Gerry Hemingway

Gerry Hemingway
percussion

Gerry Hemingway has been making a living as a composer and performer of solo and ensemble music since 1974. He has led numerous groups, including his quartet with Ellery Eskelin (since 1997), Herb Robertson and Mark Helias as well collaborative groups with Mark Helias & Ray Anderson (BassDrumBone) celebrating its 30th year anniversary in 2007, Reggie Workman & Miya Masaoka (Brew), Georg Graewe & Ernst Reijseger (GRH trio), WHO trio with Swiss pianist Michel Wintsch and bassist Baenz Oester, his duo with Thomas Lehn, and also with John Butcher.

Mr. Hemingway is a Guggenheim fellow and has received numerous commissions for chamber and orchestral work including Terrains, a concerto for percussionist and orchestra commissioned by the Kansas City Symphony. He also completed a production of Songs, two year recording project for the the German label, between the lines. He is well known for his eleven years in the Anthony Braxton Quartet, and his many collaborations with some of the world’s most outstanding improvisers and composers including Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor, Mark Dresser, Anthony Davis, George Lewis, Derek Bailey, Leo Smith, Oliver Lake, Kenny Wheeler, Frank Gratkowski, John Cale, Marilyn Crispell, Michael Moore and many others.

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Performances

Concertos for Indigenous Instruments
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory | March 10, 2006
Concert Details

News and Press

[Concert Review] BMOP looks east for fascinating program
To write a concerto for an indigenous instrument may be an obvious way to create a multicultural piece, but it is not the easiest. Most folk instruments don’t have the power to compete with an orchestra, although electronics can help; most also involve tunings that can’t mesh with the compromises of the well-tempered Western scale.
The Boston Globe Full review
[Press Release] BMOP presents Concertos for Indigenous Instruments
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), under artistic director and conductor Gil Rose, continues its exploration of new orchestral music influenced by non-Western cultures with a program of concertos for Persian, Korean, and Japanese instruments on March 10, 2006 at Jordan Hall.
Full release

 

The practical thing to do is to use the orchestra as a kind of backdrop in front of which the indigenous instrument does its thing, and that is pretty much what Kim, Cowell, and Vali did.

— The Boston Globe Full review