Philadelphia Orchestra principal timpanist Don Liuzzi (MM1987) presented a retrospective of Maurice Wright’s chamber music for percussion in a sold-out concert at the Settlement Music School on March 6. Appearing with Philadelphia orchestra colleagues Anthony Orlando, percussion and Hirono Oka, violin, Liuzzi performed the Grand Duo, for violin and percussion, Movement In Time for percussion duo and electronic sound, and the expansive Suite for Percussion, which comprises two compositions for solo percussionist and electronic sound, Marimba Music and Set-Up Music connected with a brief electronic interlude. [Listen to Will Hudgins play Set-Up Music in the Listening Room.]

            Each work has a history of performance by notable percussionists. Marimba Music was written for marimba virtuoso Nancy Zeltsman and first performed by her in New York’s McMillen Theater in 1981, soon after Wright arrived at Temple. Set-Up Music, and the accompanying interlude that forms the Suite was composed for Will Hudgins (MM 1983), and performed by him with Marimba Music at Temple in 1982. Hudgins, now percussionist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, performed the work at Tanglewood later that year. Don Liuzzi commissioned Movement in Time to honor the memory of Charles Owen (1912-1985), former principal percussionist of the Philadelphia Orchestra and faculty member at the University of Michigan. Grand Duo was written for percussion and viola, and was commissioned by the University of Delaware for performance by faculty members Harvey Price (MM 1989) and Barbara Westphal. Wright revised the work and created a version for violin and percussion that has been performed several times by Liuzzi and Oka.

            Writing about the concert for the Philadelphia Inquirer, critic Daniel Patrick Stearns said: “Temple University’s Maurice Wright composed half of the concert’s six piece with a level of wit and invention that makes you wonder why the music isn’t better known.” Perhaps in answer to his rhetorical question, Liuzzi, Orlando and Oka plan to record these works of Wright’s in the near future. Furthermore, Set-Up Music was selected by the Percussive Arts Society for use in its annual performance competition, and is the object of study by young percussionists across the country. Regarding Grand Duo, Stearns said: “it’s full of engaging ideas, with percussion interacting with violin much in the spirit of the piano writing in a Beethoven violin sonata, but with a range of expression light-years beyond what Beethoven could have hoped to compose.”

            The Boyer College’s percussion program has launched the careers of many notable professional percussionists, including the entire Philadelphia Orchestra percussion section. Wright’s interaction with the percussion students has been mutually rewarding, a tradition he intends to continue by composing new works, including a four movement Octet for percussion. Clearly, Wright is attracted to the qualities of music made by percussionists. Stearns described the basis for that attraction in the closing paragraph of his review: “Percussion embodies the jazz, drive and get-it-done pragmatism of American culture, and brings those qualities to all it touches.”