A GUN SHOW

Literary Nonfiction. Music. Performance Studies. History and Politics. Hybrid Genre. Edited by Lynne DeSilva-Johnson. Sō Percussion (Where (we) Live, Next Wave 2012) gives the Second Amendment a soundtrack in this affecting foray into America's fraught relationship with guns. Taking mallets to disassembled sniper rifles and assorted drums, the musicians serve as Greek chorus, commenting instrumentally on sung and spoken texts drawn from the nightmares and nostalgia of armed experiences. Three-time Obie-winning director Ain Gordon and choreographer and performer Emily Johnson give depth to this probing work in which anger meets inalienable rights, dark memories resurface, and a contested weapon sings a bittersweet song.

A GUN SHOW was facilitated by Lynne DeSilva-Johnson in collaboration with Adam Sliwinski with imput from Sō Percussion for release in tandem with the NY Premiere of A GUN SHOW at BAM, Nov 30-Dec 3, 2016.

Sō Percussion is a percussion-based music organization that creates and presents new collaborative works to adventurous and curious audiences and educational initiatives to engaged students, while providing meaningful service to its communities, in order to exemplify the power of music to unite people and forge deep social bonds. They seek to create a new model of egalitarian artistic collaboration that respects history, champions innovation and curiosity, and creates an essential social bond through service to our audiences and our communities.

Sō is: Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting. With its innovative multi-genre original productions, sensational interpretations of modern classics, and "exhilarating blend of precision and anarchy, rigor and bedlam," (The New Yorker), Sō Percussion has redefined the scope of the modern percussion ensemble.

Sō Percussion in Performance, is in collaboration with Emily Johnson (movement) and Ain Gordon (director).

Adam Sliwinski has built a dynamic career of creative collaboration as percussionist, pianist, conductor, teacher, and writer. He specializes in bringing composers, performers, and other artists together to create exciting new work. A member of the ensemble Sō Percussion since 2002, Adam has performed at venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, The Bonnaroo Festival, Disney Concert Hall with the LA Philharmonic, and everything in between. Sō Percussion has also toured extensively around the world, including multiple featured performances at the Barbican Centre in London, and tours to France, Germany, The Netherlands, South America, Australia, and Russia. Adam has been praised as a soloist by the New York Times for his "shapely, thoughtfully nuanced account" of David Lang's marimba piece String of Pearls. He has performed as a percussionist many times with the International Contemporary Ensemble, founded by classmates from Oberlin.