Composer and vocalist Caroline Shaw returns for a second collaboration in this season after performing with the Attacca Quartet in September (a Shaw composition is also on the program for Roomful of Teeth’s performance in November). This time, the collab is with the adventuresome Sō Percussion, a quartet that has truly redefined chamber music for the 21st century leading The New Yorker to describe the ensemble’s music-making as an “exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam.”

Together, Shaw and the quartet composed Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part, a journey across the soul’s landscape undertaken through distinctly contemporary songs. The artists drew inspiration from sources as varied as James Joyce, ABBA, American roots music, plainchant, Christian hymns, and stories from the Old Testament to create a set of 10 songs that explore working in the soil as a metaphor for collaboration and creativity.

The concert will open with Go Placidly in Haste, a new work composed by Sō Percussion’s Jason Treuting that will be performed with Iowa Percussion from the University of Iowa School of Music.

For these performances, the audience will be seated on the Hadley Stage with the musicians to take in the full power and vibrancy of the music.

Presented in collaboration with Iowa Percussion at the University of Iowa School of Music

Part of Hancher’s 51st season

Learn more at https://hancher.uiowa.edu/2023-24/so-percussion