In Sunday’s (5/6) Los Angeles Times, Barbara Isenberg writes, “Timpanist Joseph Pereira was in the kitchen, preparing to marinate short ribs in French wine, when he made an important discovery: That nice plastic cork at the top of the wine bottle had a terrific consistency. It wasn’t long before Pereira, who has long customized his instruments, was experimenting with the plastic cork inside the end of his drum mallets. … His compositions too come from unlikely sources. Ideas for Pereira’s double-bass quartet, which premiered last month at Walt Disney Concert Hall, drew on both ‘The Godfather: Part II’ and Canto 20 from Dante’s Purgatorio. His new concerto for percussion and chamber orchestra, premiering Tuesday night with Jeffrey Milarsky at the podium, was inspired in part by his reading about Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific Ocean. … The Queens-born Pereira joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2007 as principal timpanist after more than 10 years with the New York Philharmonic, where he was assistant principal timpanist and section percussionist. … Besides his recent pieces for percussion and double bass, he writes music for a variety of instruments, including winds, English horn and cello. His violin solo was just recorded at Disney Hall, and due out soon is a recording for flute and dumbek, a hand drum.”
Posted May 8, 2012
