For the convenience of concertgoers 

the Garden Cafe remains open until 6:oo pm.

The use of cameras or recording equipment during the 

performance is not allowed. Please be sure that cell phones,

pagers, and other electronic devices are turned off.

Please note that late entry or reentry of

the East Building after 6:30 pm is not permitted.

Music Department

National Gallery ofArt

Sixth Street and Constitution Avenue nw

Washington, DC

Mailing address

2000B South Club Drive

Landover, md 20785

www.nga.gov

cover: Paul Stevenson Oles, 1971, National Gallery ofArt Archives

The Sixty-sixth Season of

The William Nelson Cromwell and F. Lammot Belin

Concerts

National Gallery ofArt

2,646th Concert

Sanctuary

by Roger Reynolds

Steven Schick, percussionist

and

red fish blue fish

Justin DeHart, Ross Karre, Fabio Oliveira, and Greg Stuart, percussionists

Josef Kucera, Ian Saxton, and Jacob David Sudol, supporting technicians

November 18, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm 

East Building Auditorium and atrium

Admissionfree
Original image from Sanctuary n; Ross Karre, video rendering; Karen Reynolds,

image transformation; used by permission.

Program

WORLD PREMIERE PERFORMANCE

Roger Reynolds (b. 1934)

Sanctuary (2007)

I. Chatter/Clatter

II. Oracle

hi. Song

Presented in honor of Let the World In: Prints by Robert Rauschenberg

from the National Gallery ofArt and Related Collections

Sanctuary has been jointly commissioned by the Contemporary Music

Forum, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Randy Plostetler

Living Room Fund, and the red fish blue fish percussion ensemble.

Audio equipment for this concert was graciously provided by

Varlc Audio ofCabin John, Maryland.
The Composer

Writing in The New Yorker, Andrew Porter called Roger Reynolds “at once an

explorer and a visionary composer, whose works can lead listeners to follow 

him into new regions of emotion and meaning.” Reynolds’ compositions

incorporate elements oftheater, digital signal processing, dance, video, and

real-time computer spatialization, creating a signature multidimensionality

of engagements. The central thread through the composer’s varied career

weaves language with the spatial aspects ofmusic. Reynolds has enjoyed

numerous residencies at international festivals, including the Agora Festival 

in Paris, the bbc Proms in London, the Bienniales of Helsinki and Zagreb,

the Edinburgh festival in Scotland, Musica Viva in Munich, Music Today in

Tokyo, Time of Music in Viitasaari, Finland, and Why Note? in Dijon. He

was codirector ofthe New York Philharmonic’s Horizons ‘84 Festival, and

has been a frequent participant in the Warsaw Autumn festivals.

In 1988, intrigued by John Ashber/s poem “Self-Portrait in a Convex

Mirror,” Reynolds responded with Whispers out ofTime, a string orchestra work

that received the Pulitzer Prize. Critic Kyle Gann noted that Reynolds was the

first experimentalist to be so honored since Charles Ives. Recent major works 

include illusion, for Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Los Angeles Philharmonic New

Music Group, Aspiration, for violinist Irvine Arditti and the Nouvel Ensemble

Moderne, and 22, a real-time interactive work for computer sound and dancerchoreographer Bill T. Jones. In 1998 the Library ofCongress established the

Roger Reynolds Special Collection. In 2002 Routledge published his most

recent book, Form and Method. Reynolds’ music is published exclusively by

Peter’s Editions of London, New York, and Frankfurt.

4

The Musicians

STEVEN SCHICK

Steven Schick, the founder and artistic director ofthe red fish blue fish percussion ensemble, was bom in Iowa and raised in a farming family. For the past

thirty years he has championed contemporary music for percussion as a

performer and teacher. He studied at the University ofIowa and received the

soloist1 s diploma from the Staadiche Hochschule fur Musik in Freiburg, 

Germany. Schick has commissioned and premiered more than one hundred

new works for percussion and has performed them on major concert series 

such as Lincoln Center’s Great Performers and the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s

Green Umbrella series. He appears as well in international festivals, including

the bbc Proms, the Budapest Spring Festival, the Holland Festival, the Jerusalem Festival, the Stockholm International Percussion Event, and the Warsaw

Autumn International Festival ofContemporary Music. He has recorded for

cri, Cantaloupe Records, Neuma, Point, sony Classical, and Wergo. Schick

is distinguished professor ofmusic at the University ofCalifornia, San Diego,

and a consulting artist in percussion at the Manhattan School ofMusic. He

has been a regular guest lecturer at the Rotterdam Conservatory and the Royal

College of Music in London.

