University of Toronto Percussion
Shifting Spaces // 18 Jan, 2021
Made possible in part by a generous gift from Ann H. Atkinson
Canadian Premiere + // World Premiere ++
Jodie Rottle – Every Day (2015)+
Performed by Tyler Cunningham, Timothy Roth, Joyce To, Jasmine Tsui
Raven Chacon – Round (2007)
Performed by Tyler Cunningham, Timothy Roth, Joyce To, Jasmine Tsui
Raven Chacon is a composer, performer and installation artist from Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation. As a solo artist, collaborator, or with Postcommodity, Chacon has exhibited or performed at Whitney Biennial, documenta 14, REDCAT, Musée d’art Contemporain de Montréal, San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, Chaco Canyon, Ende Tymes Festival, 18th Biennale of Sydney, and The Kennedy Center. Every year, he teaches 20 students to write string quartets for the Native American Composer Apprenticeship Project (NACAP). He is the recipient of the United States Artists fellowship in Music, The Creative Capital award in Visual Arts, The Native Arts and Cultures Foundation artist fellowship, and the American Academy’s Berlin Prize for Music Composition. He lives in Albuquerque, NM. http://spiderwebsinthesky.com/
Chaves Camacho, Roth, Tsui, Veilleux – Dormancy (2020)++
The work is focused on the perspective of four individuals who are waiting for what’s to come while reminiscing on the past. Being stuck at home day after day makes us feel suspended in time. However, dormancy is temporary, and as time passes, we adapt. We can start looking forward to the future.
Composed and performed by:
Randall Chaves Camacho
The life experiences of Costa Rican percussionist Randall Chaves Camacho in North and Central America inspired him, as a performer, to explore the diversity of genres and types of percussion playing, from experimental to popular music. Just as with his diverse interest in music, his work has as its core the inclusion and support of those who for historical and economic reasons have not been equally present in the music field. Aware of his Central American roots, he is researching the cultural history and education of percussion in Costa Rica, in order to bring to the table more diversity.
Randall is a first-year DMA student. He holds a Bachelor of Music Performance and an Artist Diploma from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and a Masters in Music Performance from the Peabody Institute of Music.
Timothy Roth
Timothy Roth is completing a Masters in Music Performance at the University of Toronto under Aiyun Huang and Beverley Johnston. Tim completed a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance at the University of Manitoba, where he graduated with the medal for the highest standing in his class. During his time at the University of Manitoba, he completed the requirements for a double major in Music History, with research focusing on analysis and evolution of vocal flow in rap music. Tim has presented his research on rap music at the Music Theory Midwest 2019 conference, the IASPM-Canada 2019 conference, and as a guest lecturer at the University of Manitoba. Tim has also presented his research on the percussion music of Karlheinz Stockhausen at the 2019 Transplanted Roots Percussion Research Symposium in Guanajuato, Mexico. Tim is interested in popular music, the history of electroacoustic music, and interactive multimedia performance. His graduate studies are supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship program, and the Manitoba Arts Council.
Jasmine Tsui
Jasmine Tsui is a Saskatchewan-born interdisciplinary artist with a focus on percussion performance. She has established a name for herself as a solo and ensemble performer as well as an educator. She is passionate about collaborating with others, learning, and creating. Jasmine has received the SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship for her research on how interdisciplinary pedagogy has the potential to alter the approach to learning and performing percussion-theatre works. Other highlights include her participation and performance with the Yarn/Wire Digital Summer Institute, culminating in her first collaborative-composition alongside Cullyn D. Murphy. She received her Bachelors in Percussion Performance from the University of Regina and her Advanced Certificate in Performance from the University of Toronto. Jasmine is currently starting her Masters in Performance.
Sandra Veilleux
Sandra Veilleux is a dedicated percussionist and drumset player with a passion for performing and bringing new compositions to life. Over her career, Sandra has taken an interest in chamber, improvisational, and orchestral music practices.
Recent highlights include her participation and performances with the National Youth Orchestra of Canada (NYOC) and University of Toronto Percussion Ensemble. She recently won the position of percussionist with the Naden Band of the Royal Canadian Navy in Esquimalt, B.C.
Sandra holds a Double College Degree in Science and Music from Cégep Ste-Foy and a Bachelor of Music from Laval University in Quebec City. Sandra is currently completing her Masters in Performance at the University of Toronto under the direction of Dr. Aiyun Huang and Charles Settle.
