Sandbox Percussion Ensemble
The “exhilarating” (The New York Times) and “utterly mesmerizing” (The Guardian) GRAMMY®-nominated Sandbox Percussion champions living composers through its unwavering dedicationto contemporary chamber music. In 2011, Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, andTerry Sweeney were brought together by their interest in expanding the percussion repertoire.Today, they are established leaders in contemporary music for percussion, engaging a wideraudience for classical music through collaborations with leading composers and artists.In 2025, Sandbox Percussion made its debut on NPR’s Tiny Desk with a genre-defying programof pieces by Andy Akiho and Viet Cuong; and, in 2024, they recorded percussion for the featurefilm The Wild Robot (DreamWorks). Sandbox Percussion is the first percussion ensemble toreceive the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant; at the 2024 ceremony, they performed “PillarV,” from Seven Pillars, Akiho’s 2021 suite for percussion quartet, which The New York Timescalled “as pure as music gets.” It was nominated for two GRAMMY® awards and was a PulitzerPrize finalist.Building on that success, Sandbox Percussion and Akiho embark on a project in 2025-26 tocreate a new work with Akiho joining on steelpan; “Pentalateral I,” the first completedmovement, is available now as a single. Throughout the season, the quintet continues to createand record the rest of the piece, giving premieres of individual movements in select venues.Sandbox Percussion also continues to champion Re(new)al, Cuong’s green energy andenvironment-themed 2017 concerto for percussion quartet. They reunite for the world premiereof a new work by Cuong to be performed with the Albany Symphony, which commissioned andpremiered Re(new)al.Another season highlight is the collaboration with violinist Kristin Lee, the founder and artisticdirector of Seattle’s Emerald City Music, where Sandbox Percussion is ensemble-in-residencethis season. Together, they present a Vivian Fung world premiere, and the Pacific Northwestpremiere of recent works by Joan Tower and Gabriella Smith. Lee joins Sandbox Percussionagain at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for Sonic Spectrum IV, a program thatincludes Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra.Over the season, Sandbox Percussion performs Simeon ten Holt’s minimalist work CantoOstinato. The group’s arrangement for percussion quartet and two pianos was performed atLincoln Center Summer for the City. A new recording by Sandbox Percussion, Erik Hall, andMetropolis Ensemble is scheduled for release in spring 2026 on the Western Vinyl label. AtDuke University, Sandbox Percussion and the Tyshawn Sorey Trio present Max Roach at 100, atribute to the influential jazz drummer. At Stanford Live, Sandbox Percussion joins the choir TheCrossing for You Are Who I Love, the last work by the late Harold Meltzer, set to AracelisGirmay’s poem about the undocumented immigrant experience in the U.S.The group’s latest release is Don’t Look Down (PENTATONE, 2025), an album that “stretchesand challenges the listeners’ ears” (BBC Music Magazine), featuring music by longtime collaborator Christopher Cerrone, with Hanick on piano and mezzo-soprano Elspeth Davis. Thealbum received three GRAMMY® Award nominations, for Best Classical Compendium, BestContemporary Classical Composition (the title piece), and Best Engineered Album, Classical.Sandbox Percussion also recorded percussion music for its first feature film, The WildRobot (DreamWorks, 2024), an animated science fiction film directed by Chris Sanders, withmusic by Kris Bowers. It received three Academy Award nominations, and a GRAMMY® Awardnomination for the score.Sandbox Percussion holds the positions of ensemble-in-residence and percussion faculty at theUniversity of Missouri-Kansas City and The New School’s College of Performing Arts, wherethey have created a curriculum with entrepreneurship and chamber music at its core. The2025-26 season is the group’s second year on faculty at the Peabody Institute of Johns HopkinsUniversity. Sandbox Percussion endorses Pearl/Adams musical instruments, Zildjian cymbals,Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, and Black Swamp accessories.sandboxpercussion.com
