Rockport Chamber Music Festival: Third Coast Percussion & Blake Pouliot, Violin

Ian Ding, guest percussionist
Grammy® Award-winning quartet Third Coast Percussion has been praised for “commandingly elegant” (New York Times) performances and the “rare power” (Washington Post) of their recordings. They join classical phenom Blake Pouliot, who has established himself as “one of those special talents that comes along once in a lifetime” (Toronto Star).

“Virtuosity and deft, precisely timed wit”
– The Washington Post

Program
TIGRAN HAMASYAN: Étude No. 1 (arr. by Peter Martin)
PHILIP GLASS: Águas da Amazônia (arr. by Third Coast Percussion)
FLUTRONIX/TCP: Rubix
JESSIE MONTGOMER: Suite from “In Color”
JESSIE MONTGOMERY: Study No. 1
HARRISON: Violin Concerto

THIRD COAST PERCUSSION
Third Coast Percussion (TCP) is a Grammy® Award-winning Chicago-based percussion quartet and Grammy®-nominated composer collective and is the first percussion ensemble ever to win the revered music award. For nearly 20 years, the ensemble has created exciting and unexpected performances that constantly redefine the classical music experience and “push percussion in new directions, blurring musical boundaries and beguiling new listeners” (NPR), with a brilliantly varied sonic palette and “dazzling rhythmic workouts” (Pitchfork).

TCP maintains a busy tour schedule throughout the United States, plus international tours across four continents. TCP has commissioned and premiered new works by, among others, Philip Glass, Missy Mazzoli, Jlin, plus many of today’s leading up-and-coming composers through their Currents Creative Partnership program. In 2023, Jlin’s Perspective, commissioned by TCP, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. They served as ensemble-in-residence at the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center from 2013-2018, and currently serve as ensemble-in-residence at Denison University.

TCP’s recordings include 17 feature albums and appearances on 14 additional releases. In 2017 the ensemble won the Grammy® Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their recording of Steve Reich’s works for percussion. TCP has since received five additional Grammy® nominations as performers. The four members of Third Coast Percussion (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and David Skidmore) met while studying percussion at Northwestern University. Members also hold degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Rutgers University, the New England Conservatory and the Yale School of Music.

“Impressively combining creative fearlessness with reverent precision”
– BBC Music Magazine

BLAKE POULIOT, violin
Described as “immaculate, at once refined and impassioned” (ArtsAtlanta), violinist Blake Pouliot (pool-YACHT) has anchored himself among the ranks of classical phenoms. A tenacious young artist with a passion that enraptures his audience in every performance, Pouliot has established himself as “one of those special talents that comes along once in a lifetime” (Toronto Star).

He regularly performs as a soloist with leading orchestra throughout North America, South America and Europe, and was recently named Artist-in-Residence at Orchestre Métropolitain where he deepened his relationship with the orchestra’s music director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He has collaborated with many musical luminaries including conductors Sir Neville Marriner, David Afkham, Pablo Heras-Casado, and Thomas Søndergård, among many others.

Pouliot released his debut album on Analekta Records in 2019 to critical acclaim including a five-star rating from BBC Music Magazine as well as a 2019 Juno Award nomination for Best Classical Album. Adding to his accolades that year, Pouliot won both the Career Development Award from the Women’s Club of Toronto and the Virginia Parker Prize Career Grant from the Canada Arts Council. He has been featured twice on Rob Kapilow’s What Makes it Great? series and was NPR’s Performance Today Artist-in-Residence for several years. In 2016, he was awarded the Grand Prize at the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Manulife Competition and was named First Laureate of both the 2018 and 2015 Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank.

Pouliot studied violin in Canada with Marie Bérard and Erika Raum, and he completed his training as an associate of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. He graduated from the Colburn School Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Robert Lipsett, the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair.

Pouliot performs on the 1729 Guarneri del Gesù on generous loan from an anonymous donor.

IAN DING, guest percussionist
Ian Ding is a versatile and in-demand percussionist specializing in contemporary & orchestral music. He is a founding member and co-director of New Music Detroit, a member of the Fulcrum Point New Music Project (Chicago), and the Virgil Moorefield Band (Zurich). He serves on the percussion faculty at the DePaul University School of Music. He is a frequent guest with major orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. He has also performed extensively with new music ensembles Bang on a Can All-Stars and Alarm Will Sound. Ian was Assistant Principal Percussionist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and served as Lecturer of Percussion at the University of Michigan. Ian is a graduate of the University of Illinois and the Juilliard School.