Dr. Nicholas Papador
Nicholas Papador is a percussionist/composer based in Windsor, Ontario. He is a founding member of Noiseborder Ensemble and Marassa Duo. Papador has performed at the Transplanted Roots Percussion Research Symposium, Puerto Rico International Percussion Festivals, the Open Ears Festival of New Music, New Music Gathering, and has appeared four times at PASIC. Papador can be heard on numerous recordings, including his solo recording Points of Departure and Matthew Barney’s film River Of Fundament. An Associate Composer with the Canadian Music Centre, his compositions also appear with Keyboard Percussion Publications, Alfred, House Panther Press, and Bachovich Music. Papador has received prestigious grants from the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, SSHRC, and Canada Foundation for Innovation. Papador is a Yamaha Artist and an endorser for Vic Firth, Sabian, and Evans/D’Addario. He is Associate Professor of Music at the School of Creative Arts at the University of Windsor.
About the Session
Innovation and Musical Role in the Orchestral Percussion Writing of Jacob Druckman
This presentation will illustrate the percussion section in the orchestral works of Jacob Druckman, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972. Druckman’s percussion section includes innovations in timbre, technique, and in the role of the instruments in a contemporary setting. The session will focus on the 1972’s Windows and 1979’s Aureole, which will reveal performance practice guidelines for percussionists. While performances of his music have lessened in the 23 years after his death, his students such as Augusta Thomas, David Lang, and Aaron Jay Kernis are major figures in American Music. The presentation will compile reflections by his pupils, conductors, Dan Druckman, and the marimbists who in recognizing the composer’s language, commissioned Reflections on the Nature of Water. Reflections has become one of the most performed works in the repertoire by a major American composer and this discussion will shed light on interpretation of his solo and chamber work.