Appalachian State University’s Hayes School of Music hosts Sandbox Percussion‘s Seven Pillars, an immersive, theatrical percussion performance.
Hailed by The New York Times as “a lush, brooding celebration of noise,” Andy Akiho’s GRAMMY-nominated Seven Pillars is his most ambitious project to date.
Thanks to sponsorship from the Hayes Circle Fund, this performance is Free and open to the public.
ABOUT SEVEN PILLARS
Seven Pillars is an 11-movement concert piece for percussion quartet with music composed by Andy Akiho, performed by Sandbox Percussion, and with lighting and stage design created by Michael McQuilken. Since the release of the album in September 2021, Seven Pillars has received widespread acclaim, most notably receiving two nominations in the 2022 GRAMMY® Awards and selected as a finalist in the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
In Seven Pillars, Akiho creates new timbres on well-known instruments (a glockenspiel is played with timbale sticks, giving it a hyper-articulate attack with bell-like resonance) and writes music for found sounds and unorthodox instruments (a chromatic octave of tuned ceramic rice bowls played with chopsticks).
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.
More information can be found on Engage.
