Manhattan School of Music Percussion Ensemble: A 60-Year Retrospective

MSM Percussion Ensemble Anniversary Celebration March 28, 2018 A 60-Year Retrospective

60 YEARS OF PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE AT MSM The Beat Goes On…

Paul Price at Manhattan School of Music, November 1963

Percussion Ensemble activities at Manhattan School of Music over the past 60 years have led a growing, worldwide interest in the discipline.

Launched by Paul Price, the percussion ensemble legacy at MSM was later assumed

by Claire Heldrich and Jeffrey Milarsky, each upholding standards of excellence and innovation that have become hallmarks of ensemble performance over the decades. This commitment to the highest standards — coupled with the commissioning of new works and arrangements for the wide variety of available percussion instruments and sounds — attracted larger audiences, as well as positive reviews from publications such as The New York Times; praise from composers such as John Cage; and performances in prestigious venues such as Town Hall and the Metropolitan Museum.

Over the course of the six decades since MSM’s influential Percussion Ensemble was launched, the very idea of “the percussion ensemble” has evolved, capturing the imagination of audiences and composers alike and taking firm hold as a staple of today’s concert life.

1957–1986 In the fall of 1957, Paul Price joined the Manhattan School of Music faculty where he taught until his passing in 1986. Educated at New England Conservatory and Cincinnati Conservatory, the contemporary musical aesthetics of composers Edgard Varèse and Henry Cowell piqued the interest of the young percussionist and would later guide his professional career.

He taught at the University of Illinois from 1949–1956, where he established the first accredited college percussion ensemble, starting a nation-wide trend that continued when he moved east and to Manhattan School of Music. His belief in the possibilities and range of the percussion ensemble influenced his students, as well as established composers such as Lou Harrison and John Cage. Price performed and conducted numerous premieres, including some of his own compositions, and published new works through his own companies, Music for Percussion and Paul Price Publications.

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Immediately after establishing the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble, Price was invited to have his group appear on a mega-concert celebrating the music of John Cage, then age 46. The MSM Ensemble performed Cage’s 1937 Construction in Metal on the May 15, 1958 concert, with the assistance of Merce Cunningham. In addition, Price performed with three members of the Ensemble in “Quartet” from Cage’s She Is Asleep. An album was later released on Germany’s WERGO label.

Cover of LP and program page for 1958 John Cage retrospective Price’s work at Manhattan School of Music caught the attention of renowned conductor Leopold Stokowski, who asked Price to prepare his ensemble for a Contemporary Music Society concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Stokowski conducted the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble in Prelude for Percussion by Malloy Miller and October Mountain by Alan Hovhaness on the December 3, 1958 concert.

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1958 Contemporary Music Society concert program (Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Manhattan Percussion Ensemble concert review in a 1959 issue of Time magazine

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Performances of the Ensemble at MSM garnered notoriety and critical acclaim, as did concerts at venues throughout the city. World premieres and commissions from such composers as Nicolas Flagello, Michael Colgrass, Gardner Read, and Lou Harrison were given.

Paul Price rehearsing the Ensemble, February 1962 Iconic recordings were made and released by Urania Records of percussion works by Carlos Chåvez, Alan Hovhaness, Edgard Varèse, Lou Harrison, and others.

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Paul Price and the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble in Hubbard Hall on East 105th Street, February 1962

Paul Price and the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble in Hubbard Hall on East 105th Street, February 1962

Paul Price rehearsing the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble in Hubbard Hall on East 105th Street, November 1962

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Price conducted the first-ever performance of Harrison’s Labyrinth No. 3, written in 1941 “for eleven percussionists playing ninety-four instruments,” at Town Hall in 1961 and the composer’s Suite for Percussion at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1963. Conductor Leopold Stokowski was in attendance and wrote Price a personal note: “Thank you for an unforgettable concert. I was deeply impressed…”

Paul Price and Ensemble at the Museum of Modern Art, February 1963

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Personal note from Leopold Stokowski to Paul Price, March 1963

The Manhattan Percussion Ensemble in Hubbard Hall on East 105th Street, April 1963

Paul Price and the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble in Hubbard Hall on East 105th Street, November 1963

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Paul Price and the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble in Hubbard Hall on East 105th Street, November 1963

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Paul Price and the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble, November 1964

Publicity photos of Paul Price and the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble, December 1967

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By 1967, even the U.S. government was taking notice of Price and the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble.

