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Strings & Hammers
Anthony R. Green composer
Eduardo Costa Roldán composer
Emily Koh composer
Jarkko Hartikainen composer
Alessandro Annunziata composer
Robert McCormick director
Julia Keller double bass
Eunmi Ko piano
Sini Virtanen violin
Fresh from Ravello Records is the McCormick Percussion Group’s STRINGS & HAMMERS. In this latest offering, the MPG tackles a program of new and politically charged works. They are joined by the violin-bass-piano trio Strings and Hammers. Together, the ensemble of string and percussion players employs rhythm, eccentric timbres, and even their own yelping, whispering voices to express powerfully relevant themes.
The McCormick Percussion Group has never shied away from contentious issues, and this album is no different. It opens with Piano Concerto: Solution, in which frantic piano lines and impassioned claps and stomps reflect deep frustration with the modern political scene in the United States. A direct response to Toni Morrison’s call for all artists to “get to work” in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, this piece is a staunch rebuke against misogyny and racism in all of its forms. Memento Mori takes a similar tack; it is a badly-needed reminder of mortality and the frailty of the human condition during a time when hubris and incivility seem to run rampant. We hear the skin of the players’ hands beat each drumhead, a stark and defiant flash of humanity in the midst of moral collapse. Pulsar, composed by Eduardo Costa Roldán, and inspired by the idea of constant unstable pulsation. This natural and primal sound is developed through a constant semiquaver that changes meter throughout the piece. The album goes beyond protest into even more cerebral realms—Ice Concerto, for violin solo and percussion ensemble, is infused with notions of elemental chemistry. The piece portrays the atomic disintegration of dripping ice through anxiety-ridden, jolting rhythms and creeping violin stabs.
Alessandro Annuziata’s Apollon, the closing piece on the album, is a three movement work written for solo piano and six percussionists dedicated to Eunmi Ko, Robert McCormick, and the McCormick Percussion Ensemble. Named after the Greek God of music, prophecy, and healing, and with minimum pause between movements, Apollon brings the album to a fantastic finale.
STRINGS & HAMMERS brings an audacious and highly-provocative attitude to the world of percussion ensemble music. Regardless of your political convictions, the McCormick Percussion Group’s raw, blistering performances are sure to stir up a revolutionary fervor in you.
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Track Listing & Credits
# | Title | Composer | Performer | |
---|---|---|---|---|
01 | Piano Concerto (Solution): I. Tension | Anthony R. Green | McCormick Percussion Group | Robert McCormick, director; Eunmi Ko, piano | 7:10 |
02 | Piano Concerto (Solution): II. Solution | Anthony R. Green | McCormick Percussion Group | Robert McCormick, director; Eunmi Ko, piano | 9:03 |
03 | Pulsar | Eduardo Costa Roldán | McCormick Percussion Group | Robert McCormick, director; Julia Keller, double bass; Eunmi Ko, piano; Sini Virtanen, violin | 10:45 |
04 | Memento Mori | Emily Koh | McCormick Percussion Group | Robert McCormick, director; Julia Keller, double bass; Sini Virtanen, violin | 14:48 |
05 | Ice Concerto | Jarkko Hartikainen | McCormick Percussion Group | Robert McCormick, director; Sini Virtanen, violin | 14:08 |
06 | Apollon: I. Delphoi | Alessandro Annunziata | McCormick Percussion Group | Robert McCormick, director; Eunmi Ko, piano | 6:01 |
07 | Apollon: II. Logos | Alessandro Annunziata | McCormick Percussion Group | Robert McCormick, director; Eunmi Ko, piano | 5:07 |
08 | Apollon: III. Ekstasis | Alessandro Annunziata | McCormick Percussion Group | Robert McCormick, director; Eunmi Ko, piano | 7:35 |
Recorded at Springs Theatre in Tampa Bay FL
www.SpringsTheatre.com
Track 5 recorded April 2018
Track 3, 4, 6 – 8 recorded April 2019
Track 1 – 2 recorded November 2019
Recording, mixing, & mastering John Stephan
Cover art Eduardo Costa Roldán
ENSEMBLE PERSONNEL
Rod Alnord, Kelsey Bannon, Jacob Barber, Katlyn Barber, William Brown, Nick Bruno, A.J. Cerrito, Grace Chang, Hayden Dumars, Tyler Evans, Michael Giunta, Adam Gould, David Grullon, Hannah Harper, Wyatt Hatch, Kaycie Howell, Trevor Hund, Alex Lang, Derek Letsche, Lionel Martinez, Maria Petropoulos, Anand Rehsi, Nicolas Remy, Jazmine Rodriguez, Manny Rosedilla, Kyle Spence, Michael Standard, Vincent Tardy, Joe Tremper, Kyle Uber, Ryan Walton, Hannah Warner, Chace Williams
Executive Producer Bob Lord
Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson
VP, Audio Production Jeff LeRoy
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
Mastering Shaun Michaud
VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Sara Warner
Artist Information
Robert McCormick
Robert McCormick is currently Professor of Music at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He served as principal percussionist/assistant timpanist with the Florida Orchestra for 20 seasons. He is a former member of the Harry Partch Ensemble and often performs and records with high profile artists of all genres. In 2010, he conducted the premiere performance of Chan Hae Lee’s Korean folk opera Simcheongga at the National Center of Performing Arts in Seoul. In March 2014 McCormick performed the world premiere of Baljinder Sekhon’s Double Percussion Concerto at Carnegie Hall with percussionist Lee Hinkle. McCormick was the 2006 recipient of the Florida Music Educator of the Year Award; the 2007 Grand Prize in the Keystone Percussion Composition Award; the 2010 University Distinguished Teacher Award; and the 2015 Percussive Arts Society Lifetime Achievement in Education Award. He has also received several Global Music Awards for his albums, many of which are published on the Ravello Records label and distributed by Naxos. McCormick proudly endorses Encore Mallets, Grover Pro Percussion, and Zildjian Cymbals.
