2022 Seminar

Quey Percussion ​Duo
​Khamsin (2018), Emmanuel Séjourné (b. 1961)

Dr. Karlyn Viña​
Stop Speaking (2011)​, Andy Akiho (b. 1979)
 Argoru VII (1994) , Alvin Singleton (b. 1940)

Josanne Francis (steel pan) with UD Faculty:
Tom Palmer (piano), Miles Brown (bass) & Gene Koshinski (drum set)​
​Tico Tico no Fuba​, Zequinha de Abreau (1880-1935)
Chant Liam​, Teague (b. 1975)

Members of the University of Delaware Percussion Ensemble
Sae Bin An, Emerson Forbes, Christian Hartman, Graeme Leighton​
​BOOMeRANG (2019)​, Gene Koshinski (b. 1980)

University of Delaware Graduate Percussion Group Gage Kroljic, Zach Odom, Andrew Simmons​
​Sandbox (2020), Viet Cuong (b. 1990)

Adam Nussbaum (drum set) with UD Jazz Faculty:
​Todd Groves (saxophone), Tom Palmer (piano), Dave Bozenhard (guitar) & Miles Brown (bass)
​Selections Announced from the Stage ​

Welcome and Door Prizes​

Evan Chapman
​Second Thoughts (2013)​

Austin Wrinkle​
​Warthog #3 (1997)

Clif Walker​
​Disguised (2020)

Ensemble Members

Alex Badami, Germantown Academy
Dia Bonsu, Elizabeth Seton High School
Alex Cai, Germantown Academy
William Doyle, Middletown High School
Julia Mescallado, Northport Senior High School
Dominic Perazza, Germantown Academy
Jonathan Rowe, Brick Memorial High School
​Katherine Weber, Havre de Grace High School

Ensemble directed by UD Faculty, Dr. Gene Koshinski & Dr. Tim Broscious ​

Critically-acclaimed composer Andy Akiho and Sandbox Percussion announce the release of Akiho’s Seven Pillars, aboldly genre-defying audio and video collaboration for percussion quartet. The work consists of seven ensemble movements and one solo movement for each member of Sandbox, developed through multiple extended residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute. The full album is streaming on all platforms September 24, 2021.

Performed by Sandbox, this evening-length work is the largest-scale chamber music work that Akiho has written and that Sandbox has commissioned. Akiho and Sandbox’s ongoing collaboration for Seven Pillars has spanned on and off for 8 years. It has been a labor of love between friends and towards the end of the project, Akiho and Sandbox expanded the collaborative circle.

Akiho and Sandbox Percussion commissioned 11 video artists to create original films for Seven Pillars – one film for each movement of the work. These collaborative videos encompass the worlds of dance, animation, experimental narrative film, time-lapse, and more.

“I’ve never taken on a project this ambitious – it’s nearly 80 minutes of music – but I was inspired by the collaborative relationship I have with Sandbox,” says Akiho. “We’re all close friends, we enjoy making music together, and there is freedom to experiment in that type of environment. The instrumentation includes traditional instruments such as vibraphone, glockenspiel, and marimba, with some found percussion sounds like glass bottles and metal pipes. Creatively, I wanted to limit the instrumentation in order to encourage the opportunity to find unique timbres and playing techniques on each instrument.”

The form of Seven Pillars mirrors the ambitious nature of this multimedia work. The seven main movements function as a palindrome, with the music and their corresponding films highlighting the relationships between the various movements.

Seven Pillars (2021) • Andy Akiho (b. 1979)

I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII

Pillar I

• Amethyst •

Pillar II

Pillar III

• Spiel •

Pillar IV

• mARImbA •

Pillar V

Pillar VI

• carTogRAPh •

Pillar VII