City: Dan Trueman is a composer, fiddler, and electronic musician. He began studying violin at the age of 4, and decades later, after a chance encounter, fell in love with the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle, an instrument and tradition that has deeply affected all of his work, whether as a fiddler, a composer, or musical explorer.
Dan’s current projects include: a double-quartet for So Percussion and the JACK Quartet, commissioned by the Barlow Foundation; Olagón — an evening length work in collaboration with singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, poet Paul Muldoon, and eighth blackbird; the Prepared Digital Piano project; ongoing collaborations with Irish fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and guitarist Monica Mugan (Trollstilt). His recent albums with Ó Raghallaigh (Laghdú) and So Percussion (neither Anvil nor Pulley) have met with wide acclaim. Upcoming record releases include The Nostalgic Synchronic Etudes for prepared digital piano, to be released by New Amsterdam Records, and The Sideband Chronicles (a Princeton Laptop Orchestra project).
His explorations have ranged from the oldest to the newest technologies; Dan co-founded the Princeton Laptop Orchestra, the first ensemble of its size and kind that has led to the formation of similarly inspired ensembles across the world, from Oslo to Dublin, to Stanford and Bangkok. Dan’s compositional work reflects this complex and broad range of activities, exploring rhythmic connections between traditional dance music and machines, for instance, or engaging with the unusual phrasing, tuning and ornamentation of the traditional Norwegian music while trying to discover new music that is singularly inspired by, and only possible with, new digital instruments that he designs and constructs. His tools of the trade are the first-of-its-kind Hardanger d’Amore fiddle by Salve Hakedal (played with a beautiful baroque bow by Michel Jamonneau), and the ChucK music programming language by Ge Wang.
Dan’s work has been recognized by fellowships, grants, commissions, and awards from the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundations, the Barlow Endowment, the Fulbright Commission, the American Composers Forum, the American Council of Learned Societies, Meet the Composer, among others. He is Professor of Music and Director of the Princeton Sound Kitchen at Princeton University, where he teaches counterpoint, electronic music, and composition.
“The dazzling results mixed George Crumb’s knack for unearthly timbres, Alvin Lucier’s infinitesimally fine gradations of tone and the fierce creative audacity of Jimi Hendrix.”
–The New York Times
Dan Trueman’s Nostalgic Synchronic offical site
For over a decade, So Percussion has redefined the modern percussion ensemble as a flexible, omnivorous entity, pushing its voice to the forefront of American musical culture. Praised by the New Yorker for their “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam,” So’s adventurous spirit is written into the DNA passed down from composers like John Cage and Steve Reich, as well as from pioneering ensembles like the Kronos Quartet and Nexus Percussion. So Percussion’s career now encompasses 13 albums, touring throughout the USA and around the world, a dizzying array of collaborative projects, several ambitious educational programs, and a steady output of their own music.
When the founding members of So Percussion convened as graduate students at the Yale School of Music, their initial goal was to present an exciting repertoire of pieces by 20th century luminaries such as Cage, Reich, and Iannis Xenakis. An encounter with David Lang, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and co-founder of New York’s Bang on a Can organization, yielded their first commissioned piece: the 36 minute, three movement the so-called laws of nature. Since that first major new work, So has commissioned some of the greatest American composers of our time to build a new repertoire, including Steve Reich, Steve Mackey, Paul Lansky, Martin Bresnick, and many others.
Over time, an appetite for boundless creativity lead the group to branch out beyond the composer/interpreter paradigm. Since 2006 with group member Jason Treuting’s amid the noise, the members of So Percussion have been composing in their own right within the group and for others. In 2012 their third evening-length work Where (we) Live premieres at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, travelling to the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 30th Next Wave Festival and the Myrna Loy Center in Helena, MT. Where (we) Live follows on the heels of 2009’s Imaginary City, a fully staged sonic meditation on urban soundscapes. In 2011, So was commissioned by Shen Wei Dance Arts to compose Undivided Divided, a 30-minute work conceived for Manhattan’s massive Park Avenue Armory.
So Percussion’s artistic circle extends beyond their contemporary classical roots. They first expanded this boundary with the prolific duo Matmos, whom The New York Times called “ideal collaborators” on their 2010 combined album Treasure State. Further projects and appearances with Wham City shaman Dan Deacon, legendary drummer Bobby Previte, jam band kings Medeski, Martin, and Wood, and Wilco’s Glenn Kotche drew the circle even wider. In 2011, the rock band The National invited So to open one of their sold-out shows at New York’s Beacon Theater.
So’s recording of the so-called laws of nature became the cornerstone of their self-titled debut album on Cantaloupe Music (the record label from the founders of Bang on a Can) in 2004. In subsequent years, this relationship blossomed into a growing catalogue of exciting records. In 2011, So released six new albums, ranging from their definitive recording of Steve Reich’s Mallet Quartet – composed for them in 2009 – on Nonesuch Records, to Steve Mackey’s epic quartet It Is Time on Cantaloupe, to their collaborative album Bad Mango with jazz trumpeter Dave Douglas on Greenleaf Music. The BBC raved of So’s performance of Mallet Quartet that they “have it nailed, finding both the inner glow and the outer edge, and never letting the tapestry lapse into the flat or routine.”
So Percussion is heavily involved in mentoring young musicians. Its members are Co-Directors of a new percussion department at the Bard College-Conservatory of Music. This top-flight undergraduate program enrolls each student in a double-degree (Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Arts) course in the Conservatory and Bard College, equipping them with elite conservatory training and a broad liberal arts education. In 2009, they created the annual So Percussion Summer Institute on the campus of Princeton University. The Institute is an intensive two-week chamber music seminar for college-age percussionists featuring the four members of So as faculty in rehearsal, performance, and discussion of contemporary music for students from around the world. During the 2011-2012 academic year, So was an ensemble-in-residence at Princeton University, teaching seminars and collaborating extensively with talented student composers.
