by Jarrett Hoffman
How do you describe the experience of hearing Michael Gordon’s Timber, the hour-long percussion sextet played on amplified slabs of wood? One word might be ‘transcendental.’
“Most times that we play this piece,” said Michael McCurdy, co-founder and artistic director of Mantra Percussion, “more than one person from the audience comes up afterwards and says, ‘It seemed like 20 or 30 minutes — I can’t believe that was an hour.’ People transcend their sense of time and place as they’re experiencing it.”
Mantra Percussion — who co-commissioned Timber and delivered its U.S. premiere in 2011 — will bring the piece to Transformer Station this Friday, February 23 at 7:30 pm, as part of the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Performing Arts Series. Click here to watch the ensemble perform the piece.