They were to be the first unit of its kind chosen by the Department of State to represent the U.S. abroad under the auspices of the Cultural Presentations Program. The nine-member Ensemble, plus a guest pianist, toured Europe and the Middle East in 1968, giving performances in nine countries and 18 cities: Norway (Oslo), Belgium (Brussels), Poland (Warsaw, Poznań, Gdańsk), Austria (Vienna), Turkey (Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul), Greece (Athens, Patras), Yugoslavia (Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana), Lebanon (Beirut), and Iran (Tehran, Persian Gulf).

Three different programs were cycled through the various appearances. The repertoire for the tour comprised an intense array of music by North and South American living composers, including Nicolas Flagello, Lou Harrison, Vivian Fine, Gardner Read, Michael Colgress, Alan Hovhaness, Robert Moran, Malloy Miller, Roger Keagle, John Bergamo, Robert Kelly, and Richard Fitz. Two work’s in particular had just been premiered by the Ensemble the previous season. Price had brought in Argentinian composer Alcides Lanza to coach the Ensemble on his Interferences II for percussion ensemble and tape, and Alberto Ginastera to help prepare Mexican composer Carlos Chávez’s Tambuco.

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Pages of a 1968 tour program from the Norway leg of the trip

Paul Price and the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble at the airport, February 1968

Tour performances in Warsaw, Poland 13

When the School moved from its former home on East 105th Street to its current location, in 1969, the Percussion Ensemble was chosen as a highlight of MSM’s inaugural season. A grand concert was given in March 1970 that included Henry Brant’s Symphony for Percussion (with the composer as organist) and Gardner Read’s Los Dioses Aztecas (a work written for Price). A world premiere was given of Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms No. 5 for percussion and tape, part of the series of pathbreaking works from the Pulitzer Prizewinning composer.

Paul Price rehearsing the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble in Borden Auditorium, February 1970

Paul Price with composition faculty, February 1970 14

Talented young percussionists flocked to Price (and to MSM), soaking up his enthusiasm and later spreading his influence. Jan Williams, Michael Colgrass, John Bergamo, George Boberg, Jim Petercsak, Max Neuhaus, Robert Hohner, and Raymond Des Roches are just some of the students in those early years with Price, who went on to become important names in the percussion world in their own right.

After an incredible career and in honor of his widespread influence, the National Association of American Composers and Conductors awarded Paul Price a citation for his “outstanding contribution to American music” and, in 1975, Price was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame. Frederick D. Fairchild of the PAS writes: “It is doubtful if the percussion ensemble would have achieved its present status and level of attainment without the influence he had on its literature and performance practices.”

Paul Price, 1967

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1987–2001 After Paul Price’s death in 1986, the mantle of Percussion Ensemble Director was passed to MSM alumna Claire Heldrich, who had played in Price’s Ensemble as a student. Heldrich organized a memorial concert to honor Price in 1987, which was attended by John Cage and reviewed in the New York Times. Tim Page wrote: “One suspects that Mr. Price would have approved of this catholicity, of Ms. Heldrich’s splendidly efficient timekeeping, of the spirited, accurate performances, and of the enthusiastic audience that shouted itself hoarse.”

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Heldrich’s association with the Ensemble, however, had started years earlier. Her professional group, the New Music Consort, had featured the MSM Percussion Ensemble on a number of concerts at Carnegie Recital Hall beginning in 1980. During that time they gave world-premiere performances of Anne LeBaron’s Rite of the Black Sun and Dean Drummond’s Dirty Firty. The Consort became ensemble-in-residence at MSM in 1985.

