(Posted March 30, 2015)

So Quartet will be performing at Juniata College at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 9, in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts on the Juniata campus.
So Quartet will be performing at Juniata College at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 9, in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts on the Juniata campus.

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- To the typical music maven, the term classical quartet conjures up visions of four folks in evening dress playing stringed instruments. The So Percussion quartet, is a little less well dressed, and a lot louder, and will be performing at Juniata College at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 9, in Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts on the Juniata campus.

The concert is funded through the Mid Atlantic Tours Program of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. So percussion returns to the Juniata campus, having played previously on campus in fall 2011 with the Calder Quartet.

For tickets and information about the Juniata College Presents series, please call (814) 641-JTIX (5849). General admission tickets for single performances are $20, except where otherwise noted. Single-show tickets for seniors over age 65 and children age 18 and under are $12. Juniata College students are admitted free with a student ID.

The four musicians will play percussion instruments ranging from drums, to cymbals to vibraphones and marimbas, as they explore music written by some of the most avant-garde composers of the 20th century. Composers such as John Cage and Steve Reich have written pieces for the quartet.

The members of So Percussion met as graduate students at the Yale University School of Music more than a decade ago and have been performing together ever since.

An evening listening to the ensemble was described as, "an exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam," by a music critic at The New Yorker.

The musicians have released 16 albums, including "Mallet Quartet," "It is Time," "Bad Mango," "Steve Reich: Drumming," "Caprichos Enfaticos" and "Neither Anvil nor Pulley."

The quartet specialize in playing ambitious compositions written for them by various composers. The quartet's first commissioned piece, "the so-called laws of nature," by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang, has become a cornerstone of their repertoire.

An evening listening to the ensemble was described as, "an exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam," by a music critic at The New Yorker.

Members of the quartet are:

--Eric Beach, who has written a variety of pieces for the quartet including "Where (we) Live," and "Music for Trains."

--Josh Quillen is renowned in the music industry as an expert steel drum performer.

--Adam Sliwinsk, who appears regularly as a concert soloist on marimba and other instruments.
--Jason Treuting also composes music for So Percussion, including "Amid the Noise" and "Imaginary City."

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.