Andy Akiho

Andy Akiho’s Timpani Concerto: Leonardo Soto, Juraj Valčuha and the Houston Symphony 

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In March, the Houston Symphony premiered an exiting new Timpani Concerto by American composer Andy Akiho (b. 1979). The performance, led by Music Director Juraj Valčuha, featured the Orchestra’s Principal Timpanist, Leonardo Soto. The Concerto was co-commissioned by the Houston Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Brevard Music Festival. Written in collaboration with Soto and the Houston Symphony, “the piece reimagines the timpani as a melodic soloist, featuring prepared drumheads, an inverted …

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Andy Akiho’s “Pentalateral I”: Sandbox Percussion

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The music of American composer Andy Akiho (b. 1979) is infused with the sounds of the Caribbean. Based in Portland, Oregon and New York City, Akiho is a virtuoso percussionist whose primary instrument is the steelpan, a drum developed in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1930s. According to his biography, As a pannist, Akiho has a deeply physical relationship with playing, which undoubtedly informs his compositions. His style is further shaped by …

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