Third Coast Percussion Announces 2025–2026 Season

Third Coast Percussion Announces 2025–2026 Season

20th Anniversary Continues with Original Touring Programs
Time Pieces; Murmurs in Time; Strum, Strike, Bend; Aguas da Amazonia;
Metamorphosis; and The Drum Also Sings

International Tour Dates in France, Latvia, Serbia, and Montenegro

U.S. Dates in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C.,
Cleveland, Atlanta, Berkeley, and More

Chicago Performances at Art Institute of Chicago, University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Nova Linea Musica, and More

Collaborations with Jessie Montgomery, Clarice Assad,
Jlin, Tigran Hamasyan, and Salar Nader

World Premieres by Jlin, JaRon Brown, and Augusta Read Thomas

“Virtuosity and deft, precisely timed wit” – The Washington Post 

www.thirdcoastpercussion.com

Chicago, IL (September 18, 2025) – Called “immensely enjoyable” and “prodigiously gifted” (Gramophone), the GRAMMY® Award-winning Chicago-based percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion (TCP) announces its Chicago and touring schedules for the 2025-2026 season. As the first percussion ensemble ever to win a GRAMMY® in the classical genre, Third Coast is celebrated both as a quartet of stellar performers and as a composer collective, earning seven GRAMMY® nominations overall—including their 2017 win under Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. Following a historic season of high-profile tours and two new albums in 2024-2025, the ensemble continues celebrating its 20th anniversary this season with its original program Time Pieces: The New Classical—a showcase of TCP commissions to mark its milestone year—along with multiple continuing collaborations and world premieres by Jlin, JaRon Brown, Augusta Read Thomas, and TCP artist Robert Dillon.

Third Coast Percussion tours this season to nearly two-dozen domestic engagements, with performances at New York City’s The 92nd Street Y and Boston’s Celebrity Series, as well as dates in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Berkeley, and more. International tour dates include first performances in Serbia, Montenegro, and Latvia, in addition to engagements in Paris. At home in Chicago, they perform at venues including Northwestern University (the ensemble’s alma mater), The Art Institute of Chicago, and The University of Chicago. In addition to Time Pieces, the ensemble is featured in programs including Strum, Strike, Bend, featuring music by Jessie Montgomery; Zakir Hussain’s Murmurs in Time, with tabla artist Salar Nader; Aguas da Amazonia; The Drum Also Sings; and Metamorphosis featuring choreography by Movement Art Is performed and interpreted by Trent Jeray and Cameron Murphy—as well as the premiere of a special program, Bruce Goff Piano Rolls, at the Art Institute of Chicago. The quartet also appears this season with guest artists and collaborators including Clarice Assad, Jlin, and Tigran Hamasyan. They will hold residencies at Denison University in Ohio and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada, as well as masterclasses at dozens of domestic and international tour stops.

After spring and summer performances of its 20th anniversary program Time Pieces: The New Classical, TCP brings the program to its first ever engagement in Riga, Latvia, performing at the Hanzas Perons cultural center on September 21, 2025. Reflecting on the passage of time through themes of heritage, history, and memory, the program features TCP-commissioned works by Jlin, Jessie Montgomery, and Tigran Hamasyan. In the season’s only North American performance of the program, TCP will bring Time Pieces: The New Classical to the Cleveland Institute of Music on March 22, 2026.

The quartet goes on to its first ever engagement in Podgorica, Montenegro, presented by the Jazz Art Association and the city of Podgorica’s Secretariat of Culture at the KIC “Budo Tomovic” cultural center on September 26, 2025. The program features the world premiere of David Mastikosa’s work Ancient Whisperer, along with compositions by Danny Clay, Clarice Assad, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Jlin, Jessie Montgomery, and Tigran Hamasyan. The concert will be preceded on September 25, 2025 by a matinee presentation of TCP’s family-oriented educational program, Think Outside the Drum.

TCP’s European tour continues with two dates in Paris at the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac on October 4 and 5, 2025. The program features TCP’s original arrangement of Philip Glass’s Aguas da Amazonia, a work the ensemble performed on tour with Twyla Tharp Dance Company last season.

