Portal was inspired by the landscapes and energy of New Mexico, particularly the towns of Santa Fe, Taos, and Angel Fire. Every drive between these eternal townships, and every hike or run through the hills and mountains felt as if there were mystical forces emitting boosts of intense energy and inspiration. The culmination of dizzying altitudes, mesmerizing landscapes, exciting musicians, and perpetual portals to other dimensions (at least in my mind) all contributed to this piece.

“Portal” may be performed by any combination or number of instruments and performers. It is encouraged that the musicians make it their own by exploring individualized timbres, articulations, dynamics, and orchestrations, while possibly incorporating moments of subtle improvisations.

The world premiere of “Portal” was performed by the 18 amazing musicians for the 40th Anniversary of Music from Angel Fire, directed by Tara Helen O’Connor and Danny Phillips in 2023.

-  Andy Akiho

Topography of Dreaming was composed by Christopher Deane for his vibraphone and composition clinic at the 2009 Percussive Arts Society International Convention.  Chris premiered the piece with longtime friends and collaborators Mark Ford and Brian Zator.

This piece embodies three characteristics found in many of Deane’s compositions: an elegant and deeply considered compositional architecture; a propensity for extended techniques and expanding the possibilities of percussion instruments; and his use of dovetailing ideas that cycle around and over each other in an unbroken loop.

Chris liked to call this last compositional technique lyrical spherical.  As the son of an amateur playwright father, Chris was fond of wordplay and often described the concept of lyrical spherical with a back and forth rhyme from the 1947 film The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. Chris liked to tell the story of reciting the rhyme as a child with his mother as she drove him to school:

You remind me of a man

What man?

The man with the power

What power?

The power of voodoo

Who do?

You do!

Do what?

Remind me of a man…

The piece also features his technique of bowing a note from silence into a struck note, which when achieved gives the sonic illusion of a backwards sound envelope- traveling in reverse from resonance to a percussive attack. Since assuming Chris’ post at the University of North Texas after his passing in 2021, I often find myself visiting Chris in my imagination as I walk the same halls where he had a profound impact on so many students’ lives, including my own. When I hear Topography of Dreaming, I am transported back to an early performance by Chris, Mark, and Brian at a UNT percussion departmental, or to a coaching with Professor Deane as I prepared to play the piece on my first DMA recital, or to the warm May evening after that recital when Chris forgave a missed note I was apologizing for with his usual grace and kindness.

Deane’s reverse sounds come from nothing, bloom in the full resonance of a quiet hall, and end gently but abruptly. Thankfully, another note is already on its way from the past…in an endless loop.

Resonance is Beauty.

- Note by Dave Hall

with special thanks to Mark Ford, Joshua Smith, and Janis Deane

Millennium Canticles was inspired by the dark comedic play Mr. Burns by Anne Washburn. In the play, a group of survivors in a post-apocalyptic world try to remember the plot of an episode of the television sitcom "The Simpsons." They recreate the episode in an increasingly ritualized and exaggerated way to cope with their trauma and to find meaning in the world.

- Missy Mazzoli

To etch is to cut, carve, or engrave a text or design onto a surface (traditionally metal, glass, or stone). This process leaves a permanent design on the original surface. I recall going to the shore as a child and spending hours etching designs in the wet, hardened sand at the threshold of beach and sea. With the sun on my back I would revel in the glory of these beautiful and ephemeral pieces of art that I created using the sand as my canvas and a stray seashell as my stylus. As evening encroached, the tide would slowly come in, its regular cycles of crashing waves a whispering reminder of the passing of time. The gently lapping water would inevitably creep towards my etchings, and as it neared I waited, in tense anticipation, for the arcs of water blindly reaching up the beach. As the first finger of water washed over my design, the image began its transformation into a subdued echo of itself. For a short time - an eternity - I would solemnly watch my day's work gently fade into the original blank canvas. Etched in Sand was written for Sixtrum percussion sextet as part of their young composer workshop centered around the instrumentation of Philippe Leroux's work De l'itération. Etched in Sand was premiered on December 7, 2013 at Salle Bourgie in Montreal, QC.

- Nina C. Young

Pac-Man was composed in 2024 and commissioned by Ensemble Residente del Festival SoXXI de Canals in València. The instrumentation spans a diverse array of percussion instruments and found objects, some of which are modified or 3D-printed. These include giant toy hammers, groan tubes, slide whistles, spokes, coconut shells, and steel drums. Among these is a unique 3D-printed interpretation of the rarely used instrument, named “Stirring Xylophone.” This instrument involves stirring a mallet or marble inside a hollow chamber containing tone bars, producing a softer, more sustained, and often ethereal sound alongside traditional xylophone timbres. The piece begins with a reinterpretation of Toshio Kay’s iconic Pac-Man intro theme, performed on the stirring xylophones at a much slower tempo. The subsequent sections draw from an analysis/ resynthesis process, where the original sounds of the arcade game were analyzed and then reimagined for the percussion sextet. This resynthesis is not a mere replication of the game’s sounds but rather a creative recontextualization, designed to fit the expressive and structural needs of the composition. Pac-Man concludes with a playful nod to the game’s iconic “Game Over” sound, realized through the downward oscillating glissandi of slide whistles.

- Panayiotis Kokoras

Dear Colleagues,

It is my sincere pleasure to celebrate our University of North Texas (UNT) Percussion Ensemble on their selection to perform at the 2025 Percussive Arts Society International Conference in Indianapolis, IN. This distinguished invitation reflects the UNT College of Music’s ongoing dedication to musical excellence and is a clear testament to the ensemble’s commitment and artistry.

