The innovative rhythmic quartet Sō Percussion will perform at Wharton Center’s Cobb Great Hall on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 3 p.m. This special performance will cap Sō Percussion’s week-long residency with Wharton Center and MSU College of Music. Tickets are on sale now through the official Wharton Center Ticket Office, online at whartoncenter.com, or by calling 517-432-2000 or 1-800-WHARTON.
The Brooklyn-based group has been redefining modern percussion since 1999 with an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam,” as described by The New Yorker. They will be participating in a number of workshops, classes and coaching opportunities with MSU College of Music students as well as with area schools.
Sō Percussion is contemporary classical music’s leading percussion ensemble by many measures: its virtuosity, its searching sensibility and its shining profile, including work with pop artists like The National and Dirty Projectors. Perhaps above all, they are known for the incredible range of music they can play with four members and a palette of pitched percussion, drum kits, and piano. The quartet’s “telepathic powers of communication” bring to life the vibrant percussion repertoire with an array of pop, classical, indie rock, theater music and more.
Hailed for being “a fresh and invigorating cross-cultural voice” by The Nation and music that is “powerful and unpretentious” by The New York Times, the program will feature Haitian American composer Nathalie Joachim’s new work, “Note To Self,” a co-commission by Carnegie Hall that debuted in December with Sō Percussion. Also included in the program is beatboxer and vocal percussionist Dominic “Shodekeh” Talifero’s “Vodalities: Paradigms of Consciousness for the Human Voice,” composed specifically for Sō Percussion, focused on the vocal modalities, or “vodalities” of breath art, vocal percussion and beatboxing. The performance will also include a selection from Sō Percussion ensemble member Jason Treuting’s “Amid the Noise,” featuring percussion students from MSU College of Music.
Please visit the Wharton Center website to review the most up-to-date information and requirements pertaining to COVID-19.