TICKETS – $15 General Admission / $10 for BMCM+AC members + Students w/ID
Program
Victor Caccese: Bell Patterns
Viet Cuong: Next Week’s Trees
Julius Eastman: Joy Boy
Christopher Cerrone: Ode to Joy
Gabriella Smith: FIVE
Andy Akiho: Portal
The “exhilarating” (The New York Times) and “utterly mesmerizing” (The Guardian) GRAMMY®-nominated Sandbox Percussion champions living composers through its unwavering dedication to contemporary chamber music. In 2011, Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, and Terry Sweeney were brought together by their interest in expanding the percussion repertoire. Today, they are established leaders in contemporary music for percussion, engaging a wider audience 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 program of pieces by Andy Akiho and Viet Cuong; and, in 2024, they recorded percussion for the feature film The Wild Robot (DreamWorks). Sandbox Percussion is the first percussion ensemble to receive the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant; at the 2024 ceremony, they performed “Pillar V,” from Seven Pillars, Akiho’s 2021 suite for percussion quartet, which The New York Times called “as pure as music gets.” It was nominated for two GRAMMY® awards and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Building on that success, Sandbox Percussion and Akiho embark on a project in 2025-26 to create a new work with Akiho joining on steelpan; “Pentalateral I,” the first completed movement, is available now as a single. Throughout the season, the quintet continues to create and 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 and environment-themed 2017 concerto for percussion quartet. They reunite for the world premiere of a new work by Cuong to be performed with the Albany Symphony, which commissioned and premiered Re(new)al.
Another season highlight is the collaboration with violinist Kristin Lee, the founder and artistic director of Seattle’s Emerald City Music, where Sandbox Percussion is ensemble-in-residence this season. Together, they present a Vivian Fung world premiere, and the Pacific Northwest premiere of recent works by Joan Tower and Gabriella Smith. Lee joins Sandbox Percussion again at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for Sonic Spectrum IV, a program that includes Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra.
Over the season, Sandbox Percussion performs Simeon ten Holt’s minimalist work Canto Ostinato. The group’s arrangement for percussion quartet and two pianos was performed at Lincoln Center Summer for the City. A new recording by Sandbox Percussion, Erik Hall, and Metropolis Ensemble is scheduled for release in spring 2026 on the Western Vinyl label. At Duke University, Sandbox Percussion and the Tyshawn Sorey Trio present Max Roach at 100, a tribute to the influential jazz drummer. At Stanford Live, Sandbox Percussion joins the choir The Crossing for You Are Who I Love, the last work by the late Harold Meltzer, set to Aracelis Girmay’s poem about the undocumented immigrant experience in the U.S.
The group’s latest album is Don’t Look Down (PENTATONE, 2025), featuring music by Christopher Cerrone. Other recent releases include BLOOM, with music by Michael Torke (Ecstatic Records, 2024); and Past Life / Lifeline, with music by Ellis Ludwig-Leone (Better Company Records, 2024).
Sandbox Percussion holds the positions of ensemble-in-residence and percussion faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and The New School’s College of Performing Arts, where they have created a curriculum with entrepreneurship and chamber music at its core. The 2025-26 season is the group’s second year on faculty at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. Sandbox Percussion endorses Pearl/Adams musical instruments, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Remo drumheads, and Black Swamp accessories.
“But what can seem like spur-of-the-moment gestures are the manifestations of an incredibly disciplined collective musical intelligence… “
—Thomas May, The Seattle Times
Praised for his “spectacular performances” (Wall Street Journal), and his “unfailing virtuosity” (Chicago Tribune), GRAMMY®-nominated percussionist Ian Rosenbaum has developed a musical breadth far beyond his years.
As a passionate advocate for contemporary music, Rosenbaum has premiered dozens of new chamber and solo works. He has collaborated with and championed the music of established and emerging composers alike, from Andy Akiho, Christopher Cerrone, and Amy Beth Kirsten to John Luther Adams, George Crumb, and Paola Prestini.