Under the exemplary direction of Dr. Dave Hall, Associate Professor of Percussion and Director of the UNT Percussion Ensemble, our students exemplify high standards in musical performance, pedagogy, and scholarly engagement. The breadth and depth of repertoire performed by the ensemble are truly impressive, including works by current and former UNT music faculty members Panayiotis Kokoras, Christopher Deane, and Dave Hall. It will become abundantly clear to all attendees that Dr. Hall’s leadership as an artist, educator, and scholar provides inspiration not only to his students but also to the wider musical community.

To you the PASIC conference participants, I wish you a productive week filled with outstanding performances, informative clinics, and meaningful presentations. May this gathering foster stronger professional relationships, stimulate new ideas, and highlight the profound impact of the percussive arts.

The mission of the UNT College of Music is to serve our diverse musical culture with excellence, integrity, and imagination. The ensemble’s performance this week is a vivid reflection of our values.

Heartfelt best wishes to all!
 
Sincerely,

John W. Richmond, Ph.D.
Professor & Dean, College of Music
University of North Texas

The University of North Texas Percussion Ensemble is UNT’s advanced chamber percussion ensemble, featuring an auditioned group of undergraduate and graduate percussion majors. The group is under the artistic direction of Dave Hall. The group has performed internationally, recorded extensively, and presented clinics and showcase concerts at major conventions and venues around the country. The ensemble is part of a vibrant Percussion Area that features Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Gamelan, South Indian and African Ensembles; Steel Bands, Marching Percussion, and three Contemporary Classical Percussion Ensembles. Students also perform larger labs including 7 Wind Bands, 2 Orchestras, Opera, NOVA New Music Ensemble, Jazz and Latin Jazz Lab Bands, Jazz Combos, Chinese Ensemble, and the Green Brigade Marching Band. UNT Percussion alumni have a long history of successful placements in orchestra and military band positions and other professional performing careers; university professorships; secondary teaching positions; prestigious graduate programs; and a diverse array of prominent festivals and seminars around the world.

Dave Hall is Associate Professor of Percussion at the University of North Texas College of Music, where he directs the UNT Percussion Ensemble and teaches applied lessons and courses on percussion literature, history, and pedagogy. Before his appointment at UNT, he was Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Under his direction, the University of Nebraska Percussion Ensemble was selected to perform a showcase concert at PASIC in both 2019 and 2016 as winners of the Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition (IPEC) and also founded Nebraska Steel, the first university steel band in the state. Under his direction, the Univeristy of North Texas Percussion Ensemble was also selected as an IPEC Winner in 2025.

He regularly performs as a keyboard and multi-percussion soloist, collaborative chamber musician (especially in contemporary classical settings), jazz drummer, timpanist, orchestral percussionist, steel pan player, and improviser – favoring an eclectic and omnivorous approach to percussion and the arts. He enjoys commissioning and recording works for solo percussion as well as producing collaborative recording projects with his students. In addition to regular engagements in the contiguous United States, he has performed abroad in Spain, Puerto Rico, Belgium, France, Italy, Poland, and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

Dave is an active composer, published by C. Alan Publications. His works for percussion have been commissioned, performed, and recorded around the world. His music has been called “the aural equivalent of a Dali painting” (New York Concert Review). His compositions are regularly performed at notable venues including the Midwest Clinic, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, and at major concert halls and performing arts centers in the USA and abroad. He is regularly involved nationally and internationally as an adjudicator and clinician for concert and marching percussion. Since 2019, he has been a member of the DCI World Champion Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps as Associate Music Ensemble Coordinator and Music Design Consultant.

Dave is an endorsing artist for Pearl/Adams, Remo, Innovative Percussion, Sabian, and is a member of the Black Swamp Percussion Educator Network. He is co-chair of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) Percussion Ensemble Committee and is a member of the PAS Board of Advisors. He currently resides in Denton, TX with his wife Elizabeth and their three children.

The University of North Texas College of Music is the largest public university music program in the United States and one of the most globally respected. Faculty and staff include internationally acclaimed artists and scholars in composition, conducting, ethnomusicology, jazz studies, music education, music business, music history, music theory, commercial music and performance. The college presents more than 700 music events annually. Students perform in more than 70 ensembles in eight campus venues and can be viewed worldwide via free superior quality live streaming. UNT music alumni can be found around the world in impressive, award-winning careers across a wide range of music professions. Our current faculty members include Guggenheim Fellows, Fulbright Fellows, an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, a Charles Ives Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Gold Medalist, Emmy, Grammy, Latin Grammy, Oscar and Tony nominees and Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winners. Our students come from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and more than 40 countries.

The mission of the UNT College of Music is to serve our diverse musical culture with excellence, integrity and imagination. The vision of the UNT College of Music is to provide leadership, artistry and expertise to every facet of the music profession.

Ranked a Tier One research institution by the Carnegie Classification, UNT is one of the largest public research universities in the United States with more than 46,000 students who push creative boundaries and graduate with credentials of value so they can become tomorrow’s leaders. UNT is recognized as a Minority-Serving and Hispanic-Serving Institution, reflecting the population of Texas. UNT students earned nearly 13,000 degrees last year in 240 degree programs, many nationally and internationally recognized. With a focus on academic excellence and graduating career-ready students, UNT has served as a catalyst for creativity since its founding in 1890, continually fueling progress, entrepreneurship and innovation for the North Texas region, the state — and beyond.

The UNT community is guided by five shared values — Courageous Integrity, Be Curious, We Care, Better Together and Show Your Fire.