provides is enormous.
WFMT: Do either of you have a favorite instrument, or a favorite weird instrument you’ve played?
Connors: So I was actually thinking about this question. At Rhythm Fest on June 28, we’re going to have an instrument “petting zoo”, and I was thinking about some fun things to have out. We recently played a concerto by Clarice Assad called Play about all the ways of having fun. So we’re going to have a giant rubber chicken, maybe about 2 feet tall, in the courtyard. I think that’s my current favorite instrument: a giant, squealing, rubber chicken.
Skidmore: Well, the bar has been set high!
To twist the question a little bit, my absolute favorite thing is discovering new sounds. If you play another instrument — piano, electric guitar, synthesizer — you can continue to discover new subtleties, but for most people, their instrument is their primary means of expression.
The excitement and challenge of being a percussionist is that I might pick up a new instrument tomorrow and have to make it sound as good as possible. I can still have that journey of discovery as a part of my musical practice. Not only is that allowed, but it’s expected.
I can’t pick one instrument, though maybe I’ll say the marimba because the it features at so many of our concerts. It’s an incredibly expressive instrument, and we’re still exploring the many sounds it’s capable of.
Connors: I’ll twist the question one more time and say, I think my favorite thing that I’m gonna to play at Rhythm Fest is a drum pad hooked via contact microphone into a computer that triggers beautiful melodies and harmonies. Elori Saxl designed this completely DIY instrument for drum pads, computers, and a digital audio workstation.
WFMT: TCP is known for its collaborations with contemporary composers. What do you look for when choosing composers? Who has been your longest collaborator?
Skidmore: I’d say we don’t have an official criteria, but I know that we look for any musician who inspires us… unrestricted by genre. If we find a musician who inspires us, who we see a potential connection with, we just reach out. It doesn’t matter if they use notation at all. It doesn’t matter if their practice is primarily improvised or if their musical upbringing is completely different than ours. In fact, we love that! Entering our 21st year, big challenges are really inspiring for us.
The second criteria is a real willingness to collaborate with us. We don’t ask composers to write a piece without collaboration. We collaborate as closely with the music creators as they have an appetite for it, or as schedules allow.
As for longest, if I were to throw out one name I would say Augusta Read Thomas. She was an early inspiration and mentor figure for Third Coast; she gave us a lot of advice about navigating the professional music landscape. But she’s also written something like four or five pieces that we’ve premiered, one of them being a very large scale work for about 300 pieces of resonant metal, called Resounding Earth. We’ll play a snippet of it at Rhythm Fest.
WFMT: Why commemorate your 20th anniversary with a festival?
Connors: Well, one of the things that stands out when we reminisce about 20 years is all of the incredible artists that we have built projects with. How cool would it be to just gather as many of them as humanly possible together, and put on a fun party?
Rhythm Fest will be an all day event at the Epiphany Center for the Arts, 201 South Ashland Ave, that features 20 years’ worth of collaborations with Third Coast. We will be playing throughout the day in different contexts, with interactive elements for audience members as well as a featured evening set.
There will be about 20 sets in various spaces: electronic musicians featured in the basement in the catacombs, a sound and video art installation by our friend Glenn Kotche in the guild room. There will be a main stage: Third Coast’s own set will be in there, as well as a set by Michael Burritt and Ivan Trevino, featuring Jake Nissly and the Chicago premiere of a work by Zakir Hussain. There will be a piano and electronic set by Conrad Tao. The evening will close with Jlin, a frequent collaborator of Third Coast, playing an electronic set.
And that’s not all: there will be music upstairs in the sanctuary. There’ll be music outside in the courtyard. There’ll be music in another structure called the Chase House. If you’re not into one thing, just go to a different room and something completely different will be happening. The first event will be at 12 pm: an interactive drum circle, no experience needed, with members of Third Coast Percussion.
WFMT: Pivoting to your latest album Standard Stoppages, how does it reflect on your 20th year as a group?
Skidmore: We were definitely thinking about our 20th anniversary when planning for the album. We wanted to ask a few favorite creators from the past to write us new works. Let’s also reach out to some dream collaborators to create new partnerships: among them, Jessie Montgomery, Tigran Hamasyan, and Zakir Hussain. We’ll get to perform with all of the collaborators on the album over the course of this year and next.
As the pieces started to come in, there was this thread of time that ran through all of them. It was on our mind as well, thinking about 20 years past and what the future holds. That led to the title of the album Standard Stoppages. It’s kind of an homage to this work by Marcel Duchamp where a single string is dropped, and when it’s dropped it twists in and around itself in these unpredictable ways.
It became this beautiful metaphor for us. I mentioned it already at the beginning: most days I wake up and don’t feel that much different from 2005 when we were getting this thing started. But I know that so much is different. In many ways, time can be tricky and interesting… and also such an important part of a percussionist’s life!
WFMT: What has been the most difficult part of being in a music project for so long? Do you have any advice for people who are just starting out?
Connors: I’ll start with the advice because that’s an easier one. If you have something you want to be doing in the future, start working on it right now. Big goals happen through consistent small efforts. We didn’t instantly become a full-time percussion ensemble: it took the first 8 years of the group’s existence to get to that mark. Ask for advice, all that stuff, but just start doing it. Start telling people that you’re doing it. It will coalesce from the everyday work you will do.
And then the hardest parts, I don’t know. We’ve developed a kind of mantra within Third Coast Percussion: make a plan, but be flexible. I think that that mantra has been a positive outcome of the hardest moments. March 2020, that was pretty hard for a group that exists primarily to interact with people through music performances. But the silver lining from that whole experience is that we became really savvy with technology that we’ve now kept and incorporated. We’ve increased our online presence and realized that people are listening to us in parts of the world we wouldn’t have assumed.
WFMT: What are you most proud of when thinking back on the history of TCP?
Connors: I’m personally most proud that this is our job that we get to do this every day! It’s a privilege, especially as an artist, to be allowed to be this focused… and I do not take it for granted.
Skidmore: I’m really proud of how we, as an entire organization, hold ourselves to a very high standard. Both in how we present our music, but also in how we treat each other and the people that we interact with. When we get compliments about mentorship, or welcoming people into an experience, or even just creating a positive environment, that really means a lot.
I know that when I was younger, the learning process made me question whether excellence has to mean ruthlessness. It doesn’t, and I appreciate that we get to live that experience.
For information about Third Coast Percussion’s 20th anniversary celebrations, visit thirdcoastpercussion.com.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
