UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Lee Hinkle, assistant professor and head of the percussion program, has released “Modern American Percussion Concerti,” a 10-track album that features orchestral performances of compositions by three modern American composers.
Produced by Ravello Records, the album is the culmination of a project that Hinkle began in 2016 while at the University of Maryland and features compositions by Maurice Wright, Steven Stucky and Evan Ziporyn performed by three different orchestral groups.
Hinkle is accompanied by the Penn’s Woods Festival Orchestra for the performances of Wright’s concerto, the Penn State Wind Ensemble for performances of Ziporyn’s concerto and the University of Maryland Wind Orchestra for performances of Stucky’s concerto.
“I’m incredibly humbled by all of the support for the project and grateful to my colleagues for their beautiful playing on the album,” Hinkle said, “I’m thrilled for the project to come to fruition and I’m excited to share the music of three great American composers.”
Throughout his accomplished career as a percussionist, which includes performances with several well-known symphony orchestras and on U.S. tours with Bebe Neuwirth, Bernadette Peters and the American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Hinkle said he was motivated to record and release a percussion concerti album for a simple reason.
“It is very rare to have percussion concerti come out on an international publication,” Hinkle said.
Historically, piano concerti, violin concerti and other “star” instruments have gotten most of the attention from the classical music world, according to Hinkle.
The result is that percussion, in the grand scheme of things, has about 100 years of solo music whereas violin and piano have about 500 to 1,000, depending on how you look at it, he explained.
“There’s not that many percussion concerti albums out there,” Hinkle said. “I am excited and humbled to add to what is available.”
The album, which was made possible by the Penn State Percussion Program Endowed Excellence Fund and in part by a Faculty Research Grant from the Penn State College of Arts and Architecture, is available for download on all major music streaming platforms.