Doug Perkins specializes in new works for percussion as a chamber musician and soloist. His performances have been described as, “terrific, wide-awake and strikingly entertaining” by the Boston Globe and “brilliant” by the New York Times. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Spoleto USA Festival, the Ojai Festival and the World Expo in Lisbon, Portugal. He was a founder of So Percussion and is presently hard at work with the Meehan/ Perkins Duo.

Commissioning and collaborating of new work is important to Doug. He works regularly with such composers as David Lang, Steve Reich, Paul Lansky, John Luther Adams, Nathan Davis, Larry Polansky, and Joseph Schwantner. He also performs regularly with groups such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Signal, Alarm Will Sound, Camerata Pacifica, Collage New Music, eighth blackbird, Max Roach’s M’ Boom, and the electronica duo Matmos.

Lately, Doug has been organizing large-scale percussion events that encourage a sense of community and new ways of experiencing live music. To that end, he staged a performance of Iannis Xenakis’ Persephassa in and around Central Park Lake with the audience in rowboats surrounded by percussionists on floating stages and on the shore. He also organized a 99 player version of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit at the Round Top Festival featuring performers from throughout TX and the US. He will be doing the JLA in NYC in February at the Park Avenue Armory with an all-star cast and has more in the works.

Doug currently teaches at Dartmouth College where he teaches percussion and directs the Contemporary Music Lab and the concert series The Way to Go Out. He is the additionally the Director of the Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar at the Center for Advanced Musical Studies.

Doug received his Bachelor’s degree from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Masters and Artist Diploma degrees from Yale University, and his Doctorate from Stony Brook University. His principle percussion teachers were Jack DiIanni, Jim Culley, and Robert Van Sice.

He performs with Vic Firth Drumsticks and Mallets, Pearl/ Adams Musical Instruments, and Black Swamp Percussion accessories.

Repertoire

Solo Repertoire

The Mathematics of Resonant Bodies – John Luther Adams
Diving Bell – Nathan Davis
Simple Songs of Birth and Return – Nathan Davis
Reflections on the Nature of Water – Jacob Druckman
XY – Michael Gordon
String of Pearls – David Lang
Unchained Melody – David Lang
Thinking Songs – Lukas Ligeti
Bell Plates – Scott Lindroth
The Fall of the Empire – Frederic Rzewski
Velocities – Joseph Schwantner
Vibra Elufa – Karlheinz Stockhausen
She Who Sleeps with a Small Blanket – Kevin Volans
Rogosanti – James Wood
Psappha – Iannis Xenakis
Rebonds – Iannis Xenakis

Percussion Duo Repertoire

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