dma  portfolio

press

1.  Los  Angeles  Times  -  wild  up "barlow,  punk  rock,  player  piano  music"  at  beyond  Baroque

                            "The scene for punk was cheerfully anticipated with late 20th century American piano rags -– William Albright’s “Sleepwalker’s Shuffle” and William                             Bolcom’s “The Poltergeist” -– and early 20th century percussive violin works -- Conlon Nancarrow’s Toccata for violin and player piano and the last                                 movement of George Antheil’s First Violin Sonata. The respective pianist and violinist were Richard Valitutto and Andrew Tholl, both vigorously                                     virtuosic."

2.   Los  Angeles  times  -  formalist  quartet  "art  jarvinen  birthday  concert"  at  Beyond  Baroque

                            "For the main event, the Formalist Quartet beautifully laid out the hypnotic spread of “100 Cadences With Four Melodies, a chorale, and a coda                                     (with bells on!),” a title blessed with truth-in-advertising, but with an elegiac elegance not indicated by the wry, Satie-esque spin of the title. A slow,                             rich yet dry procession of chords, with a jazz and/or post-impressionistic patina, are interspersed with short solos by each player, in this                                                 unconventional string quartet work deserving greater recognition, and stage time."

3.  los  angeles  times  -  "party  for  Betty"  at  redcat

                            "Freeman was right at home in John Cage’s avant-garde New York School circle, and two of his solo violin “Freeman Etudes” (which Freeman never                                 tired of pointing out she hadn’t commissioned) were impressively played by two young violinists named Andrew (Tholl and McIntosh)."

4.  out  west  arts  -  wild  up  "barlow,  punk  rock,  player  piano  music"  at  beyond  baroque

                            "Building on this, he was joined by violinist Andrew Tholl for Nancarrow’s Toccata for violin and player piano with Tholl playing alongside the                                         prerecorded and decidedly superhuman pianola. Tholl, as he did at several points in the evening, amazed with his rapid-fire playing."

5. a  fool  in  the  forrest  -  wild  up  "craft"  at  beyond  baroque

                            "Missy Mazzoli's "Dissolve O My Heart" for solo violin was commissioned and premiered through the LA Philharmonic last year. It alludes to Bach,                                 but quotes him only once before twisting off in its own knotty, pensive direction. It is perhaps the most magisterially off-putting piece of Mazzoli's                                 that I have heard; a piece to be admired rather than loved. Andrew Tholl navigated its sinuous course with focus and grit."

                            "To conclude by circling back toward the energy with which the evening began, the closing piece was wild Up violinist Andrew Tholl's "Corpus                                         Callosum", a thrilling contraption mirroring the dual nature of the brain structure for which it is named, the elements of the elaborately mixed                                     ensemble pairing off to lob a succession of pulsing, scintillant musical ideas at one another. Where Rountree's piece grabs hold to the living                                         Brooklyn of another era (Whitman's), Tholl bursts out with the sharp-edged glint of the living Los Angeles of today."

6.  los  angeles  times  -  formalist  quartet  "new  music  after  grisey"  at  redcat

                            "At the other end of history came the world premiere of Rozalie Hirs’ engrossing string quartet, “Zenit,” played by the superb new L.A.-based                                         Formalist Quartet."

7. sandiego.com  -  formalist  quartet  "soundon  festival  2011"  at  la  jolla  athenaeum

                            "Two entirely acoustic string quartets by Ishmael Leo Smith, played with great discipline and conviction by the Formalist Quartet, offered another                                 flavor at the new music assortment."