So Percussion And Trollstilt Close Out Institute For Advanced Study 2005-06 Concert Season

"Giant Pipes and Flowerpots: Music in the Birch Garden" is the final event in the Institute for Advanced Study�s Recent Pasts 20/21 2005-2006 concert season. So Percussion and Trollstilt will perform on Saturday, May 13 at 7:30 p.m. in the Birch Garden on the Institute campus.

Immediately prior the concert, at 6:30 p.m., there will be a Recent Pasts 20/21 Conversation, A Music Redefined: David Lang speaks with Jon Magnussen. Composer Magnussen, Institute Artist-in-Residence, will talk with provocative American composer David Lang, whose work, The So-Called Laws of Nature, will be performed at the concert.

There will also be a related Lunchtime Concert Talk on Friday, May 12 at 12:30 p.m. in the Dilworth Room. Members of So Percussion and Trollstilt will join Magnussen in discussing the technology they utilize in performance and the unusual instruments employed in the Lang composition and in another piece on the program, Dan Trueman�s Five (and-a-half) Gardens. This piece combines animated paintings, spoken word and electronic chamber music.

"These compelling performers not only play common percussion and stringed instruments, but they elicit some very unique sounds from everyday objects such as teacups, hardwood planks, terra cotta pots, buckets of water, plastic piping and a wheelbarrow," says Magnussen. "Some of these sounds are combined with the processing power of a laptop to create a new sonic vocabulary � a new palette with which to paint new works."

So Percussion (Douglas Perkins, Adam Sliwinski, Jason Treuting, and Lawson White) is a captivating group hailed by The New York Times for their "brilliant" and "consistently impressive" performances. "So" is a form of the Japanese verb meaning "to play." The group has been featured at Carnegie Hall, the Spoleto Festival, the Bang on a Can Marathon, the BAM Next Wave Festival and many other venues.

Trollstilt composes and performs new music inspired by the folk traditions of Norway and America. Combining the diverse musical interests of Dan Trueman (Hardanger and electric fiddles) and Monica Mugan (Classical and steel-string guitars), this duo derives their name from a traditional tuning used by Hardanger fiddlers, also known as the "devil's tuning."

Concert tickets are free but must be reserved in advance. No tickets are required for the Friday lunchtime talk. In the event of rain, the concert will be moved to the adjacent Dining Hall. For information on requesting tickets, ticket availability or further information about the Institute for Advanced Study�s Artist-in-Residence program, call (609) 734-8228 or visit www.ias.edu/air.

Top Left: Photo of So Percussion by Ian Fry

Bottom Right: Photo of Trollstilt by Dan Bigelow