The quartet returns to Europe for a final engagement on October 22, 2025, performing at the Bemus Festival in Belgrade, Serbia—reprising the program performed in Montenegro.

In a highlight of its North American schedule, Third Coast Percussion performs a special program for their Fall Benefit at Walden in Chicago on October 14, 2025, appearing alongside GRAMMY®-nominated composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist Clarice Assad. The intimate event features a conversation with Assad about her creative process and a performance by Assad and the quartet of works from their nearly ten years of partnership. TCP will also present the inaugural Resonance Award to Susan Noel, a passionate and generous supporter of the arts in Chicago and President of the Robert & Isabelle Bass Foundation, Inc. The Award honors Noel’s sustained support and advocacy for the arts in Chicago.

On October 17, 2025, at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for Performing Arts in Atlanta, TCP gives the season’s first performance of Murmurs in Time, the program they created and recorded in 2024 with the late tabla master Zakir Hussain. Now featuring tabla virtuoso Salar Nader, a disciple of Hussain’s, the touring program spotlights Hussain’s final composition alongside works by Jessie Montgomery, Jlin, and Tigran Hamasyan. Also titled Murmurs in Time, Hussain’s work for tabla and percussion quartet combines the beauty and complexity of Hindustani classical music with the singular sound world of Third Coast Percussion. The program also features Jessie Montgomery’s piece Lady Justice/Black Justice, The Song, Jlin’s composition Please Be Still, and Tigran Hamasyan’s three-movement work Sonata for Percussion—all commissioned for TCP’s 20th anniversary.

TCP will also perform the Murmurs in Time program on October 18, 2025 with Washington Performing Arts in Washington, DC; November 1, 2025 with Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA; and December 6, 2025 with CAP UCLA in Los Angeles.

As part of a string of North American touring dates, TCP joins the Allentown Symphony Orchestra on November 8 and 9, 2025 for a performance of PLAY!, Clarice Assad’s concerto for percussion quartet, vocals, and orchestra. This composition in three movements has been celebrated for Assad’s creative exploration of the meanings in the word “play”—from innocent fun, to the making of music, to the darker shades captured in such contexts as “playing with fire.” The program also includes works by Beethoven, Haydn, and Leroy Anderson.

TCP goes on to appear at Penn State Behrend in Erie, PA on November 10, 2025, for a performance of their program The Drum Also Sings, specially curated to upend perceptions of percussion with a spectacular showcase of the sounds percussion instruments can make—from exquisite melodies to driving drumbeats. The ensemble later brings The Drum Also Sings to Chicago, performing the program on February 25, 2026 at Nova Linea Musica—where the performance will also include world premiere works by JaRon Brown and Robert Dillon.

On November 14, 2025, Third Coast Percussion returns to its artists’ alma mater, Northwestern University, for a performance showcasing the works of Viet Cuong, the university’s resident composer. TCP will join the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble, along with fellow Chicago ensembles Eighth Blackbird and ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, in performing a trilogy of Cuong’s concerti grossi—the start of a weekend recording project sponsored in part through the Alumnae of Northwestern University.

In a pair of performances on November 22 and 23, 2025, TCP will be featured at Boston’s Celebrity Series, performing their original program Metamorphosis. This acclaimed evening-length program explores the duality of human nature through works by Jlin, Tyondai Braxton, and Philip Glass, combined with the choreography of Movement Art Is (Lil Buck and Jon Boogz) performed and interpreted by movement artists Trent Jeray and Cameron Murphy. The music from Metamorphosis will be performed later in the season as a standalone program, without dance, at the Francis Parker School in Chicago on May 14, 2026.

In the new year, TCP appears for a one-of-a-kind performance at the Art Institute of Chicago—Bruce Goff Piano Rolls—a celebration of the great Chicago architect’s use of actual player-piano rolls in his innovative cabinet designs. The performance will be held at the AIC’s Rubloff Auditorium on January 29, 2026.