Claire Heldrich and the MSM Percussion Ensemble, ca. 1984 Having connections with Heldrich’s circle gave the students in the Ensemble invaluable experience with some of the most important music of our time. George Crumb, Joan Tower, John Cage, Joseph Pereira, Steve Reich, Elliott Carter, and Chen Yi coached the Ensemble on their works. Charles Wuorinen was a frequent visitor and he dedicated his 1994 Percussion Quartet to Heldrich.

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This exposure to a variety of influential contemporary composers was coupled with multiple annual excursions to venues around the tristate area, including Weill Recital Hall, NYU, Rutgers University, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Symphony Space, Columbia University, William Paterson College, and Queens College, to name a few. A concert by the New Music Consort at Symphony Space featured the MSM Percussion Ensemble in the premiere of Triptych for percussion and cello by David Olan, as well as Charles Wuorinen’s Percussion Symphony.

Claire Heldrich and the MSM Percussion Ensemble, ca. 1986 Several other new works were written for the Ensemble by fellow faculty member David Noon, in addition to Duncan Patton’s Fierce Murmurs, Leroy Jenkins’s Hulapalula, Elias Tanenbaum’s Bells and Things, and David Shohl’s True North. Countless other works were given their first New York or U.S. hearings by the Ensemble.

In 1990, the Pulse Percussion Ensemble was formed, a subsidiary of the New Music Consort, and became an ensemble-in-residence at MSM. Like Paul Price before her, Heldrich often gave current students important real-world experience, playing alongside professional musicians, many of them recent MSM graduates.

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New Music Consort’s Pulse Percussion Ensemble, ca. 1990

A March 1995 concert by the New Music Consort’s Pulse Percussion Ensemble featured world premieres of works by Charles Wuorinen and Leroy Jenkins. The concert was dedicated to Raymond Des Roches — former Manhattan Percussion Ensemble member under Price, founder of the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, and professor emeritus at SUNY–Purchase. Allan Kozinn of the New York Times wrote: “no amount of textural and rhythmic intricacy is beyond the grasp of this ensemble’s young players…”

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2001–2017 Jeffrey Milarsky became Music Director and Conductor of the MSM Percussion Ensemble in 2001, at which time Claire Heldrich was appointed Administrator for Percussion, continuing to coordinate events, concerts, and recordings until 2014 Milarsky — a percussionist himself and one of the leading conductors of contemporary music in New York City — continued the traditions of honoring the twentieth-century music written for percussion while seeking out and even commissioning young, up-and-coming composers.

For the MSM Percussion Ensemble, Milarsky arranged for the world premieres of works by Jonathan Dawe (Gibbons, Gongs, and Gamelan), Ronald Bruce Smith (Stèle), Gustavo Aguilar (Not Knowing the Cart Got in Front), Evan Antonellis (Multiple Histories/Lost Childhood Sing-Alongs), Carl Bettendorf (Arsenal), Joseph Pereira (Silence), Reiko Fueting (“mo(nu)ment 129”), and Taylor Brook (Rust), to name a few.

The Ensemble recorded Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms No. 5 (1969) for percussion and tape — a work that has been in the Ensemble’s repertoire since premiering it in 1970 — which was included on Bridge Records’ 2005 release of the composer’s works.

2005 Bridge Records release featuring Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms No. 5 Milarsky brought the Manhattan and Juilliard ensembles together for a set of concerts in 2007, joining forces for Charles Wuorinen’s Percussion Symphony (1976) in Borden Auditorium and at Alice Tully Hall.

The New York Times carried an extensive feature on the work and the unique collaboration that included an interview with Milarsky and with Wuorinen, who attended a rehearsal and performance at MSM. “We’re not just the timekeepers anymore, but fully fledged musicians,” Milarsky said in the article.

