Since 1999, So Percussion has been creating music that explores all the extremes of emotion and musical possibility. It has not been an easy music to define. Called an   “experimental powerhouse” by The Village Voice, “astonishing and entrancing” by Billboard  Magazine, and “brilliant” by The New York Times, the Brooklyn-based quartet’s  innovative work with today’s most exciting composers and their own original music has quickly helped them forge a unique and diverse career.
Although the drum is one of humanity’s most ancient instruments, Europe and America have only recently begun to explore its full potential, aided by explosions of influence and experimentation from around the world. In the 20th Century, musical innovators like Edgard Varèse, John Cage, Steve Reich, and Iannis Xenakis brought these instruments out from behind the traditional orchestra and gave them new voice. So Percussion has performed this unusual and exciting music all over the United States and on international tours. With an audience comprised of “both kinds of blue hair… elderly matron here, arty punk there” (as The Boston Globe described it), So Percussion makes a rare and wonderful breed of music that both instantly compels and offers rewards for engaged listening. Edgy (at least in the sense that little other music sounds like this) and ancient (in that people have been hitting objects for eons), perhaps it doesn’t need to be defined after all.

McCray Hall, Fri, September 16 2011 07:30 PM – 09:00 PM. Free to Full-time PSU Students with ID.