Matchstick Percussion is a Maryland-based percussion quartet dedicated to new music and expanding the percussion repertoire. Through performance, they aim to promote opportunity for underrepresented artists, bridge the gap in racial and gender inconsistencies, and advocate for equity in the medium through collaborative performances and educational outreach.
Over the past five years Matchstick Percussion has performed over thirty concerts across seven states and the District of Columbia, including concerts at the Kennedy Center, Rhizome DC, St. Mark’s Capitol Hill, Hidden Waters Mansion in Baltimore, Penn State University, Towson University, and Bowie State University. Matchstick Percussion has appeared as a featured group at several music festivals and events including the Penn State New-Music Festival Symposium, Rhoneymeade Festival in Centre County PA, and the Percussive Arts Society’s Maryland/Delaware Chapter Day of Percussion. In 2022, they received a scholarship to participate as a pre-formed ensemble in the Sō Percussion Summer Institute at Princeton University.
In addition to solo concerts and festival appearances, Matchstick Percussion appeared with 21st Century Consort to perform and record John Luther Adams’ Earth and the Great Weather at the Hirshhorn Museum in DC, and in collaboration with the Sō Percussion Summer Institute and the University of Michigan Percussion Studio, premiered and toured Michael Gordon’s Field of Vision at Princeton University, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, and Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art for the Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend. Other notable collaborative performances include Open Music and Folx Percussion.
Dedicated to new music, Matchstick Percussion has commissioned and premiered eight new works for chamber percussion ensembles, most notably Walk. March. Run. by Kendall K. Williams with co-commissioners Sō Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, Bard College Conservatory, and the University of Akron Percussion Studio. Matchstick Percussion has released over a dozen recordings of lesser-known or new works by underrepresented composers, which can be found on their YouTube channel.
To fulfill the educational outreach portion of its mission, Matchstick Percussion has held a number of educational clinics at the high school and university level, including University of Delaware, University of Maryland, Towson University, Meade High School, Chesapeake High School, Patterson Mill High School, and Wakefield High School. These events are intended to expose students to a wide variety of percussion chamber music and provide them an opportunity to learn more about majoring in music or transitioning to the professional world.
Matchstick Percussion’s newest project is a series of commissions titled Strike Anywhere. This initiative aims to expand the accessibility of the percussion repertoire by restricting instrumentation to portable, common instruments and objects. Through this new repertoire, they hope to reach new audiences by removing the limiting factors in choice of venue, as well as inspire audiences and expand their idea of what percussion music can be. The first round of commissions for this project have been funded by the Racial Justice, Anti-Discrimination and Democratic Practices Creative Activity Grant through the College of Arts & Architecture at Penn State and include works by Joshua Mallard, Han Hitchen, Jamie Koller, and Tucker Johnson.
Matchstick Percussion proudly endorses Yamaha, Zildjian, Vic Firth, and Black Swamp Percussion products.