McCormick Percussion Group
The McCormick Percussion Group is recognized by critics and composers throughout the world for their unique recordings and interpretations of music decidedly outside of the mainstream. MPG often collaborates with other non-percussion musicians to explore and develop new trends of compositional thought. Among the most recorded ensembles of the genre, MPG has recorded many award winning albums for Ravello Records (dist. by Naxos). To ensure the original intent of each work, composers are often invited to rehearse with the ensemble and supervise recording sessions. Under the direction of Robert McCormick, MPG is a resident ensemble at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
Strings & Hammers
Strings & Hammers is a unique piano trio. Founded by Eunmi Ko, Sini Virtanen, and Julia Keller, the ensemble has the unusual instrumentation of piano, violin, and double bass. Strings & Hammers explores chamber music repertoire of the 20th and 21st Century and collaborates with composers from around the world. Strings & Hammers appeared in the COMA’16 Madrid Contemporary Music Festival, Universidad Alfonso X el Sabio, University of Rochester, Eastman School of Music, Spectrum NYC, The Venture Compound, University of South Florida, among others. The ensemble has played music of Penderecki, David Liptak, Alessandro Annunziata, Baljinder Sekhon, John Liberatore, Seunghee Lee, Fabio Massimo, Eduardo Costa Roldan, Alejandro Roman, Alejandro de la Barrera, David Jenssen, and Gilad Rabinovitch. In Spring 2019, Strings & Hammers was the guest ensemble for the award-winning McCormick Percussion Group. facebook.com/StringsHammers.
Anthony R. Green
The creative output of Anthony R. Green (composer, performer, social justice) includes musical and visual creations, interpretations of original works or works in the repertoire, collaborations, educational outreach, and more. Behind all of his artistic endeavors are the ideals of equality and freedom, which manifest themselves in diverse ways in a composition, a performance, collaboration, or social justice work.
Eduardo Costa Roldán
Eduardo Costa Roldán is a flautist and composer based in Madrid, Spain. His music has been performed throughout Europe as well as Asia and North/South America and has been broadcasted by Radio Nacional de España (Spanish National Radio) and Radio Nacional de Portugal. His second chamber opera, Party’s Over, was streamed live worldwide through www.crasmusicas.com.
Emily Koh
Emily Koh is a Singaporean composer and double bassist based in Atlanta, whose music is characterized by inventive explorations of the smallest details of sound. In addition to writing acoustic and electronic concert music, she enjoys collaborating with other creatives in projects where sound plays an important role in the creative process.
Jarkko Hartikainen
About the composer: Jarkko Hartikainen (b. 1981, Finland) is a composer striving to create works that explore what music is and could still be, researching the possibilities in sound through rigorous performer-collaboration as well as studying findings in a plethora of disciplines. Stimulating acoustic phenomena, exciting sonorities, and concrete, bodily impulses through rhythm, resonance, and empathy fuel his often extremely instrument-specific, concentrated writing.
Alessandro Annunziata
Born in Rome, Italy, Alessandro Annunziata began playing instruments and composing at an early age. He graduated with honors in Literature and Philosophy and specialized in History of Music and Musicology. After studying composition and piano in Rome, he decided to continue his musical research through independent studies on classical and contemporary repertoires as well as popular music particularly in the Mediterranean and European areas.