78TH SEASON OF

CONCERTS

national gallery of art | february 23, 2020 
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PROGRAM

Third Coast Percussion

February 23, 2020 | 3:30 p.m.

West Building, West Garden Court

Devonté Hynes (b. 1985)

Perfectly Voiceless (2018)

Annika K. Socolofsky (b. 1990)

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: ambedo (2018)

Philip Glass (b. 1937)

Perpetulum (2018)

Intermission

Ryan Lott (b. 1979)

Quartered (2017)

David Skidmore (b. 1982)

Torched and Wrecked (2016)

Third Coast Percussion, photo by Saverio Truglia
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THE MUSICIANS

Third Coast Percussion is a Grammy Award – winning, Chicago-based percussion 

quartet. For fifteen years, the ensemble has created exciting and unexpected performances that constantly redefine the classical music experience. The ensemble has 

been praised for “commandingly elegant” (New York Times) performances, the “rare 

power” (Washington Post) of their recordings, and “an inspirational sense of fun 

and curiosity” (Star-Tribune). Third Coast Percussion maintains a busy tour schedule 

throughout the United States, and international tour dates in Colombia, the United 

Kingdom, Lithuania, Taiwan, Germany, Italy, and Poland.

A direct connection with the audience is at the core of all of Third Coast Percussion’s 

work, whether the musicians are speaking from the stage about a new piece of music, 

inviting the audience to play along in a concert or educational performance, or inviting 

their fans around the world to create new music using one of their free mobile apps. 

The four members of Third Coast are also accomplished teachers and make active 

participation by all students the cornerstone of all their educational offerings.

The quartet’s curiosity and eclectic taste have led to a series of unlikely collaborations that have produced exciting new art. The ensemble has worked with engineers at 

the University of Notre Dame, architects at the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, dancers 

at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and musicians from traditions ranging from the mbira 

music of Zimbabwe’s Shona people, to indie rockers, to some of the world’s leading 

concert musicians. Third Coast Percussion served as ensemble-in-residence at the 

University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center from 2013 to 2018.

A commission for a new work from composer Augusta Read Thomas in 2012 led 

to the realization that commissioning new musical works can be — and should be — 

as collaborative as any other artistic partnership. Through extensive workshopping 

and close contact with composers, Third Coast Percussion has commissioned and 

premiered new works by Philip Glass, Jlin, Tyondai Braxton, Augusta Read Thomas, 

Devonté Hynes, Georg Friedrich Haas, Donnacha Dennehy, Glenn Kotche, Christopher 

Cerrone, David T. Little, and today’s leading, up-and-coming composers through their 

Emerging Composers Partnership Program. 

The four members of Third Coast Percussion — Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter 

Martin, and David Skidmore — met while studying percussion music at Northwestern 

University with Michael Burritt and James Ross. Members of Third Coast also hold 

degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Rutgers University, the New England 

Conservatory, and the Yale School of Music. 

PROGRAM NOTES

Perfectly Voiceless

Devonté Hynes is a British singer, songwriter, composer, producer, and author, now 

residing in New York City. He has released five studio albums under the name “Blood 

Orange,” and previously released two albums as “Lightspeed Champion.” He has produced for artists such as Solange Knowles, Sky Ferreira, and Carly Rae Jepsen, and has 

made his own solo appearances at the Pitchfork and Coachella Music Festivals. Hynes 

plays cello and piano, and recently performed some of Philip Glass’s études as part of 

an all-star lineup for Glass’s concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Hynes 

also has a background in dance and has worked with ballet dancer Maria Kochetkova 

and choreographer Emma Portner in his own music videos.

Hynes composed the music for an entire evening-length program featuring Third 

Coast Percussion and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, with new choreography created 

by Emma Portner, Jon Boogz, and Lil Buck, which premiered in Chicago in September 

2018. To create this seventy-five-minute opus, Hynes composed music with synthesized and sampled sounds, which he then sent to Third Coast Percussion. The group 

experimented with instruments to create a live performance version of the music, 

which they then recorded and sent back to Hynes for feedback, and eventually shared 

with the choreographers to create the dance. Today’s program features a section of 

this program, Perfectly Voiceless, that served as a musical interlude between choreographed pieces.

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows: ambedo

Annika Socolofsky is an American composer and avant-folk vocalist. Her music stems 

from the inflections, gesture, and resonance of the human voice and is communicated 

through mediums ranging from orchestral works to unaccompanied folk ballads. 

Socolofsky is a 2020 Gaudeamus Award Nominee and recipient of a Fromm Foundation 

Commission, The Cortona Prize, and a BMI Student Composer Award. She is a doctoral 

candidate and fellow in composition at Princeton University. Her research focuses 

on the music of Dolly Parton to create a pedagogical approach to composition that 

is inclusive of many vocal timbres, inflections, and techniques. Socolofsky says, “The 

concept for this piece comes from John Koenig’s blog The Dictionary of Obscure 

Sorrows, which presents words invented by John Koenig ‘to fill a hole in the [English] 

language — to give a name to emotions we all might experience but don’t yet have a 

word for.’ This piece was premiered by Liz Karney, McKayla Philips, Nick Martinez, and 

Lauren Molloy at the 2018 Sō Percussion Summer Institute Princeton PhD Concert, 

and is dedicated to them.” Koenig’s Dictionary defines “ambedo” as:
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ambedo, n. a kind of melancholic trance in which you become completely 

absorbed in vivid sensory details — raindrops skittering down a window, tall 

trees leaning in the wind, clouds of cream swirling in your coffee — which 

leads to a dawning awareness of the haunting fragility of life, a mood whose 

only known cure is the vuvuzela.

