Disappointing SFCM Student Percussion Recital

Last night the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) streamed a recital of performances by students in the Percussion Department. Taken as a whole, the concert was somewhat disappointing, although the disappointments had more to do with presentation than with the clearly evident talent of the students. The program had some major changes from what had originally been announced, the greatest disappointment being the absence of the originally-planned selection by Iannis Xenakis. More aggravating was that the few program notes that were provided accounted for only two compositions. One of them, “Dark Full Ride” by Julia Wolfe, had been deleted from the program. The other, “Perfectly Voiceless” by Dev Hynes, was given in the notes as “Perfectly Hopeless.”

“Perfectly Voiceless” was the final work on the program, preceded by four other works:

1. “Aura” by Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir
2. “Trio in a Rudimental Style” by Joe Tomkins
3. “Fear Release” by Ellen Reid
4. “Catfish for Percussion Trio” by Mark Applebaum

Sadly, there was more diversity in the title than there was in the music itself. A more useful set of program notes (or well-rehearsed introductory remarks by the performers) would probably have improved the listening experience. However, the absence of any context led to an overall impression of elaborate rhythmic patterns that could have been interchangeable across the compositions themselves.

The “choreographic” execution of “Perfectly Voiceless” (screen shot from the Vimeo video of the recital being discussed)

The good news is that the entire crop of students, prepared by Jacob Nissly, Co-Chair of the Percussion Department, were clearly well prepared to execute the intricate interplay of all those rhythmic patterns. Virtuoso percussion performances are often as much a matter of choreography as they are of providing an engaging account of the marks on paper. This is particularly the case when there are more instruments than performers and being in the right place at the right time becomes as critical as the execution itself, as in the above screen shot taken from “Perfectly Voiceless.” There was much to enjoy in observing these students at work, but the experience would have been more memorable had there been more diversity in the repertoire and better background knowledge for the benefit of the attentive listener.