TCP gives the season’s first performance of Strum, Strike, Bend, their program featuring music by composer Jessie Montgomery, at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA, on February 7, 2026. This acclaimed program introduced for TCP’s 20th anniversary season features Montgomery’s new work Lady Justice/Black Justice, The Song—composed for TCP—alongside Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra. The program also features works by Armenian jazz pianist Tigran Hamasyan and recent Pulitzer finalist and frequent TCP collaborator Jlin.

On February 13, 2026, TCP takes Strum, Strike, Bend to The 92nd Street Y in New York City, where they also perform the world premiere of a new work by Jlin, commissioned by 92NY.

Jlin joins Third Coast Percussion on February 19, 2026 for the debut performance of a new collaborative program at USCB Arts & Letters in Santa Barbara, CA. The program features acoustic interpretations of Jlin’s work by TCP and a live electronic set by Jlin, as well as a new piece by Jlin performed in its West Coast premiere by all five musicians on stage.

On March 13, 2026, Tigran Hamasyan joins the quartet for a performance at the University of Chicago, combining forces for a program that blends Hamasyan’s jazz improvisation and folk-inspired melodies with TCP’s percussive force.

The season concludes on June 11 and 12, 2026 with a special two-night edition of TCP’s annual Currents program at Constellation Chicago—expanded to a second evening based on sell-out performances in previous years. The program will feature three all-new pieces by Currents Creative Partnership composers, this year’s featured music creators in TCP’s signature initiative for innovative early-career composers.

In addition to its season of performances, TCP has announced its residency schedule for 2025-2026. At Denison University in Granville, OH, the ensemble holds two separate residencies scheduled for October 6 to 12, 2025 and April 20 to 26, 2026. They hold a residency at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada, from January 9 to 18, 2026.

Third Coast Percussion 2025-2026 Season

Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 6:00pm
Third Coast Percussion Concert at the Hansa Platform 
Hanzas Perons | Riga, Latvia 
Link: hanzasperons.lv/event/third-coast-percussion-koncerts-hanzas-perona/

Friday, September 26, 2025 at 8:00pm
Jazz Art Association
KIC “Budo Tomovic” | Podgorica, Montenegro 
Link: kicpodgorica.me/priznati-kvartet-iz-cikaga-third-coast-percussion-premijerno-u-kic-u/

Saturday, October 4, 2025 at 5:00pm
Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
Théâtre Claude Lévi-Strauss | Paris, France 
Link: www.quaibranly.fr/fr/expositions-evenements/au-musee/spectacles-fetes-et-evenements/concerts/details-de-levenement/e/philip-glass-aguas-da-amazonia

Sunday, October 5, 2025 at 8:00pm
Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac
Théâtre Claude Lévi-Strauss | Paris, France
Link: www.quaibranly.fr/fr/expositions-evenements/au-musee/spectacles-fetes-et-evenements/concerts/details-de-levenement/e/philip-glass-aguas-da-amazonia

Monday, October 6 to Sunday, October 12, 2025
Denison University Residency
Granville, OH 
Link: https://denison.edu/arts

Tuesday, October 14, 2025 at 6:00pm
Third Coast Percussion Fall Benefit at Walden
Walden Chicago | Chicago, IL
Link: https://thirdcoastpercussion.kindful.com/e/tcp-fall-benefit-2025

Friday, October 17, 2025 at 8:00pm
Candler Concert Series, Emory University: Murmurs in Time — Third Coast Percussion and Salar Nader, tabla
Schwartz Center for Performing Arts | Atlanta, GA  
Link: schwartz.emory.edu/tcp

Program:
Zakir Hussain – Murmurs in Time
Jessie Montgomery – Lady Justice/Black Justice, The Song
Jlin – Please Be Still
Tigran Hamasyan – Sonata for Percussion

Saturday, October 18, 2025 at 7:00pm 
Third Coast Percussion Featuring Salar Nader Presented by Washington Performing Arts 
Lisner Auditorium | Washington, DC
Link: www.washingtonperformingarts.org/event/third-coast-percussion-percussion-quartet/

Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at 8:00pm
Bemus Festival
Ložionica| Belgrade, Serbia
Link: www.bemus.rs/sr/program.html

Saturday, November 1, 2025 at 8:00pm
Third Coast Percussion & Salar Nader, tabla: Murmurs in Time
Zellerbach Hall | Berkeley, CA  
Link: calperformances.org/events/2025-26/new-music/third-coast-percussion-and-salar-nader-tabla-murmurs-in-time/

Program:

Zakir Hussain – Murmurs in Time
Jessie Montgomery – Lady Justice/Black Justice, The Song
Jlin – Please Be Still
Tigran Hamasyan – Sonata for Percussion

Saturday, November 8, 2025 at 7:30pm & Sunday, November 9, 2025 at 2:00pm
Third Coast Percussion PLAY! Concerto by Clarice Assad Presented by the Allentown Symphony Orchestra
Miller Symphony Hall | Allentown, PA  
Link: millersymphonyhall.org/event/beethovens-8th/

Program:
Ludwig Van Beethoven – Rondo in the Hungarian Style, Almost a Caprice
Franz Joseph Haydn – Andante from Symphony No. 94 “Surprise”
Leroy Anderson – The Typewriter
Clarice Assad – PLAY! Percussion Concerto
Ludwig Van Beethoven – Symphony No. 8

Monday, November 10, 2025 at 12:00pm
Penn State Behrend
McGarvey Commons, Reed Union Building | Erie, PA
Link: https://behrend.campuslabs.com/engage/event/11410658

Friday, November 14, 2025 at 7:30pm 
Northwestern Symphonic Wind Ensemble
Pick-Staiger Concert Hall | Evanston, IL
Link: www.music.northwestern.edu/events/symphonic-wind-ensemble-5?eventdate=1763170200

Program:
John and Jim
Third Coast Percussion – Re(new)al
Eighth Blackbird – Vital Sines
~Nois – Second Nature

Saturday, November 22, 2025 at 8:00pm & Sunday, November 23, 2025 at 3:00pm 
Celebrity Series: Third Coast Percussion Metamorphosis with Choreography by MAI (Movement Art Is: Lil Buck & Jon Boogz); performed and interpreted by Trent Jeray and Cameron Murphy 
Arrow Street Arts | Boston, MA
Link: www.celebrityseries.org/productions/third-coast-percussion-2025/

Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 8:00pm 
CAP UCLA Presents Third Coast Percussion and Salar Nader, tabla, in Murmurs in Time
Nimoy Theater | Los Angeles, CA
Link: cap.ucla.edu/event/third-coast-percussion-and-salar-nader-tabla

Friday, January 9 to Sunday, January 18, 2026
Banff Musicians in Residence Winter 2026
Banff Centre | Banff, Canada
Link: www.banffcentre.ca/programs/banff-musicians-residence-winter-2026

Thursday, January 29, 2026 at 5:30pm 
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, Rubloff Auditorium | Chicago, IL
Link: www.thirdcoastpercussion.com/event/art-institute-of-chicago/

Saturday, February 7, 2026 at 8:00pm 
Swarthmore College
Lang Concert Hall | Swarthmore, PA
Link: https://www.swarthmore.edu/music/third-coast-percussion-0

Program:
Jlin – Please Be Still
Jessie Montgomery (arr. Sean Connors) – Suite from In Color
Tigran Hamasyan – Sonata for Percussion
Jessie Montgomery – Lady Justice/Black Justice, The Song
Lou Harrison – Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra

Friday, February 13, 2026 at 7:30pm 
The 92nd Street Y Presents Jessie Montgomery, Jlin and Third Coast Percussion 
Kaufmann Concert Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.92ny.org/event/jessie-montgomery-jlin-and-third-coast-percussion
Streaming access is available for $25 for 72 hours after the performance.