So has been featured at many of the major venues in the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Stanford Lively Arts, Texas Performing Arts, and many others. In addition, a recent residency at London’s Barbican Centre, as well as tours to Western Europe, South America, Russia, and Australia have brought them international acclaim.
So would like to thank Pearl/Adams Instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth drumsticks, Remo drumheads, Black Swamp Accessories, and Estey organs for their sponsorship.
Adam has been praised as a soloist by the New York Times for his “shapely, thoughtfully nuanced account” of David Lang’s marimba piece String of Pearls. He has performed as a percussionist many times with the International Contemporary Ensemble, founded by classmates from Oberlin. Though he trained primarily as a percussionist, Adam’s first major solo album, out on New Amsterdam records in 2015, is a collection of etudes called Nostalgic Synchronic for the Prepared Digital Piano, an invention of Princeton colleague Dan Trueman. In recent years, Adam’s collaborations have grown to include conducting. He has conducted over a dozen world premieres with the International Contemporary Ensemble, including residencies at Harvard, Columbia, and NYU. In 2014, ECM Records released the live recording of the premiere of Vijay Iyer’s Radhe Radhe with Adam conducting.
Adam writes about music on his blog. He has also contributed a series of articles tonewmusicbox.org, and the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Percussion from Cambridge University press will feature his chapter “Lost and Found: Percussion Chamber Music and the Modern Age.”
Adam is co-director of the So Percussion Summer Institute, an annual intensive course on the campus of Princeton University for college-aged percussionists. He is also co-director of the percussion program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and has taught percussion both in masterclass and privately at more than 80 conservatories and universities in the USA and internationally. Along with his colleagues in So Percussion, Adam is Edward T. Cone performer-in-residence at Princeton University. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts and his Masters degrees at Yale with marimba soloist Robert van Sice, and his Bachelors at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music with Michael Rosen. Visit www.adamsliwinski.net.
Pianist Cristina Altamura authentically embraces an older European sensibility while still capturing the spirit of a contemporary, multi-ethnic world. Her pianism has been described as “rich in abandon and emotional surprises,” (Amici della Musica, Bologna) with a “power that was astonishing” (La Presse, Montreal).
As a teen, Ms. Altamura made her Carnegie Hall solo orchestral debut with George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Her European debut took place with the Bucharest Philharmonic under the baton of Karel Mark Chichon at the Ateneul Roman. This was followed by an invitation to be principal soloist of the State Philharmonic of Bacau, a position she held from 1999-2002. Her close musical association with Romania resulted in performances and recordings with all of the major Romanian orchestras, as well as other European orchestras. This period of work focusing on the vast piano concerto repertoire culminated in 2003, when Ms. Altamura was presented at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in two piano concerti: Mozart K. 488 and Beethoven’s First.
Cristina Altamura’s artistry stems from a deep connection to her Italian-born parents. Her mother – who studied singing during opera’s golden era with Maria Callas’ teacher and at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan – has had a profound influence on her bel canto-informed Chopin interpretations. From 1995-2002, she studied in Italy, first with Marcelo Abbado and then with Maestro Franco Scala, director of the famed Accademia Pianistica d’Imola. In 1997, Ms. Altamura was the only American musician awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Italy. That same year, she was awarded a scholarship from the National Italian American Foundation in Washington, D.C. and a subsequent Alitalia Airlines grant for touring.
Cristina has been a frequent guest on New York’s WQXR, where her winning, uncut Fulbright audition tape was broadcast on WQXR’s McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase. In 2001 WQXR host Robert Sherman presented Cristina as soloist with the State Philharmonic of Romania “Bacau” to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Planting Fields Oyster Bay Beethoven Festival where she played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1. Other live radio appearances have included a recital on the Myra Hess concert series for Chicago’s WFMT.
Ms. Altamura’s taste, reflected in her multi-disciplined and multi-cultured background, also extends to Latin America. In 2004, she caught the attention of Guido López-Gavilán, the composer and principal conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, who invited her to present a solo recital in Havana at the historic Basilica de San Francisco. The concert was subsequently broadcast throughout South America. She has collaborated with Colombian-born composer and master conguero Samuel Torres on a program of new works from Latin America and the Caribbean.
The pianist’s background also includes ballet training with former Ballet-Russes and NYCB dancers, and at the Joffrey Ballet School. In 2007, Cristina conceived a project fusing the music of J.S. Bach with cutting-edge breakdance with Rokafella, world-renowned pioneer female breakdancer and choreographer. Their debut together took place at the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, and they performed for a thousand-plus audience at Central Park Summer Stage. Their collaborative work eventually matured in the multi-disciplinary performance piece Outside the Bachx, a work co-commissioned by the Kennedy Center and New Victory Theater fusing classical piano, DJ, beatboxing while juxtaposing classical ballet with urban dance styles. They presented it at the Kennedy Center in February 2015 during a two week residency.
In the near future, Cristina plans to explore the idea of keyboard virtuosity across a vast span of time, from the Frescobaldi of her Italian heritage, to the standard repertoire of Bach and Chopin, to contemporary experiments of Ligeti and Dan Trueman’s new etudes for the “Prepared Digital Piano.” Cristina is currently finishing a masters degree at Rutgers University, having received her Bachelors at The Mannes College of Music. She lives in the New York City area with her husband Adam Sliwinski (So Percussion) and ten-year old son Guillermo.