Glenn Kotche

Glenn Kotche is pleased to present Sticks, Skins, Metal and Stone, a compilation of past Kotche-penned compositions recorded and performed by NYU’s Percussion Ensemble. Realized under the direction of Jonathon Haas and Sean Statser, the pieces range from solo and duo to full percussion orchestra and were written over a span of 10 years. Eight of these 10 pieces have never been recorded until now.

“Sticks are the most basic tools of the percussionist,” says Kotche. “They are used for striking but are also shaped and arranged into tonal bars giving the percussion family rich melodic and harmonic components. Skins are what make drums drums. Metal in it’s varied forms – both tuned and untuned – provide a world of percussion color. And stone – the most basic of materials – struck together or shaped into pitched bars creating the most primordial, yet intriguing percussion sounds. These four elements are the catalyst for the music contained in this record.”

Three of the pieces are arrangements of Kotche’s original works: “Hush” arr. by James B. Campbell is an all acoustic version of “Drumkit Quartet #51”, originally commissioned and recorded by So Percussion. “Wild Sound Part 4” is the last part of an evening length multimedia percussion work commissioned and arranged by Grammy-winning Third Coast Percussion, and “Traveling Turtle” was arranged by NYU graduate student Adam Keifer, taking it from gamelan instrumentation (originally commissioned by Gamelan Galak Tika) to large traditional percussion ensemble.

Two of the pieces, “Anomaly” and “Ping Pong Fumble Thaw,” are reimaginings of string quartets that were commissioned by Kronos Quartet and Brooklyn Rider respectively. Both of these compositions grew from sketches written on the drumset, then expanded for string quartet, and finally both presented here for the first time back on percussion.