From 1992 to 2002 Schick was the percussionist ofthe Bang on a Can

All-Stars, and from 2000 to 2004 he served as artistic director ofthe Centre

International de Percussion de Geneve. In 2006 he released a book on

solo percussion music, The Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams; a

recording of The Mathematics ofResonant Bodies by John Luther Adams; and

a dvd in collaboration with red fish blue fish, ofthe complete percussion

music of Iannis Xenakis. Earlier this year Schick assumed the post ofmusic

director and conductor ofthe La Jolla, California, Symphony and Chorus.

5
RED FISH BLUE FISH

red fish blue fish is the resident percussion ensemble ofthe University of

California at San Diego. The group functions as a laboratory for the development of new percussion techniques, sounds, and music. In addition to its

regular series at the University ofCalifornia at San Diego, the group tours

widely, with recent performances at the Henry Street Settlement and Lincoln

Center in New York City, the Agora Festival in Paris, the Centro de Bellas Artes

in Mexico City, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella Series, and 

the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, red fish blue fish was

an ensemble in residence at the 2007 June in Buffalo festival and will be the

featured ensemble at the 2008 Taipei International Percussion Conference.

JUSTIN DEHART

A native of Sacramento, California, Justin DeHart holds a bachelor ofmusic

degree from California State University at Sacramento and a master’s degree

from the California Institute ofthe Arts. His primary teachers include John

Bergamo, Daniel Kennedy, and Steven Schick. DeHart has performed concerts throughout Asia, Canada, and the United States, and has appeared as

percussionist as well as producer on various record labels including Anicca,

Beatville, Cornerstone, Innova, Jumpstart, mca, r.a.s., and Skunk. In addition

to being an active performer in contemporary Western music, he has also

explored North and South Indian percussion extensively. In 2001 he was

awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study South Indian percussion with T. H. 

Subash Chandran. DeHart has also studied the tabla with Pandit Swapan 

Chaudhuri at the Ali Alcbar College ofMusic in San Rafael, California, and

at the California Institute ofthe Arts.

6

ROSS KARRE

Ross Karre graduated from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, where

he worked with Michael Rosen, and the University ofCalifornia at San Diego,

where he was a student of Steven Schick. Karre has worked with important

figures in contemporary music such as Harrison Birtwistle, Pierre Boulez,

Peter Eotvos, Philippe Manoury, Meredith Monk, and David Robertson. He has

performed in ensembles and as a soloist at major venues and festivals throughout the world, including the Aspen Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Carnegie 

Professional Training Workshops, the Cleveland Museum ofArt’s aki Festival,

Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Essen Philharmonie, the Klangspuren Festival

in Austria, the Lucerne Festival, Merlcin Concert Hall, the Monday Evening 

Concert Series in Los Angeles, the Oberlin Percussion Institute, the Percussive 

Arts Society International Convention, and the Roots and Rhizomes Festival.

He has performed with contemporary music ensembles such as the Ensemble

Intercontemporain, Inauthentica, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra,

and the Percussion Group Cincinnati. He is a founding member ofthe

ongoing multimedia collaboration called the Synchronism Project and ofthe

twelve-member Lucerne Festival Percussion Group. In addition to his role

as a performer, Karre has undertaken the video editing and DVD mastering

ofthe overall Sanctuary project.

FABIO OLIVEIRA

A native ofBrasilia, Fabio Oliveira is an advocate of contemporary classical

music and Brazilian traditional music. He earned degrees from the Sao Paulo

State University in Brazil and the University ofMassachusetts. Through a

generous fellowship from the Brazilian research collective capes, he is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in music at the University ofCalifornia at

San Diego, where he studies percussion with Steven Schick and performs with

red fish blue fish. Present projects also include the electronic music quintet

Postures for Realignment (pfr) and a Brazilian samba group, Nossa Batucada.

7
GREG STUART

Born in Berkeley, California, Greg Stuart is dedicated to expanding new

music for percussion through commissions, improvisation, and mixedmedia projects. He has appeared in numerous festivals including the Bang 

on a Can Marathon, the Green Umbrella Series, Line Space Line, Muzik3, 

Pro Musica Ensenda, seamus, and the Whitney Museum ofAmerican Art’s

Biennial. Stuart performs regularly with red fish blue fish and has worked

with San Diego’s Lower Left Performance Collective and Chicago’s Trapdoor

Theater. He has collaborated with a wide range of composers, including Rick

Burkhardt, Sean Griffin, Michael Pisaro, and Roger Reynolds. Stuart can be 

heard on recordings produced by Accretions, Insides, Mode, Tzadik, and

Edition Wandelweiser.

