For Your GRAMMY® Consideration
We are so proud of the brilliant recordings from the 8VA roster this year. Please consider the following when casting your GRAMMY® ballots. First round voting runs from October 12, 2026 through October 22, 2026.
Sandbox Percussion's "Canto Ostinato" album featured on NPR
The recording of a new large-ensemble orchestration of Simeon ten Holt's minimalist masterpiece, featuring Metropolis Ensemble and Erik Hall, was selected by NPR as one of "The albums and songs of 2026 that we love the most (so far)."
Sandbox Percussion Brings "Canto Ostinato" to Emerald City Music
The exciting new-music group Sandbox Percussion performed Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato at Emerald City Music. Classical Voice North America reports.
Sandbox Percussion: "Canto Ostinato" Casts a Musical Spell at Cal Performances
Sandbox Percussion and American Modern Opera Company gave a spectacular performance of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato on Feb. 22 at Zellerbach Playhouse in Berkeley. San Francisco Chronicle reviews the show.
Sandbox Percussion Featured on KMTV, Nebraska
The Grammy-nominated Sandbox Percussion appeared at KANEKO, in Omaha, to perform brand-new music by Andy Akiho. The event was covered by KMTV 3 News Now.
Sandbox Percussion & Andy Akiho on Chamber Music America
The collaborators speak about their partnership, education, and the astounding commission Seven Pillars, ahead of the closing performance of the 10th Sandbox Percussion Summer Seminar, at The New School.
Sandbox Percussion Wins a 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant
Congratulations to our client Sandbox Percussion, a fearless percussion quartet, for becoming the first-ever percussion ensemble to receive the prestigious award.
New Sounds: Keyboard and "Percussion"
Hear music with piano and percussion of ALL kinds - from the inside of a piano with preparations, flower pots, ping pong balls, bowed vibraphone, and even echolocation by an endangered species of bat in works by Matt McBane and Sandbox Percussion, American composer Ellen Reid and the L.A. Percussion Quartet, and Andrew McIntosh for Yarn/Wire.
Listen to some of composer, producer, and violinist Matt McBane’s collaboration with Sandbox Percussion, Bathymetry -a “reference to how bass synthesizers affect percussive sounds, mimicking how the ocean floor shapes the waves above,” (National Sawdust event page.) McBane and Sandbox use monophonic Moog analog synthesizer, found instrument percussion (mixing bowls, ping pong balls, glass bottles), orchestral percussion and drum sets, drawing on minimalism and achieving something close to ambient music to evoke the mysterious underwater depths.
Fifteen Questions: Sandbox Percussion about Interpretation
When did you first start getting interested in musical interpretation?
Jonny Allen: The concept of interpretation first really came across my radar in college. Up until that point, I was mostly concerned with playing the music as faithfully as possible. This often meant playing as similarly as I could to recordings I found.
Many of my musical experiences were in the drumline of a marching band, where interpretation is all about precision and consistency. Dynamics are measured in the number of inches your sticks come off the drum, rhythms are meticulously subdivided and played with the utmost exactitude.
The Arts Desk: Dragonflies, harmoniums and folded paper
Two discs of music by American contemporary composer Andy Akiho have caught my ear in recent months. Born in 1979, his biography states that “he spent most of his 20s playing steel pan by ear in Trinidad and began composing at 28,” the physicality and theatricality involved in playing steel pans an essential element of Akiho’s music. Have a look at “Pillar IV” from the vast percussion piece Seven Pillars on YouTube; watching three members of Brooklyn’s Sandbox Percussion in action (look out for the wine bottles) is absorbing.