Thursday, March 9, 1:00 PM Lambton Studio A
Memory Palace (2012)
Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984)
I. Harriman
II. Power Lines
III. Foxhurst
IV. L.I.E.
V. Claremont
Nicholas Papador – percussion, instrument design/construction
David Bergeron – live audio processing, MaxMSP editing
George Gall – instrument construction
FREE Admission
Memory Palace
Memory Palace (2012) is a kind of paean to places and people that have deeply affected me. The title refers to an ancient technique of memorization that helped orators remember very long speeches by placing mental signposts in an imaginary location and ‘walking’ through it. In this piece, the palace is my life. The crickets in the first movement, “Harriman,” were recorded with on a camping trip with two old and dear friends. The recording of wind chimes in the third movement was recorded at my parents’ house in their backyard. The sounds in the piece are signposts; they help me remember and more important, understand, who I am.
The majority of the instruments in Memory Palace are to be fashioned by the percussionist. This includes restringing a cheap guitar, cutting and tuning 14 slats of wood (to be played like a marimba), tuning 10 metal pipes (as in The So Called Laws of Nature by David Lang), and tuning wine bottles by filling them with varying amounts of water. Ideally, the instruments should not be expensive to make; simple household items (and maybe a trip to your local hardware store) should suffice. In addition, a few traditional percussion instruments are used: three crotales, two glockenspiel bars, and a kick drum --- Christopher Cerrone.
Nicholas Papador is a percussionist and composer based in Windsor, Ontario who specializes in contemporary music. He is a founding member of Noiseborder Ensemble (multimedia collective) and Marassa Duo (Afro-Caribbean folkloric influence chamber music). Papador has performed at the Transplanted Roots Percussion Research Symposium at McGill, Puerto Rico Conservatory International Percussion Festivals, the Open Ears Festival of New Music’s Environmental Rhythms, and has been featured four times at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). Papador can be heard on numerous CD recordings, including his 2015 solo recording Points of Departure released by Centrediscs, as well as Matthew Barney’s 2014 film River Of Fundament. An Associate Composer with the Canadian Music Centre, his compositions also appear with Keyboard Percussion Publications, Alfred Publications, Studio 4 Music, House Panther Press, and Bachovich Music. Papador has received grants from the Ontario Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, Social Sciences Humanities Research Council, and Canada Foundation for Innovation. Nicholas Papador is a Yamaha Performing Artist and an artist endorser for Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, Sabian Cymbals, and Evans Drum Heads. He is Associate Professor of Music at the School of Creative Arts | Music at the University of Windsor. Papador is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Music (DM 2003), Indiana University Jacobs School of Music (MM 1999), and the University of Oregon (BMus 1997).