Supporting Technicians

JOSEF KUCERA

Josef Kucera is the chiefrecording engineer at Warren Studios in the department ofmusic at the University ofCalifornia at San Diego. He has been

involved in recording arts and new music for more than thirty years and has

engineered more than one hundred commercial CD, dvd, and dvd-a projects 

in Asia, Europe, and the United States. He holds a bachelor of arts degree

in music theory and composition from the University ofCalifornia at Santa 

Barbara and has composed music for film, dance, and live theater. He is a

past member ofthe Association for Recorded Sound Collections and a current

member ofthe Audio Engineering Society and the National Academy of

Recording Arts and Sciences.

IAN SAXTON

Ian Saxton, an electronic musician and percussionist, currently studies at the 

University ofCalifornia at San Diego. Originally from the San Francisco Bay

area, he received his bachelor ofmusic degree from University ofCalifornia 

at Santa Cruz, where he was trained in traditional music theory and computer

music techniques. He enjoys playing rock, jazz, and avant-garde styles on

drums, as well as being interested in classical and world percussion. He has 

extensive experience in a number ofprogramming environments including

C++, lisp, Max, and Pure Data. His research interests include real-time rhythm

tracking, graphic representation of complex temporal structures, and multidimensional interfaces for exploring micro-tonal systems.

9
JACOB DAVID SUDOL

Jacob David Sudol writes intimate compositions that explore enigmatic

phenomena and the inner nature of how sound is perceived. He recently

received his master ofmusic degree from McGill University in Montreal,

and is now working toward a doctorate in composition at the University of

California at San Diego. Sudol’s mentors include Dan Asia, Denys Bouliane,

Sean Ferguson, Philippe Leroux, John Rea, and Craig Walsh. During the

2005-2006 academic year, Sudol was the first composer-in-residence for

the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble, in collaboration with the McGill

Digital Composition Studio. He has also written music for the Contemporary Keyboard Society and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne as well as for 

saxophonist Elizabeth Bunt, clarinetist Krista Martynes, and percussionist

Fernando Rocha.

Additional Sanctuary project participants

Gordon Anson, lighting

Steve Antosca, producer

John Conway, sound

David Curry, concept development, documentation

Shlomo Dubnov, computer music research

Sean Ferguson, consultant

Trevor Henthorn, systems manager

Robert Johnson, lighting

Alexander Matthews, documentation

Steven McAdams, consultant

Miller Puckette, designer, Max and pd software environments

Douglas Ramsey, documentation

Pei Xiang, Qualcomm engineer

10

Program Notes

THE EXHIBITION

Drawn from more than 400 prints by Robert Rauschenberg (b. 1925) that

are a key component ofthe National Gallery ofArt's collection of contemporary works on paper, Let the World In: Prints by Robert Rauschenbergfrom the

National Gallery ofArt and Related Collections features approximately sixty

examples from all periods ofthe artist's work in print media. It chronologically reviews the development of Rauschenberg’s prints, from intimate,

brushy lithographs studded with black-and-white media images to larger

color impressions that combine sophisticated print processes. The artist has

included new techniques such as digital imaging and experimented with

unconventional papers, cardboard, fabric, and plastic. Similar to Rauschenberg’s widely known “Combines,” the prints appropriate the commonplace

through his integration ofimages from newspapers, magazines, and his

own photographs. Perhaps even more than his other works, Rauschenberg’s

prints celebrate unpredictability, created in a collaborative setting and

cultivating possibilities in print technique. Organized by the National

Gallery ofArt, the exhibition is made possible by Lockheed Martin Corporation. It remains on view in the West Building until March 30, 2008.

Like Rauschenberg and other visual artists who incorporate novel materials

into their work, contemporary composers increasingly turn to new media.

Original and traditional percussion instruments are the medium selected by

composer Roger Reynolds for Sanctuary, a work that also includes computer

transformation ofsounds and lighting. This performance of Sanctuary is the

opening concert of a unique year-long collaboration between the Contemporary

Music Forum and the Embassy of France, promoting new American and

French music. In addition to the National Gallery ofArt, the Corcoran Gallery

ofArt, the Library ofCongress, and La Maison Franchise are also participating

in these events.