Yaz Lancaster – Sequoia (2019) +
Performed by Julia Araiche, Tristan Culbert, Sam Kerr, Lian McMillan
The redwood species contains the largest and tallest trees in the world.
These trees can live thousands of years. This is an endangered subfamily
due to habitat losses from fire ecology suppression, logging, and air pollution.
Since logging began in the 1850s, 95% of old-growth coast redwoods have been cut down.
Yaz performs as a violinist, vocalist & steel-pannist in a wide variety of settings including DIY/indie venues, contemporary chamber music, and baroque ensembles. Their work is presented in many different mediums & collaborative projects, and often reckons with specific influences ranging from politics of identity & liberation to natural phenomena and poetics. Yaz has had the privilege & opportunity to build community in the US, Canada & Trinidad and Tobago—they have created with artists like Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, Andy Akiho, JACK Quartet, Wadada Leo Smith, Contact Contemporary Ensemble, and Skiffle Steel Orchestra. They are currently working on a record of music for violin/voice & fixed media; a new pop/post-genre duo with Andrew Noseworthy; and new pieces for Contemporaneous & Ninth Planet.
Yaz holds degrees in violin performance & poetry from New York University where they studied with Cyrus Beroukhim, Robert Honstein & Terrance Hayes (among others). They are the visual arts editor at Peach Mag. Yaz loves chess, horror movies, & bubble tea. https://www.yaz-lancaster.com/
Vanessa Tomlinson – Sonic Dreams (2017)+
Performed by Randall Chavez Camacho, Britton-rené Collins, Ewan Deveaux, Boyce Jeffries, Matthew Magocsi
Vanessa is a percussive artist dedicated to exploring how sound shapes our lives, awakening our ears to new sounds, in new spaces, with the hope that attentive listening will lead to attentive custodianship of place. With a long history in experimental music, Vanessa uses this body of knowledge to consider how we listen through site-specific explorations, and to explore new collaborative sonic ideas. Trained as a percussionist in Australia, Germany and the USA, Vanessa relies on this sonic investigation of objects to build compositions, create contexts for improvisation, interpret the voices of other composers and collaborate across art-forms and disciplines. She has toured the world for 25 years, premiering over 100 works by significant national and international composers, presenting work at major international festivals, and collaborating with improvisers, dancers, artists and more. https://www.vanessatomlinson.com/
Viet Cuong – Water, Wine, Brandy, Brine (2015)
Performed by Gordon Fry, Mateen Mehri, Jacob Valcheff, Meilin Wei
In 1641 a Jesuit scholar and priest named Athanasius Kircher published Magnes (Magnets), a work that discussed various forms of attraction and, unsurprisingly, magnetism. One chapter, titled “the magnetism of music,” details an experiment in which he fills four wine glasses with liquids of various densities: aqua vitae (later referred to as brandy by Benjamin Franklin’s time), wine, pure water, and a coarse liquid such as saltwater or oil. Kircher observed that each solution reacted differently when played, and conclusively associated each with one of the four Greco-Roman humors. Water, Wine, Brandy, Brine explores the various sounds that can be produced from playing crystal glasses as musical instruments, from the bell-like sounds of “toasting” the glasses, to the theremin-like singing produced when the rims are played.
Called “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by The New York Times, the music of American composer Viet Cuong has been performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as Sō Percussion, Eighth Blackbird, Alarm Will Sound, PRISM Quartet, Albany Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and Minnesota Orchestra, among many others. Viet’s music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center, and his works for wind ensemble have amassed hundreds of performances worldwide. Passionate about bringing these different facets of the contemporary music community together, his upcoming projects include a concerto for Eighth Blackbird with the United States Navy Band and a Sousa-inspired work for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Viet also enjoys exploring the unexpected and whimsical, and he is often drawn to projects where he can make peculiar combinations and sounds feel enchanting or oddly satisfying. His recent works thus include a snare drum solo, percussion quartet concerto, and, most recently, a double oboe concerto. Currently the 2020 Early Career Musician-in-Residence at the Dumbarton Oaks, he was recently appointed the California Symphony’s 2020-2023 Young American Composer-in-Residence. Viet holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music (AD), Princeton University (MFA), and Peabody Conservatory (BM/MM). https://vietcuongmusic.com/