Prepare to be swept away by a series of captivating musical events featuring the groundbreaking performances of Sandbox Percussion, AMOC*, and the Columbus Symphony. From the New York premiere of Simeon ten Holt's 'Canto Ostinato' to the evocative orchestral soundscapes of Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony, each event promises to transport audiences to new auditory dimensions. Experience the dynamic artistry of Sandbox Percussion as they explore themes of resilience and transformation, culminating in a grand celebration at the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City's 60th Anniversary Season.

Unveiling Sonic Landscapes: A Journey with Sandbox Percussion and Masterful Collaborations

In a celebration of transformation, resilience, and innovation, Sandbox Percussion graces three remarkable events from March to May 2026. The Grammy-nominated ensemble embarks on a journey beginning with a collaboration with Columbus Symphony for Shostakovich 8, followed by a guest artist recital at Penn State, and culminating at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City. Each event showcases their exploratory soundscapes and dynamic artistry, leaving audiences inspired and captivated by their unique musical interpretations.

Sandbox Percussion: A Symphony of Transformation, Resilience, and Innovation

The Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City presents SANDBOX PERCUSSION—known for their innovative performances and dynamic artistry—on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, at Libby Gardner Concert Hall on the University of Utah campus. This performance concludes the Society’s 60th Anniversary Season.

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SANDBOX PERCUSSION & 60th Annual Meeting

University of Utah

Penn State Percussion Festival Guest Artist Recital: Sandbox Percussion

Penn State School of Music

This evocative concert begins with the Grammy-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion’s performance of Viet Cuong’s Re(new)al—for percussion quartet and orchestra full of eclectic soundscapes that explore themes of transformation and resilience. Shostakovich’s Symphony No.8 is a powerful work reflecting on war as a force of destruction and suffering, while juxtaposing it with the endurance and resilience of the human spirit.

Shostakovich 8

Ohio Theatre

A New York premiere and co-production between AMOC* and Sandbox Percussion, Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato feels like the long-lost cousin of beloved American Minimalist works like Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians or Terry Riley’s In C. Encountering it for the first time is like meeting an unknown relative—you’re struck by uncanny resemblances: the tilt of a nose, the rhythm of a laugh, echoes that stretch across time and space.

“Canto Ostinato” – Cal Performances

University of California, Berkeley

Get ready for an electrifying night of rhythm and sonic adventure as the Duke University Wind Symphony proudly hosts the internationally renowned Sandbox Percussion for a high-energy residency on campus!

Join us for "A Rhythmic Playground", a concert that unleashes the full spectrum of percussion magic-from thunderous grooves to shimmering textures. This exhilarating program features bold, contemporary works by Kevin Day, Katahj Copley, Nicolle Piunno, Viet Cuong, and more-each piece a vibrant exploration of sound, pulse, and motion.

Duke University Wind Symphony: “A Rhythmic Playground”

Duke University

“Canto Ostinato” – Run AMOC

Lincoln Center

Sandbox Percussion expands the breadth and depth of the percussion form through commissions of original work that broaden representation in chamber music. They create new musical experiences by transforming creative challenges into meaningful art that is shared with our community.

Sandbox Percussion

Alice Pratt Brown Hall

Guest Artists visit SFCM to share their expertise with student musicians.

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Go behind the scenes and observe CMNW’s world-class musicians working together to put the finishing touches on the music for upcoming performances. An informal Q&A follows the rehearsal. 

FREE Open Rehearsal: JOHN LUTHER ADAMS World Premiere of “Prophecies of Fire”

Reed College

Don't miss the finale of this year's Sandbox Percussion Summer Seminar, where participants collaborate with Sandbox Percussion for a memorable culminating concert. This performance will feature the chamber works that seminar participants have prepared throughout the seminar.

Sandbox Percussion Seminar Closing Concert

Arnhold Hall

Sandbox Percussion and NOVUS NY present a third Renewal concert on December 3, at 4pm, in Trinity Church, featuring Viet Cuong’s Re(new)al and pieces inspired by Richard Powers’s powerful novel on activism, resistance, and the natural world— The Overstory: Jessica Meyer’s A Passage Between Earth and Sky and the collaborative eco-cantata by four composers and five authors, A Forest Unfolding. Free.

NOVUS NY Renewal: The Sound of a New World

Trinity Church

Sandbox Percussion performs composer Andy Akiho’s Grammy-nominated piece with captivating light design by theater director Michael McQuilken. Seven Pillars continuously flows percussion and light without pause to seamlessly integrate sounds and vision. Virtuosic, playful, and mesmerizing, this evening showcases an incredibly disciplined collective musical experience.

Walker Art Center

The table, and the stage, is set. The concert opens with Dvorak’s boisterous portrait of a street carnival before Gabriela Frank’s triumphant Escaramuza. The first half concludes when Sandbox Percussion, the second annual Fred & Charlotte Hubbell Visiting Artist In Residence, joins the Orchestra for Viet Cuong’s enthralling and magical Re(new)al, inspired by the power of nature. Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade evokes the tales of the legendary heroine and One Thousand and One Nights, bringing the concert to a dazzling close.

Discover Scheherazade

Des Moines Civic Center

Sandbox Percussion has established themselves as a leading proponent of this generation of contemporary percussion chamber music, captivating audiences with performances that are both visually and aurally striking while showcasing the imagination, integrity, and courage of their music making. Their unique mix of youthful energy with the precision of a well-established group is on full display in the Veterans Room with a lively program that vibrantly underscores their solid technique, rhythmical musicality, and lively showmanship including a world premiere piece by Chris Cerrone commissioned by the Armory and the New York premiere of Viet Cuong’s Next Week’s Trees.