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The Ensemble’s other cooperative events included a performance of Varèse’s Ionisation with Alarm Will Sound; Henry Cowell’s Ostinato Pianissimo with Joseph Pereira presented by the New York Philharmonic; and the Ensemble’s participation in five consecutive years of “Day of Percussion” at the Conservatory of Music at SUNY–Purchase. In February 2009, MSM hosted guest percussion ensembles from Juilliard, Mannes, NYU, and Queens College for a two-day marathon.

Jeff Milarsky and the MSM Percussion Ensemble in Borden Auditorium, February 2009 A March 2012 Ensemble concert featured the world premiere of Arsenal by Carl C. Bettendorf and the New York premieres of Joseph Pereira’s ...Tied to the past and James Wood’s Cloud-Polyphonies, a work that MSM co-commissioned with 15 other organizations.

The concert was dedicated to James Petercsak — MSM alumnus, former member of Price’s Ensemble, Percussive Arts Society Lifetime in Education Awardee, and SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Percussion at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam. He has been a staunch supporter of MSM, giving financially and, of his time, and donating new instruments for the Ensemble.

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James Petercsak, third from left, with the MSM Percussion Faculty in 2012

In 2012 the MSM Percussion Ensemble appeared at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. They represented Manhattan School of Music as part of the Center’s Conservatory Series and performed works by Steve Reich.

The MSM Percussion Ensemble at the Kennedy Center, March 2012

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Jeff Milarsky and the MSM Percussion Ensemble in Borden Auditorium, November 2013

The MSM Percussion Ensemble in Borden Auditorium, November 2013

Jeff Milarsky and the MSM Percussion Ensemble in Borden Auditorium, November 2013

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The MSM Percussion Ensemble in Ades Performance Space, November 2017 As Manhattan School of Music enters its Centennial Celebration season in 2018–19, we will continue to hold up our Percussion Ensemble as a stellar example of all that is right at the School. We look forward to the next generation of percussion students and faculty who will carry forward the traditions of the past and blaze new trails for ensemble performance in the future.

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World Premieres Given by the Manhattan School of Music Percussion Ensemble 1960 Nicolas Flagello’s Divertimento for piano and percussion 1960 Gardner Read’s Los Dioses Aztecas (Gods of the Aztecs) 1961

Lou Harrison’s Labyrinth No. 3

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Nicolas Flagello’s Concertino for piano, brass, and timpani

1963 Lou Harrison’s Suite for Percussion 1966 Nicolas Flagello’s Electra for piano and percussion ensemble 1967 Alcides Lanza’s Interferences II for percussion ensemble and tape 1970 Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms No. 5 for percussion and tape 1970 Jose Ardevol’s Study in the Form of Prelude and Fugue 1972

James Drew’s Metal Concert

1980 Anne LeBaron’s Rite of the Black Sun 1982

Dean Drummond’s Dirty Firty

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David Noon’s Hit the Deck for four percussionists

1988 David Olan’s Triptych for percussion and cello 1989 David Noon’s Skinned Alive for eight percussionists 1990 David Noon’s Swept Away for four brooms 1990 David Noon’s Table for One 1992 Duncan Patton’s Fierce Murmurs 1995 Leroy Jenkins’s Hulapalula for electric violin and percussion 1995 Charles Wuorinen’s Percussion Quartet 1997 David Noon’s Symphonia Apocalyptica for twelve percussionists 1998 Elias Tanenbaum’s Bells and Things 1998 David Shohl’s True North 2006 Jonathan Dawe’s Gibbons, gongs, and gamelan 2009 Ronald Bruce Smith’s Stèle (for Tali) 2009 Gustavo Aguilar’s Not Knowing the Cart Got in Front 2010 Evan Antonellis’s Multiple Histories/Lost Childhood Sing-Alongs 2012 Carl C. Bettendorf’s Arsenal 2015 Joseph Pereira’s Silence 2016 Reiko Fueting’s mo(nu)ment 129 2017 Taylor Brook’s Rust John K. Blanchard Institutional Historian & Director of Archives Manhattan School of Music March 2018 27