Internationally-acclaimed percussionist, composer, educator, and performing artist Terry Longshore will bring his “balance | flow tour,” an evening of music, animation, virtual-reality video, electronic audio, and integrated lighting, creating a dynamic experience, to Stanislaus State’s Snider Recital Hall for a show at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 18.
Since 2023 the “balance | flow” tour has been performed throughout Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, Nevada, and California. Longshore weaves a sonic tapestry with a diverse array of percussion: vibraphone, cajón, North Indian tabla, hi-hat, tuned metal pipes, djembe, composed hand gestures, junk percussion, and more. The music is infused with multi-genre influences including modern classical, jazz, hip-hop, flamenco, pop, and Hindustani.
“Whether I’m performing, composing, arranging, improvising, or teaching – ‘balance and flow’ are always integral to my approach. I seek balance between the artistic collaborators I work with, compositional voices I amplify, instrumental sounds I select, and styles of music I play. The flow of a performance, and of my journey through life, is a constant work of art,” said Longshore.
The composers presented in “balance | flow” represent a diverse spectrum of modern artistic voices. Stanford University composer Mark Applebaum’s self-described “kind of alien, pre-verbal, and rhythmic sign language” in his Aphasia is balanced by Irish composer Emma O’Halloran’s beautiful, trancelike offering, meditation for metal pipes. Longshore arranged her quintet as a solo with four versions of himself projected in a virtual reality video created with animator Miles Inada, filmmaker/director Christopher Lucas, and scenic designer Sean O’Skea. A trio of short one-minute pieces for junk percussion by Yaz Lancaster, Joe W. Moore III, and Phong Tran also include whimsical animations created by Inada. Nick Zammuto (of “The Books”) contributes “Green Yellow Green Red” for vibraphone, accompanied by a soundtrack and video of scratched records, and Erik Griswold’s quirky “Twos and Threes,” amplifies Longshore’s longtime immersion in world rhythm traditions.
Longshore composed three of the concert’s works, including “Trap Hat” for solo hi-hat and electronics, co-composed with his son, Portland, Oregon-based music producer, mackxswell. “The collaboration on Trap Hat has turned into an exciting new project with Max that has produced four new pieces,” said Longshore. “They are all combinations of my own recorded and live percussion and his music production. The latest is a commission from Saratoga High School in the Bay Area that we will perform with them at The Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Festival in Chicago in December.”
A native of Fresno, Longshore performed with Modesto’s Valley Fever Drum & Bugle Corps during high school. He has lived in Ashland, Oregon since 2000 where he is Professor of Music, Artist in Residence, and Director of Percussion Studies at Southern Oregon University. He is the Principal Percussionist of the Rogue Valley Symphony and Co-Artistic Director of ensembles Skin & Bones and Caballito Negro, and a member of the Portland Percussion Group. He is an artist endorser for the Marimba OneVibe, Black Swamp Percussion, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks & Mallets, Remo Drumheads, GonBops Percussion, and Beato Bags.
Tickets for the Turlock show are available at https://www.csustan.edu/music/music-events.