In 2017, Rosenbaum released his first full-length solo album, Memory Palace, on NS Tracks. It features five signature commissions, as well as collaborations with Brooklyn Rider and flutist Gina Izzo.
He has appeared at the Bay Chamber, Bridgehampton, Chamber Music Northwest, Edinburgh Fringe, Lake Champlain, Moab, Music from Angel Fire, Music@Menlo, Norfolk, and Yellow Barn festivals, and has collaborated with the Dover Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, cellist Jeffrey Zeigler, and violinist Kristin Lee. In 2012, Rosenbaum joined the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two) as only the second percussionist they have selected in their history, and has performed regularly with CMS since then.
Rosenbaum is a member of Sandbox Percussion, The Percussion Collective, and The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. He is on faculty at the Peabody Institute, the Mannes School of Music, and the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Rosenbaum endorses Pearl/Adams instruments, Vic Firth mallets, and Remo drumheads.
Jonny Allen is a Brooklyn based percussionist whose contagious passion for music has been described as “a demonstration of raw power,virtuosity and feeling” by The New York Times. Allen has won prizes at both the International Chamber Music Competition and the International Marimba Competition in Salzburg, giving respective performances at Carnegie Hall and Schloss Hoch in Flachau, Austria. He has also performed as a drum set soloist with Ghana’s National Symphony Orchestra at the National Theatre in Accra.
Outside of Sandbox, Allen performs regularly with his jazz trio, Triplepoint, the Percussion Collective, and is a founding Core Member of the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC). He is also a committed educator, co-directing the NYU Sandbox Percussion Seminar each summer, holding a position as Percussion Director at Choate Rosemary Hall, as well as giving workshops and masterclasses worldwide.
Allen holds a Bachelor’s degree and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, as well as a Masters degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music.
Terry Sweeney is an accomplished chamber musician, educator, and collaborator, recognized for his contributions to contemporary percussion music as a member of Sandbox Percussion. During the 2023/24 season with Sandbox, he premiered new works by composers including Amy Beth Kirsten, Chris Cerrone, Doug Cuomo, Ellis Ludwig-Leone, Joan Tower, John Luther Adams, and Viet Cuong. Other highlights include performances at the Park Avenue Armory, 92nd Street Y, and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
With Sandbox, Sweeney has performed concertos with the Colorado Symphony, Albany Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Curtis Symphony Orchestra, American Composer’s Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, and the Des Moines Symphony.
Sandbox’s 2021 album Seven Pillars was nominated for two GRAMMY® awards – Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance and Best Contemporary Classical Composition. Since then, Sandbox has performed Seven Pillars more than 35 times throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Victor Caccese is a founding member of the Brooklyn-based percussion quartet, Sandbox Percussion and a GRAMMY® nominated percussionist. As a member of Sandbox, Caccese has performed over 200 concerts worldwide and taught at institutions such as University of Missouri – Kansas City, The New School College of the Performing Arts, The Peabody Conservatory, The Curtis Institute, Yale School of Music, Michigan State University, Vanderbilt University, University of Kansas, and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Caccese has collaborated with composers such as Amy Beth Kirsten, Andy Akiho, David Crowell, James Wood, John Luther Adams, and Thomas Kotcheff. This past summer Caccese taught and performed at the ninth annual Sandbox Percussion Seminar, a chamber music festival accepting students from around the world to study and perform some of today’s leading contemporary percussion pieces.
Also a composer and arranger, Caccese has written a number of pieces for percussion. His works have been performed by Sandbox Percussion more than 50 times throughout the United States. While music and percussion is at the core of his professional life, Caccese has also worked as a photographer and videographer. As head of media and content development for Sandbox Percussion, he has developed and maintained a YouTube presence consisting of performance videos, workshop documentaries, and travel vlogs.
“as pure as music gets . . . a lush, brooding celebration of noise” — Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times