Perpetulum

Through his operas, his symphonies, his compositions for his own ensemble, and his 

many collaborations with artists ranging from Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, and Woody 

Allen to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an extraordinary and unprecedented impact 

upon the musical and intellectual life of his times.

Although percussion instruments have played an important role in much of Glass’s 

music, and a number of his works have been arranged for percussion by other musicians, Glass had never composed a work for percussion ensemble until Third Coast 

Percussion commissioned Perpetulum. Glass, who was eighty-one years old when he 

composed this work, harkened back to childhood memories of his first experience 

with percussion instruments. Though Glass’s primary musical instrument was the flute, 

he had the opportunity to participate in a percussion class while a student at the 

Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory in his hometown of Baltimore. 

Perpetulum blends an almost childlike exploration of the sounds of percussion with 

Glass’s signature musical voice. 

The work is in three sections, with a cadenza between the second and third 

sections. Glass proposes some general concepts and instruments for the cadenza 

but leaves it to the performers to compose this segment of the music themselves.

Quartered

Ryan Lott is a composer, producer, and founder of the innovative genre-defying trio 

Son Lux, whose fifth studio album, Brighter Wounds, was released in 2018. Outside 

of Son Lux, Lott composes music for film, theater, dance, and the concert hall. He 

has worked with choreographers Travis Wall, Stephen Petronio, and Gina Gibney, and 

created music for five major feature films, most notably The Disappearance of Eleanor 

Rigby (2014), Paper Towns (2015), and Mean Dreams (2017), the last of which premiered at Cannes and the Toronto Film Festivals 2016.

The performers of Quartered are separated by space and time. Each finds his own 

corner in the room, and obeys his own clock while maintaining an ear for the rest of 

the ensemble. The clocks rarely keep the same time, but they’re always related to one 

another, creating moments of sudden synchronicity, gradual separation, and periodic 

alignment. Distinct clocks also allow for composite rhythms that are otherwise 

unachievable, and a periodicity that defies the sometimes irrational relationship 

between them.

Quartered can be performed in a traditional configuration from the stage, but is 

ideally presented quadraphonically, with the performers surrounding the audience. 

The listener’s position in space is intended to inform his or her perception of the piece. 

For example, in the same moment, one may perceive a pulse that is dictated by the 

nearest performer. The ears of fellow listeners in other parts in the room may perceive 

the pulse in a different way, or even perceive no definite pulse at all.

The spatial separation of performers also allows for a musical phrase to appear 

as if it’s in motion in space, sometimes darting back and forth, or spinning around 

the listener’s head.

Torched and Wrecked

The compositions of Third Coast Percussion member David Skidmore are performed 

regularly in concert halls and universities across the country. In 2011, his multimovement work Common Patterns in Uncommon Time was commissioned by Frank Lloyd 

Wright scholar Sidney K. Robinson to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of Taliesin, 

home of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. 

Torched and Wrecked comes from Skidmore’s cycle of works entitled Aliens with 

Extraordinary Abilities, all of which explore the idea that the same piece of music can 

move at several different speeds at the same time. The movements of this cycle take 

their cryptic names from memorable Third Coast Percussion touring experiences. An 

electronic audio track — Skidmore’s most intensive work with electronic composition 

to date — expands and reinforces the live percussion. Video artist Xuan was commissioned to create accompanying video for this and other movements in the cycle.

Program notes by Third Coast Percussion
NGA.GOV/MUSIC

Upcoming Events of the SeventyEighth Season of The William Nelson 

Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin Concerts

Unless otherwise noted, concerts 

are held in the West Building, West 

Garden Court.

Sound Sketch 

Suspicious Cheeselords

From the Heavens

Music illuminating the Gallery’s holdings 

of images of heavenly beings. 

February 28, 12:10 p.m.

West Building Rotunda

McGill/McHale Trio

Music by Poulenc, Debussy, and contemporary composers Chris Rogerson, 

Valerie Coleman, Guillaume Connesson, 

and Paul Schoenfield.

March 1, 3:30 p.m.

Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano

A New Country

Together with a chamber ensemble 

consisting of piano, strings, and flute, 

Cano performs a program featuring 

American works. 

March 8, 3:30 p.m.

Agora Dance

With Sound Impact

Backstage at the Opéra

Celebrating Degas at the Opéra

A contemporary approach to Degas and 

his relationship to the Paris Opéra. 

March 15, 3:30 p.m.

General Information

Admission to the National Gallery of Art 

and all of its programs is free of charge, 

except as noted.

The use of cameras or recording 

equipment during the performance 

is not allowed.

Please be sure that all portable electronic 

devices are turned off.

—

Concerts are made possible in part 

through the generosity of donors to the 

National Gallery of Art through The Circle. 

Reserved seating is available in recognition 

of their support. Please contact the 

development office at (202) 842-6450 or 

circle@nga.gov for more information.

—

The department of music produced 

these program notes. Copyright © 2020 

Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, 

Washington

cover Benton Murdoch Spruance, 

Arrangement for Drums (detail), 1941, 

National Gallery of Art, Washington, Reba 

and Dave Williams Collection, Florian 

Carr Fund and Gift of the Print Research 

Foundation, 2008.115.269