Park Avenue Armory

Hailed by The New York Times as “a lush, brooding celebration of noise,” Andy Akiho’s GRAMMY-nominated Seven Pillars is his most ambitious project to date. The work is structured as a large-scale palindrome and consists of seven ensemble movements and one solo movement for each member of the critically acclaimed ensemble Sandbox Percussion. Michael McQuilken's lighting scheme reinforces the work's form throughout the theatrical live performance. Performed by Sandbox, this evening-length work is the largest-scale chamber music work that Akiho has written and that Sandbox has commissioned. Akiho and Sandbox's ongoing collaboration for Seven Pillars has spanned the past 8 years.

Seven Pillars

Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston

Part of Tippet Rise’s new Wander series, the innovative Sandbox Percussion will perform two Tippet Rise Commissions and World Premieres written by composers Amy Beth Kirsten and Douglas J. Cuomo, each written in response to sculptures on the land by artist Mark di Suvero. Beginning at Beethoven’s Quartet, Sandbox Percussion will premiere holy sonnet, a new work by Kirsten, known for her theatrical compositions and described by BBC Music Magazine as “one of America’s most innovative and visionary composers.” From there, musicians and audience members will hike together approximately one mile to Mark di Suvero’s Proverb. The ensemble will then perform a new work entitled Proverb by Douglas J. Cuomo, known for a range of expressive compositions written for the concert, opera, and theatrical stage, as well as for television and film. We are thrilled to welcome Sandbox Percussion, composed of members Jonny Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, and Terry Sweeney, back to Tippet Rise for the third time – a group always eager to perform in nature and to explore the many synergies between art and landscape.

Wander series: Sandbox Percussion

Tippet Rise Art Center

Sandbox Percussion closes out the series and Bravo! Vail’s 36th Music Festival with John Cage’s Third Construction; George Crumb’s American Songbook III, Unto the Hills; and a selection of songs from Charles Ives, featuring the American soprano Susanna Phillips and Anne-Marie McDermott.

Classically Uncorked III: Sandbox Percussion

Donovan Pavilion

Hailed by The New York Times as “a lush, brooding celebration of noise,” Andy Akiho’s groundbreaking Seven Pillars is a genre-defying audio collaboration for percussion quartet, performed by Sandbox Percussion.

Classically Uncorked II: Sandbox Percussion

Sandbox Percussion opens the Classically Uncorked series with a dynamic program of new music and Bravo! Vail premieres, including works by Amy Beth Kirsten, David Crowell, Juri Seo, Viet Cuong, and Sandbox founder Victor Caccese.

Bravo! Vail’s Classically Uncorked returns with three bold chamber music programs cocurated and performed by Sandbox Percussion, a contemporary percussion quartet known for its visually and auditorily stunning presentations. Each Classically Uncorked program offers a unique chamber music experience with handcrafted wines and cabaret-style seating in the gorgeous Donovan Pavilion.

Classically Uncorked I: Sandbox Percussion

The next stop on the Music Box summer tour is at the Vail Farmers’ Market, as the Grammy-nominated Sandbox Percussion performs two eclectic sets of music hand-picked (get it?) for the occasion. This fun-for-the-whole-family experience includes audience participation, an instrument petting zoo, and a “big tent” approach to music-making.

Music Box III

Vail Farmer's Market

Described as “exhilarating” (The New York Times), and “virtuosic and utterly mesmerizing” (The Guardian), Brooklyn’s Sandbox Percussion has established themselves as a leading proponent of this generation of contemporary percussion chamber music. 2021’s Grammy-nominated record Seven Pillars is the jaw-dropping result of a years-long collaboration with trailblazing composer Andy Akiho. The boldly genre-defying collaboration consists of seven ensemble movements and one solo movement for each member of Sandbox. With a striking lighting scheme by Michael Joseph McQuilken, Seven Pillars is the largest-scale chamber music work that Akiho has written and that Sandbox has commissioned, with their collaboration spanning the past eight years. The 80-minute, 11-part work has a palindromic structure, with the “pillars” — all written for more than one musician — interspersed with four solos.

Sandbox Percussion — Andy Akiho’s Seven Pillars

McCallum Theatre

It begins softly. A single snare drum. Then, a flute. Gradually, each instrument of Pacific Symphony joins in, one after the other, until Ravel’s Boléro reaches one of the greatest climaxes in all of music. Also, Orli Shaham, Dennis Kim and Warren Hagerty perform Beethoven’s too-rarely encountered tour-de-force, the Triple Concerto.  Carl St.Clair begins the season with Wagner’s stormy overture to The Flying Dutchman, and Re(new)al, a new work by the brilliant young composer, Viet Cuong.

Beethoven & Bolero

Segerstrom Center for the Arts

In this immersive outdoor premiere, GRAMMY Award-winning composer Christopher Cerrone traces how people and things change — slowly, with determination and joy. The work begins with a processional: Sandbox Percussion and the Young People's Chorus of New York City move through the Sunken Garden, weaving among the audience before finding their places. From there, the piece unfolds as a gradual revelation — the choristers sing alongside the percussionists, at times lending their voices to guide and shape the music, as a single phrase slowly comes into focus: the only way is through. Inspired by the first year of Cerrone's son's life, the work reaches beyond autobiography toward something more universal — the experience of having come through something hard, and the recognition that this is simply how we move forward. Throughout, the audience is free to move through the Sunken Garden.

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