11
Program Note by Roger Reynolds

In 2004 Steven Schick observed that percussion, more than any other

musical medium, involves an inherent theatricality due to the prominence

of gesture—the often quasi-choreographic movement that works require

simply in order to realize their sonic goals—as well as the diversity, size,

and distribution ofthe instruments. He challenged me to undertake a

project with him and the red fish blue fish ensemble in which all ofthe 

dimensions of percussion playing that are other than sound itselfwould

be integrated into the composition’s materials and purposes.

Since then, I have been making a work intended to evolve with the

experience ofits creators (composer, performers, and technicians) and

conceived so as to adapt to, and capitalize upon, the changing resources 

and contexts within which it is realized. I have also been formulating

musical materials that can be manifested through unfamiliar and deliberately heterogeneous sound media: percussive oddities, ifyou will.

This performance at the National Gallery of Art is the culmination of a

series of performances of parts ofthis work in other spaces at other times. 

Most recently, the “Chatter/Clatter” movement was heard on June 7, 2007, 

in a performance by Steven Schick at the June in Buffalo festival. Other 

performances of parts ofthe work occurred at the International Percussive

Arts Society in Nashville, the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque, 

and the University ofCalifornia at San Diego.

While tonight's performance is a critical milestone, it is not the end 

ofthe project. Sanctuary will continue its evolution as new performance

spaces are encountered, new performers add their talents, new interpretations emerge, and new technologies are employed. The work itself enjoys

the privilege ofsanctuary to explore and reveal itselfto those who would

engage it.

12

I would like to thank Joseph Malloch, Mark Marshall, and Marcelo M.

Wanderley ofthe idmi Laboratory, cirmmt, McGill University, for technical 

suggestions on early prototypes ofthe gesture sensing systems used in the 

first movement of Sanctuary, “Chatter/Clatter.” More information about 

Sanctuary is available at sanctuaryproject.net.

THE MOVEMENTS

Sanctuary creates a dynamic among four percussionists, whose responsibilities

to the piece include probing and revealing their own psychological make-up

as they assemble sound sources in accord with specified roles. The piece is in

three movements: “Chatter/Clatter,” “Oracle,” and “Song.”

“Chatter/Clatter” is a percussion solo concerned with discovery. The 

player’s hands strike, tremble, and scurry over a collection ofunusual, even

odd, sound sources (bottles, bowls, boxes, and gongs) exploring the contours

of proto-melodies.

In the second movement, “Oracle,” the quartet converses, positing questions to which the oracle, positioned in the center ofthe stage, responds. The

selection ofthe object that functions as the oracle is made by members ofthe

quartet. Within broad parameters established in the score, the percussionists

also assemble their own percussion array, which includes, by design, a range of

“oddity” instruments. Their participation and the choices they make are critical

elements to this work and to the nature ofthe sanctuary it intends to create in

performance. The interaction between the percussionists and the oracle, and

their interactions with each other in movement and music, involve the recursive exploration of a long line, a contour over time that serves as the “theme”

ofthe work. This process mimics the way the eye scans back and forth across

the lines of a poem: dwelling, balancing, refreshing.

In the last movement, “Song,” pitch enters the space as a new resource. 

The quartet seeks, in stages, to rediscover the contours ofthe earlier movements as melodies that evolve towards a culminating lyricism that emerges

as song.

13
THE MEDIUM

Percussion is the newest member ofthe instrumental complement ofthe 

Western tradition. But percussion is also among the oldest ofmusical

strategies (as is song): find objects and bring them together to produce 

sound—striking, rattling, scraping, building sonic patterns. Or raise your

voice as need requires.

Percussion as a musical resource can also be burdensome, since the 

complement of percussion “instruments” for each piece can be unimaginably varied, with implications for the composer, performer, and ensemble.

The collection of percussion instruments that may be employed raises 

logistical issues: Where do I put my instruments? Can I reach everything?

Can I see my collaborators? To address this, I have tried to capitalize on 

percussion’s generality by composing the conditions that the performers

then decide how to fulfill.

In Sanctuary, the percussionists determine their roles, shaping their

repertoire ofsounds and behavior by these decisions. The work also plays

upon their relative location in the staging, surrounding the oracle. As a

result, the geometry ofthe instruments and performers and the movement

ofthe performers through the space become a part ofthe dramaturgy of

the experience: where I am playing (in space) is as important as what I am

playing, and my interactions with the ensemble and the oracle frame the 

performance overall.

