Michael Gordon’s Field of Vision (World Premiere)

Over the past 30 years, Michael Gordon has produced a strikingly diverse body of work, ranging from large-scale pieces for high-energy ensembles and major orchestral commissions to works conceived specifically for the recording studio and kaleidoscopic works for groups of identical instruments. 

Gordon’s recent works include a new chamber version of his opera Acquanetta, commissioned and premiered by Beth Morrison’s Prototype Festival in New York City; Big Space, commissioned by the BBC Proms; and Anonymous Man, a concert-length work for choir, commissioned and premiered by The Crossing. His new works for orchestra include Natural History, written for the 100th Anniversary of the United States’ National Parks and premiered at Crater Lake in Oregon; Observations on Air, a concerto for bassoon for soloist Peter Whelan, commissioned by The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; and The Unchanging Sea, a piano concerto for Tomoko Mukaiyama with a new film by Bill Morrison, commissioned and premiered by the Seattle Symphony and the Rotterdam Symphony.  

Gordon’s discography includes 8, The Unchanging Sea, Clouded Yellow, Sonatra, Natural History, Timber Remixed, Dystopia, Rushes, Timber, Weather, Light is Calling, Decasia, (purgatorio) POPOPERA, Van Gogh, Trance, and Big Noise from Nicaragua. His music is published by Red Poppy Music and G. Ricordi & Co., New York (ASCAP) and is distributed worldwide by the Universal Music Publishing Group. 

For more information about Michael Gordon, please visit his website. 

The University of Michigan Ensemble is committed to providing its members with opportunities to grow as artists through collaboration and performance.  In the last two seasons,  the ensemble has collaborated on projects with the Limon Dance Company and Shodekeh Talifero, as well as incubating new projects from its own members. Its Modern Percussion Lab recently put out a record called A New Age for New Age (volume 5) and recorded John Luther Adams’ Sila: The Breath of the World for release on Canatloupe Music in September 2022. 

Ian Antonio and Doug Perkins, Co-Directors
Ian Antonio
Aaron Butler
Olivia Cirisan
Schuyler Donahoe
Nolan Ehlers
Sydney Gembka
Jean Carlo
Ureña Gonzalez
Alexis Lamb
Adam Langs
Anna Mueller
Peter Nichols
Ancel Neely
Renata Rangel
Reed Puleo
Gavin Ryan
James Stagnitti
Sui Lin Tam
Sylvan Talavera
Bella Villaseñor
Cameron Wilson

Now in its 14th year, the Sō Percussion Summer Institute brings together amazing composers and percussionists from around the United States and the world in a two-week seminar who join in for a  unique educational opportunity created by Sō Percussion at one of the most critical stages of their development. The program offers a hands-on experience that brings the practical and theoretical together, including: commissioning and creating new music, fruitful collaboration with and among artists, the rehearsal and development process, and performance.

Participants from the Sō Percussion Summer Institute:
Alex Braud
Rodney Clark
Daniel Davis
Liz Fetzer
Ben Hausman
Claire Hu
Bensen Kwan
Jake Kundu
Trygve Lebakken
Hannah Moore
Corey Sittinger
Mckenzie Squires
Malcom Taylor
Graham Viegut
Kevin Yetter
Zachary Wilson

Doug Perkins specializes in new works for percussion as a chamber musician and soloist. He has appeared in venues of many kinds including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Millennium Park, the Alaskan Tundra, Central Park Lake, and countless others. 

Over the last 15 years, Perkins has commissioned and premiered over 100 pieces works, with such composers as David Lang, Steve Reich, Paul Lansky, John Luther Adams, Nathan Davis, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Tristan Perich. He founded the percussion quartet So Percussion and the Meehan/ Perkins Duo, and performs regularly with Signal, eighth blackbird, the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW, and others. 

His critically acclaimed recordings as a soloist, conductor, producer, and member of the Meehan/ Perkins Duo and Sō Percussion can be heard on the Bridge, Cantaloupe, Harmonia Mundi, New Focus, and New World labels. They have been called “brilliant” by The New York Times and named to numerous Top 10 of the Year lists. He produced John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit, which was named one of 2013’s top records by NPR, The New York Times, Boston Globe, The New Yorker, New Music Box, and Time Out New York. His latest record of Tristan Perich’s Parallels was named one of Rolling Stone’s 20 Best Avant Records of 2015. Most recently, he premiered Tristan Perich’s, Drift Multiply, at the Red Bull Festival in New York and recorded it for release in 2020. 

Perkins is an Associate Professor of Music and the Director of Percussion at the University of Michigan. He is additionally an Associate Professor of Music at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee. He performs with Vic Firth Drumsticks and Mallets, Pearl/Adams drums and keyboards, Black Swamp Percussion accessories, Remo Drumheads, and Zildjian Cymbals. 

For more information about Doug Perkins, please visit his website.