Roots and Rhizomes is a conference – a gathering of percussionists, composers, teachers and researchers, who will meet February 21-24, 2007 at the University of California, San Diego to consider the unique questions that face percussionists as contemporary percussion music comes of age. It has been 75 years since the Big Bang of the percussive universe, Edgard Varèse’s seminal Ionisation. Since then traditions have emerged, varied aesthetic sensibilities have been deployed, and new populations of composers, players and listeners have been engaged. We would like to take these days to hear some important percussion music and to discuss our past, present and future with each other.
Roots and Rhizomes will be hosted by Steven Schick, UCSD’s red fish blue fish percussion group, Gustavo Aguilar (New York) and Aiyun Huang (McGill University) and Artpwr! of UCSD. Conference participants will include The Percussion Group Cincinnati, Fritz Hauser, Vanessa Tomlinson, Bernhard Wulff, Christopher Shultis, Julio Estrada, Taikoproject and red fish blue fish.