Adam Sliwinski: Writings

Ten years ago, I started this site as a repository for writings, mostly about the work of my ensemble Sō Percussion. I wanted to document So’s work, and also continue a writing habit that I’ve kept going since grad school. In that time, I’ve posted about 35 writings here.   I can be reached at adam@sopercussion.com. […]

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the following is a brief talk that I gave as part of a Zildjian/Vic Firth morning session after PASIC 2017. Josh and I were tasked with tackling the concept of creativity. He talked about composing music from scratch, and I dealt with the craft of interpretation and collaboration. Most of what we mean when we […]

I originally posted this on my Facebook page as a morning-after reflection. It received a lot of nice feedback, so I’m posting it here. I have one high school student in Princeton. In our last lesson, she was getting ready for a recital, and I talked about the difference between preparation and performance. Bobby Previte […]

The following is a talk I gave on July 17, 2017 on the first day of the Sō Percussion Summer Institute.  The theme of this year’s SoSI is “New Beginnings.” Originally I called it “percussion beginnings,” but we had an internal communication error and “new beginnings” got printed. And actually, I like it better. The […]

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Working Upside Down students in Princeton’s chamber music program Preparing performances of written scores is a kind of alchemy. The process of transmuting a written medium into an aural one can be mysterious. In a heavily notated art form like western classical music, this creates certain types of problems. Writing is not sound (one of […]

Table of Contents/Links Introduction Steve Reich: Drumming – July 16 Steve Reich – Drumming Concert 1: Reich, Dessner, Lang – July 28 Reich – Music for Pieces of WoodBryce Dessner – Music for Wood and StringsDavid Lang – the so-called laws of nature Concert 2: Xenakis, Ergün, Trueman – July 29 Iannis Xenakis – Metaux […]

“15 Years of Commissions” – Prologue This year Sō Percussion embarks on a retrospective project looking back on our first 15 years of commissioning new works for percussion quartet. The ruminations below are an extended exercise in getting myself psyched up to write about it all. When I write about music, it’s a kind of […]

I. man made We are standing backstage at Disney Hall in Lost Angeles just before going on. The entire LA Philharmonic is waiting for us, the hall is full,  the NPR live broadcast machinery is revved up, and we are commiserating with the Phil’s artistic director Gustavo Dudamel. “Why don’t we all just get up […]