Preparing the Past is an “evocative” three-movement work for 4-hand piano, two vibraphones and two glockenspiels. It is inspired by the activities taking and looking at photographs—from the actual picture-taking moment through the reconsideration of that moment as a physical artifact.
This premiere performance of the entire “Preparing the Past” features Mantra Percussion, who have collaborated with Aaron Siegel on performances of “Our Reluctance is Overstated” for six timpanists and on “Science is only a Sometimes Friend” for eight glockenspiels and organ. “Science…” was premiered in an outdoor performance in June 2009 that was hailed by The New Yorker Magazine as “a hypnotic cloud of chiming tones.” Pianists Emily Manzo and Anna Dagmar join the percussionists for the 40-minute “Preparing the Past,” which alternates between dense percussion drones, stark tolling and waves of consonant chimes. Visual artist and guitarist Christy Edwards, from the bands The Totallys and Christy & Emily, accompanies the music with a live edit of her lyrical video footage.
Aaron Siegel is a composer of acoustic experimental work that raises questions about the relationship between performers, audience members and the space they occupy together. His music has been performed by pianist Emily Manzo, Till by Turning, Mantra Percussion, Kyklos Ensemble, Iktus Percussion Quartet, Cadillac Moon, the Flux Quartet and the Aaron Siegel Ensemble. The first recording of the Aaron Siegel Ensemble, Every Morning, A History, was praised by Signal to Noise as being “representative of the flowering DIY chamber music scene in Brooklyn.” The Aaron Siegel Ensemble premiered Science is Only a Sometimes Friend for 8 glockenspiels and public participants in the East Meadow of Central Park as part of the 2009 Make Music New York Festival. Recent ensemble performances have included a preview of Preparing the Past at Roulette in New York and a reprise of Science... at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn. For more information visit aaronsiegel.net.
Hailed by the New York Times as "...finely polished...a fresh source of energy," Mantra Percussion is dedicated to expanding the future of percussion, living in the present, and celebrating the past. Mantra Percussion commissions pieces by prominent composers to substantially expand the percussion repertoire, commissions young composers to breathe new life into the art, and performs classic repertoire from the past to remind us why we are here. Members of Mantra Percussion have performed at concert series and festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, Bang on a Can Summer Music Institute, Darmstadt, the International Ensemble Modern Academy, and Tanglewood and have performed with groups such as the San Francisco Contemporary Players, the Lucerne Festival Percussion Group, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Sospeso Ensemble, Either/Or, Philadelphia Virtuoso Society, Red Light New Music, S.E.M. Ensemble, Argento Chamber Ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Zs, and Hi Red Center.
Christy Edwards learned to play guitar from a Metallica: Ride The Lightning tablature book, and started playing in bands during her stay at the Rhode Island School of Design. Christy plays guitar and sings in Christy & Emily and the Totallys. She mentors in an after school program called the Vibe Songmakers, helping students to write their own songs. Her animated video for the C&E song “105& Rising” was premiered on the TheFader.com, and her drawings have been shown and sold at the Scope Art Fair in New York.
