Guest Artist Concert: Allen Otte, percussion
A Guest Artist concert by Allen Otte, percussionist
"Percussionists as Storytellers"
With a Pre-Concert talk, 3 pm in Bezanson Hall
Works by Allen Otte, John Cage, Frederic Rzewski, John Lane, & Rachel C. Walker
Plus, "Four Medieval Lyrics and an Antiphon" arranged by Mr. Otte
Allen Otte biography:
Allen Otte was, in 1972, a founding member of the Blackearth Percussion Group whose premise was that percussionists should be able to behave in our time just as string quartets had done since the time of Beethoven. He came to the University of Cincinnati in 1977 and in 1979 founded the world-renowned ensemble, Percussion Group Cincinnati.
Professor Otte taught classical and contemporary percussion, eurhythmics, various literature seminars, and coached and conducted traditional and contemporary chamber music. In addition to his now Emeritus position at the University of Cincinnati, he has also been adjunct professor of eurhythmics at the Oberlin Conservatory. His students are members of major symphony orchestras and service bands, contemporary ensembles, and hold positions at universities throughout the country.
Otte has regularly taught, given master classes, and presented his own creative work—solo and collaborative—throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. With John Lane he performs their music theater creation on wrongful imprisonment, The Innocents, throughout the United States, including at The Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta and at the Innocents Network National Conference. His work in this area has led to other invitations including a residency in Roosevelt University’s Performing Social Justice Program.
Recent guest faculty engagements have included the Banff Center for the Arts, the Amsterdam Conservatory, and a creative development residency with the Indianapolis Symphony as instructor in eurhythmics. For ten years he was a coach in the Grandin Festival for Vocal Chamber Music, and for several summers, the Opera Theater of Lucca, Italy.
His broad percussion expertise is reflected in frequent guest artist appearances such as the 2012 Carnegie Hall Tour of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and many regular invitations as both soloist and ensemble member to the Percussive Arts Society’s International Convention. With the improvisation trio Vaster Than Empires (sound sculpture, e-violin, electronics) he has appeared at university venues, but also in clubs and various alternative spaces; since 2018 he has performed as a member of the medieval music quartet Trobar.
In addition to the recorded work of Percussion Group Cincinnati, a CD of collaborative works of Otte and computer music composer Mara Helmuth is available on EMS; Vaster Than Empire’s first release is on the Chicago label Parlour Tapes, and his contributions to TRIGGER: Artists Respond to Gun Violence will be released by Albany in 2022.
Allen Otte and his colleagues in Percussion Group Cincinnati were inducted into the International Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2017.