Mantra Percussion to Perform in Kobacker Hall

Percussion sextet Mantra Percussion returns to BGSU for a concert at 8 p.m. Feb. 19 in Kobacker Hall at the Moore Musical Arts Center. The group’s performance is part of the Music at the Forefront series sponsored by the University’s MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, and is free and open to the public.

Committed to honoring the past and expanding the future of percussion music, Mantra Percussion brings to life new works for percussion by living composers, collaborates with artists from diverse genres and styles, and questions what it means to communicate music with percussion instruments. The group engages new audiences by challenging the standard concert format through evening-length events that look toward a grander artistic vision.

Their BGSU performance will feature new works by Aaron Siegel, Lesley Flanigan, Tristan Perich and Michael Fiday.

After co-commissioning Michael Gordon's evening-length percussion sextet “Timber,” they gave the work's United States premiere in October 2011 at BGSU and subsequently toured the work internationally. They also gave the New York premiere of “Timber” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival in December 2012. 

Since forming as an ensemble in 2009, Mantra Percussion has been featured throughout North America, Europe and Asia, including the Bang on a Can Marathon, Duke Performances, the Redcat Theater in Los Angeles, National Public Radio, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Philadelphia Fringe Festival, the Drogheda Festival in Ireland, the Ecstatic Music Festival and the Ecstatic Summer Festival, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Right Now Festival in South Korea, Vancouver New Music and numerous others.

Over the past eight years, Mantra Percussion has commissioned and/or premiered more than 40 new works for percussion ensemble.

Mantra Percussion has been hailed by the New York Times as "finely polished . . . a fresh source of energy" and by TimeOut New York as "forward thinking." The group was praised by The New Yorker and TimeOut New York for presenting one of the 10 best classical performances of 2012. They recorded one of Time Out New York's Ten Best Classical Albums of 2011,  Siegel's “Science Is Only a Sometimes Friend,” on Lockstep Records,” Fiday's “Hands On!” on Innova Records, and in 2016 released a double CD album, “Timber Remixed/Timber Live,” on Cantaloupe Music with 12 remixes of the piece by some of the leading electronica artists today, including  Squarepusher, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Tim Hecker, Fennesz, Oneohtrix Point Never, Hauschka and more.

Music at the Forefront is an annual concert series featuring performances by accomplished and innovative performers of contemporary music. For more information, contact Kurt Doles at the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music at 419-372-2685 or at kdoles@bgsu.edu.