The oracle in this performance is a waterphone. Waterphones are

typically built as unique creations, using stainless steel and bronze, and are

acoustic, tonal-friction instruments that capitalize on echoing. The waterphone in tonighfs performance is very large compared to the norm, and was

custom-made of parts from the inside of an old clothes dryer.

THE MATERIAL

Sanctuary is partially about nascent lines that strive to become melodies. 

What is a melody? Melody is fluctuation, a contour over time parsed so as to

invite our empathy, our engagement, and our invitation to it to remain in

our minds. In this piece, I am not, of course, thinking ofmelody in the most

direct and familiar sense. In this sanctuary, I am rather musing on melody

and its origins as persuasive contours in time.

In considering song, one usually thinks of pitches and rhythms. Of

these two, rhythm—especially in the percussive context—is the more

basic. I have composed explicit contours that take on different meanings

depending upon the decisions that the performers have made about their

instrumental resource. Communication is the metaphoric subject here.

Are we heard to say what we intended? Still, from the initial chattering of

the soloisfs fingers in the first movement (equipped as they are with metallic disks that contain electrical sensors), everything that happens is indebted

to a central “theme” —a pattern ofups and downs. This pattern

is constantly evolving in its realizations, but always informed by what has 

already happened in the piece, and what is yet to come.

15
TECHNOLOGY

Although the wealth of percussion sounds is great, there are certain experiences that percussion cannot produce on its own. Employing computer

technology allows, for example, the freeing ofsounds from the physical

position oftheir origins. Sounds can be made to move choreographically 

throughout a performance space, individually or in groups. They can migrate

or traverse rapid trajectories. A particular gesture made by a performer can be 

captured and then allowed to morph gradually over time, losing some ofits

original characteristics and acquiring new ones as it persists across time. 

Singular events can proliferate into flock-like collections that swoop and glide

around the listener. A detail from the performer’s gestures can be captured

by the computer and used not only in the service ofthe auditory experience, 

but to drive other transformations as the performance unfolds.

Finally, there is another advantage that technology enables: the considerable psychological power derived from capturing and representing intimate

activity. The smallest, quietest percussive action can be brought to the ears

of all through judicious amplification and sound positioning.

16

Program Note by Steven Schick

On the day that Roger Reynolds and I decided to collaborate on a new piece, we 

had lunch at a local Greek restaurant. This new piece—which would become

Sanctuary for percussion quartet and electronics—began as some sketches 

hastily drawn on the paper table covering as we waited for our meal.

We drew a stage and began making marks for instrument positions with

different symbols for the various sonic groupings ofpercussion from drum

sounds to little noisemakers we called “oddities.” Before long, it occurred to us

that we were not only making sketches towards a new work, but were in fact

diagramming the briefbut volatile history ofpercussion as a serious medium

in the canon ofWestern composition. The salient qualities ofpercussion

playing unfolded there on the table.

We needed sonic diversity, so we drew composite installations ofmultiple small instruments. These instrumental installations took up space in

different amounts and configurations related directly to their sonic qualities.

Soon, questions about sound began to include comments about the sculpture ofinstrument design and the choreography of performance. Finally,

there was the word that has become a part of almost every encounter and

conversation I have with Roger: impact.

Impact defines percussion. This group ofinstruments is sounded by

striking, rubbing, or buffeting sonorous objects in some way. But impact

also means, and continues to mean to both ofus, the way in which sound,

in the form of a musical composition, strikes the listener as intention or 

reaction or emotion or reflection.

Impact is often the consequence ofsmall things that have been built up

to the point that they cannot be ignored. This is also the case with Sanctuary:

small things like bongos, cowbells and wood blocks, assembled in ways that

imply sculptural form and choreographic engagement, exert an increasingly

amplified emotional impact.

V
When a player walks to the central instrument—what Roger Reynolds

calls the “oracle”—he is not only playing a predetermined musical part, he

is also asking a question. Important to this concept, this question comes in

the form of a synthesis ofsound, motion, and intention. This is percussion

at its core.

Although Roger and I did not set out to sketch a brief history of modern

percussion playing, by the time we finished our lunch together the paper

table covering was filled with a diagram that included nearly every meaningful development of the percussive art. Even the title ofthe piece is evocative

in this regard: Sanctuary is a place of protection where sound and action 

come together as impact.

18

Next Week at the National Gallery ofArt

The ArcoVoce Ensemble

with

Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano

Wolodymyr Smishkewich, tenor

Yonit Kosovske, harpsichordist

Music by Pergolesi and other eighteenth-century Italian composers

November 25, 2007

Sunday Evening, 6:30 pm

West Building, West Garden Court