Soundmark Project is a percussion quartet whose focus is on contemporary music, championing preexisting works and commissioning new repertoire from both established and emerging artists. Having first met and collaborated last summer at the nief-norf Summer Festival, all four percussionists hail from across the United States. Their program originates from their respective artistic relationships and combines them into musical experience that embodies the ensemble’s history and vision. The program features a stylistically diverse range of percussion literature scored for small instruments and everyday objects designed to minimize the boundaries between performer and audience.
Soundmark Project members:
Colleen Bernstein is a versatile musician who recently graduated from the Eastman School of Music with a degree in Applied Percussion and Music Education, as well as the Arts Leadership Certificate and the prestigious Performer’s Certificate. She received the Ludwig Albert Talent Prize at the 2015 Universal Marimba Competition in Sint-Truiden, Belgium, and most recently was featured in duet performances with Béla Fleck. She currently curates a series of educational programs celebrating contemporary music in collaboration with The Strong National Museum of Play.
Jordan Curcuruto has performed with the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet and the Orange County Youth Symphony at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Britt Festival Orchestra, and recently attended the nief-norf Summer Festival in both 2014-2015. This summer she presented a solo concert at the inaugural Transplanted Roots Percussion Symposium, and performed with the 2015 PASIC International All-Star Ensemble. Jordan is a graduate of Chapman University, where she studied with Nick Terry and Justin DeHart and is currently pursing a Masters of Music in Performance, studying with Terry Longshore at the Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University.
Abby Fisher, a versatile percussionist based in New York and current Doctoral of Musical Arts student at Stony Brook University, is interested in performing and supporting continued growth of new music, and has expertise in contemporary, classical, and African (Ewe) percussion. Recent notable performances include presenting Lawton Hall’s work All Your Thens for Now for vibraphone and speaking voice at a 2015 TEDx talk (Stony Brook University, NY), performing Hall’s work at the 2016 New Music Gathering at the Peabody Institute (Baltimore, Maryland), and performing and teaching at the January 2016 Festival Internacional de Músicas y Artes Sonoras Contemporáneas (FIMAC) in Cuenca, Ecuador.
Eric Retterer is an Alaskan-born percussionist with a passion for the collaborative arts and contemporary music, performing across the United States and abroad at events such as the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), the Intermedia Festival in Indianapolis, the Piteå Percussion Repertoire Festival in Sweden, and the Open Ears Festival in Toronto. Eric received his B.M. and M.A. studying with Scott Deal and Morris Palter at University of Alaska Fairbanks and D.M.A from Arizona State University under the guidance of J.B. Smith, and serves as the Director of Production for the nief-norf Summer Festival.