Combining what are perhaps the two oldest forms of musical expression, speak/strike is a commissioning project aimed at increasing the body of repertoire for speaking percussionists. Headed by percussionists Katelyn King and Alexv Rolfe, speak/strike commissions and subsequently premieres and records the works of distinct American composers.

Music that involves the human voice is a small, but fascinating portion of the existing percussion repertoire. Whether acting as an alternative sound source, a means of conveying a narrative or theatrical component, or simply drawing on the curious pairing of the completely internal nature of the voice with the radically external nature of percussion playing, this form of expression is ripe to be explored by a new set of compositional voices. 

Commissioned for the speak/strike duo in 2015&16, Zaum Box is a solo for speaking percussionist written by San Diego-based new music composer, Christopher Adler. 

Zaum Box is the most recent development of my (and Alexv Rolfe's) ongoing and changing collaboration with Christopher, and in August of 2016, Christopher and I met in Berlin to create the first complete video recording of the piece! 

I'm excited to share with everyone these 10 short video movements, together making the entirety of Zaum Box!:

check out Christopher Adler's page for Zaum Box: http://christopheradler.com/zaumbox.html

Christopher has made limited edition Box sets for the piece, and there are only 21 available!! Get yours now while you still can! 

speak/strike has a new commission in the works! 

speak/strike's Katelyn and Alexv will be teaming up with percussionist Abby Fisher to commission a new work by Princeton composer Andrea Mazzariello. 

The new work is set to be completed September-November 2017, with first premieres shortly after. In the meantime, check out some of my colleagues' other work to get an idea of what this new project could look like!: 

http://www.andreamazzariello.com/

http://www.abbyfisherpercussion.com/