The Bozeman Symphony pushes the limits with its experimental series, Current Commotion, that champions new music by living composers. Join the Bozeman Symphony for its inaugural performance at The Elm for critically acclaimed composer Andy Akiho’s “Seven Pillars,” a bold, genre-defying piece featuring Sandbox Percussion.
Described as “exhilarating” (The New York Times), and “virtuosic and utterly mesmerizing” (The Guardian), Sandbox Percussion (Ian Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney, Victor Caccese and Jonny Allen) has established themselves as a leading proponent of this generation of contemporary percussion chamber music. Brought together by their love of chamber music and the simple joy of playing together, Sandbox Percussion captivates audiences with performances that are both visually and aurally stunning.
On September 3, 2021, Grammy-nominated composer Andy Akiho and Sandbox Percussion announced the release of Akiho’s “Seven Pillars,” a stunning, boundary-breaking audio and video collaboration for percussion quartet. The work consists of seven ensemble movements and one solo movement for each member of Sandbox, developed through multiple extended residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute. The full album streamed on all platforms September 24, 2021.
Performed by Sandbox, this evening-length work is the largest-scale chamber music work that Akiho has written and that Sandbox has commissioned. Akiho and Sandbox’s ongoing collaboration for “Seven Pillars” has spanned on and off for 8 years. It has been a labor of love between friends and towards the end of the project, Akiho and Sandbox expanded the collaborative circle.
Akiho and Sandbox Percussion commissioned 11 video artists to create original films for “Seven Pillars” – one film for each movement of the work. These collaborative videos encompass the worlds of dance, animation, experimental narrative film, time-lapse, and more.
“I’ve never taken on a project this ambitious – it’s nearly 80 minutes of music – but I was inspired by the collaborative relationship I have with Sandbox,” says Akiho. “We’re all close friends, we enjoy making music together, and there is freedom to experiment in that type of environment. The instrumentation includes traditional instruments such as vibraphone, glockenspiel, and marimba, with some found percussion sounds like glass bottles and metal pipes. Creatively, I wanted to limit the instrumentation in order to encourage the opportunity to find unique timbres and playing techniques on each instrument.”