MMModern May 11, 2018

MMModern

Featuring The Percussion Collective Robert van Sice

The Percussion Collective Robert van Sice delighted our audience with their distinctly insightful approach to the performance of percussion chamber music, challenged the limits of excellence and thrilled us all.

 

120 of concertgoers filled the Lyme Art Association to enjoy the sounds – and sights – of Seaborne, The Percussion Collective’s new composition that included cinematography of the ocean as an integral element of the performance.

 

The Percussion Collective was formed by Madison resident, Professor van Sice, Chair of the Yale Percussion Department.  The program began with Seaborne, a piece by Emmy Award-winning composer Garth Neustadter. In addition to the compelling percussion work for six musicians, Seaborne contained a video component by marine photographer Kjell van Sice, putting the piece at the nexus of the percussive art soundscape and the visual celebration of our endangered oceans.” Neustadter’s mastery of cinematic composition and van Sice’s poetic aquatic images proved to be a powerful collaboration in this new work for percussion sextet.  “Just as rhythm and the percussive voice are the heartbeat of music, our precious oceans are the lifeblood of the planet and thus our very existence.” Seaborne awakened sensibilities in the audience to both the importance and beauty that our oceans possess.

 

The ensemble finished with evening with a performance of the iconic Sextet by Steve Reich, one of the seminal pieces in the percussion repertoire.   The Percussion Collective Robert van Sice performed the world-premiere of Seaborne at Yale in March. We were delighted to have welcomed them to Old Lyme on the continuation of their national tour.