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Philip Glass Heard in a NEW Way

In November 2018 they premiered a work in Chicago by another

minimalist trailblazer, Philip Glass, which they commissioned through

a consortium that includes the Segerstrom Center. The 21-minute

piece, Perpetulum—the fi rst by Glass for a percussion ensemble—will

have its Southern California premiere at the April concert.

Why Glass?

“There are very few composers alive today who are as iconic and

infl uential in the direction of classical music as Philip Glass,” says Dillon.

“We’ve known his music as long as we’ve been in music. The percussion

ensemble is a relatively young body of music—it has a short history

within the context of Western classical music tradition, 80 years. Very

few people wrote percussion quartets: How different would percussion

music sound today if they had? We looked at Philip Glass, who is now

81, and he’d never written a percussion piece. We felt like, ‘Philip Glass

needs to write a percussion piece.’ We feel very fortunate that we had the

capacity to commission Philip Glass to do it.”

Perpetulum—Glass coined the name as a combination of

“perpetual” and “momentum”—consists of three movements, with

a cadenza (an improvised fl ourish) between the second and third

movement, which Glass suggested the members of Third Coast

write themselves. The process throughout the composing period was

collaborative, Dillon says, and done mainly via Skype.

Don’t expect only the standard concert instruments when the

Chicago-based quartet known as Third Coast Percussion

comes to the Samueli Theater April 5. Yes, they do play the

typical drums, vibraphones, marimbas, triangles, cymbals, chimes

and others, but, says ensemble member and development director

Robert Dillon, “People expect drums when they think of percussion.

Sometimes we don’t do drums. We might have a hammer hitting a

string.”

The group, which also includes David Skidmore, Peter Martin and

Sean Connors, might all play fl ower pots in one number, then move

from vibraphones to tin cans in another. They could hit those tin

cans—or glass bottles or ceramic tiles—with mallets or chopsticks, or

put thimbles on their fi ngers for a particular volume and articulation.

Or they might play instruments of other cultures.

Whatever their performance choices, the foursome is clearly doing

something right. After meeting as students at Northwestern University

and forming the group in 2004, they’ve gone on to collaborate

with non-musical partners, among them artists and engineers. In

2017 they became the fi rst percussion ensemble to win a Grammy

Award for chamber music, in the category of Best Chamber Music/

Small Ensemble Performance, for their album of works by American

minimalist composer Steve Reich.

Third Coast Percussion presents the Southern California premiere of commissioned work by Glass, and there’s not a violin in sight.

BY LIBBY SLATE

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The couple signed on to the consortium funding Perpetulum when

they received an email from Egigian saying, “Philip Glass, Third Coast

Percussion. Want to join in?”

“We said, ‘Of course,’” recalls Justus, the retired founder and

former owner of a healthcare financial services company who studied

trombone and now plays cello. The commission was one of 30 they

fund each year, including opera, orchestral pieces and chamber

music; they had previously initiated another Third Coast Percussion

commission.

For others who would like to become involved in commissioning

music, Justus advises, “Definitely, start with chamber music. It’s

digestible. You can get pieces done almost everywhere.”

In recalling Schlichting’s “Aha!” moment via Razumovsky, Egigian

says, “In that moment, what one person did to set something in motion

then inspired someone else to want to set something in motion, too, and

create a legacy for the arts that enriches people’s lives.”

The Schlichtings have enjoyed getting to know the composers and

artists they’ve commissioned. “It’s genuinely an adventure,” says Justus.

“We’re paying it forward to future generations, and the immediate

payback is extraordinary. When a brilliant and talented musician

comes up to you after a piece you’ve commissioned and tells you how

much it means to them, that’s priceless.”

Being able to collaborate with Glass and perform Perpetulum has

certainly been meaningful for Third Coast Percussion. “We feel very

fortunate that we had the capacity to commission Philip Glass to do

it,” says Dillon. “We’d started talking with him several years earlier, so

it was exciting to come to that moment when you’re actually onstage

playing the piece. It was an amazing feeling for us, with the audience.”

And for the Segerstrom audience, being there for the Southern

California premiere of a Philip Glass piece will also be exciting indeed.

Libby Slate is a Los Angeles-based arts and entertainment journalist.

“So much of his music is very harmony-driven, with marimbas,

vibes, xylophone and tuned metal pipes,” Dillon says. Of the latter,

he explains, “We cut aluminum conduit to different lengths and,

depending on the length, play different tones. They add a shimmering

sound.” There are also drums, blocks, a triangle and a keyboard

involved, among others.

For the cadenza, Glass gave the group an idea of the

instrumentation but left the composition up to them. “We connected

it to the classical music tradition, a concept of concertos,” Dillon says.

“It was interesting to connect to our classical roots again—a lot of

what we’ve been doing has gotten away from that, thematically.”

The Samueli program as a whole, Dillon says, “shows the immense

range of sound worlds that the contemporary percussion ensemble

is capable of. There are minimalist- and pop-inspired works; there

is music that is floating and meditative, music which is playful and

disorienting, and a stage filled with everything from marimbas and

drums to chromatically tuned singing bowls and planks of wood. One

piece uses no instruments at all!”

That piece would be Aphasia by Mark Applebaum, which instead

requires the players to synchronize gestures to recorded sounds.

“Aphasia is one of the most interesting pieces in our repertoire,”

Dillon enthuses. “It’s such a creative concept, and a genuinely funny

piece which is also kind of mind-blowing the first time you experience

it. The gestures are the playing. The performers don’t make any

sounds. It plays on the disconnect between what the audience sees

and hears, and explores the musicality that’s inherent within these

everyday motions. The shape, speed and sharpness of a gesture is

reflected in the corresponding sounds in the piece, even though the

sounds are never a sound that would actually accompany the gesture

in real life.”

The evening’s Perpetulum centerpiece is one of several chamber

music commissions made on behalf of Segerstrom Center by Elizabeth

and Justus Schlichting, who were longtime chamber music series

subscribers when Justus was inspired in 2012 to become involved in

facilitating the creation of new music. He had been at a Segerstrom

concert listening to Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” String Quartets when

it occurred to him that someone—Andrew Razumovsky—had made

the compositions possible. After researching the Beethoven benefactor,

he realized, “I want to be Razumovsky!” and proceeded accordingly.

The first Segerstrom commission performed was James Matheson’s

“String Quartet,” played by the St. Lawrence String Quartet in 2014

at the Center and subsequently recorded by another ensemble, also

underwritten by the Schlichtings. Since then, “we are so lucky and

delighted that Justus and Helen [as Elizabeth is also known] have

provided at least one new work for us a season,” says Aaron Egigian, senior

director of music programming for the Center. “It’s pretty extraordinary.”

THIRD COAST PERCUSSIONSAMUELI THEATERDates: April 5Tickets: $39 and up

With special underwriting from: Elizabeth and Justus Schlichting

The Center applauds:Colburn Foundation

For tickets and information, visit SCFTA.org or call (714) 556-2787 Group services: (714) 755-0236