Program:
Jlin – Please Be Still
Jessie Montgomery – Lady Justice/Black Justice, The Song
Tigran Hamasyan – Sonata for Percussion
Jessie Montgomery (arr. Sean Connors) – Suite from In Color
Lou Harrison – Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra
Jlin – New Work for TCP & Jlin [World Premiere; 92NY Commission]

Thursday, February 19, 2026 at 8:00pm 
UCSB Arts & Lectures
Campbell Hall | Santa Barbara, CA
Link: artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/events-tickets/events/25-26/jlin-and-third-coast-percussion/

Wednesday, February 25, 2026 at 6:30pm 
Nova Linea Musica Presents Third Coast Percussion in The Drum Also Sings
Merit School of Music – Gottlieb Hall | Chicago, IL
Link: www.novalineamusica.org/event/third-coast-percussion---drum

Program:
JaRon Brown – New Work [World Premiere, NLM Commission]
Robert Dillon – New Work
Andrea Venet – Bulldog 
Ivan Trevino – Watercolor Sun 
Jessie Montgomery – Study No. 1
Jlin – Derivative 
Augusta Read Thomas – New Work
Steve Reich – Music for Pieces of Wood 
Alexis Lamb – Matters / Mind 

Friday, March 13, 2026 at 7:30pm 
UChicago Presents Tigran Hamasyan & Third Coast Percussion
Logan Center for the Arts | Chicago, IL
Link: chicagopresents.uchicago.edu/concerts-and-events/tigran-hamasyan-third-coast-percussion

Sunday, March 22, 2026 at 3:00pm 
Cleveland Institute of Music
Cleveland Institute of Music | Cleveland, OH
Link: www.thirdcoastpercussion.com/event/cleveland-institute-of-music/

Monday, April 20 to Sunday, April 26, 2026
Denison University Residency Week #2
Denison University | Granville, OH
Link: https://denison.edu/arts 

Thursday, May 14, 2026 at 7:00pm 
The Parker School Presents the 9th Annual Joan W. Harris Visiting Music Scholar in Residence: Third Coast Percussion
Francis W. Parker School | Chicago, IL
Link: www.fwparker.org/joan-w-harris-visiting-music-scholar-in-residence

Thursday, June 11 & Friday, June 12, 2026 at 8:30pm
Currents at Constellation
Constellation Chicago | Chicago, IL
Link: www.thirdcoastpercussion.com/event/currents-at-constellation-7/

More About Third Coast Percussion
Third Coast Percussion (TCP) is Chicago’s GRAMMY® Award-winning percussion quartet and GRAMMY®-nominated composer collective that made history as the first percussion ensemble to win the revered music award in the classical genre. To date, TCP has garnered seven total GRAMMY® nominations.

After marking its 20th Anniversary in 2025, TCP continues its milestone celebrations with exciting and unexpected performances worldwide that “constantly redefine the classical music experience” (Forbes) and “push percussion in new directions, blurring musical boundaries and beguiling new listeners” (NPR), with a brilliantly varied sonic palette and “dazzling rhythmic workouts” (Pitchfork).

Representing “one of the most enterprising and creative ensembles working today” (WFMT), the artists of Third Coast Percussion are in-demand collaborators who have worked closely with a range of artists including choreographers Twyla Tharp, Lil Buck, and Jon Boogz; composer/performers Zakir Hussain, Jessie Montgomery, and Jlin; and composers Philip Glass, Missy Mazzoli, and Danny Elfman, among many others. The ensemble has been praised for the “rare power” (Washington Post) of its 30 recordings, and its “inspirational sense of fun and curiosity” (Minnesota Star-Tribune).

The 2025–2026 season takes the ensemble from Chicago to New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and beyond, with almost two dozen domestic engagements. International tour dates include first performances in Serbia, Montenegro, and Latvia, plus engagements in Paris. In Chicago, TCP performs at The Art Institute of Chicago, The University of Chicago, and more. The ensemble also conducts residencies at Denison University in Ohio and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada, as well as masterclasses at dozens of tour stops. TCP’s new tour programs include 20th Anniversary commissions by Zakir Hussain, Jessie Montgomery, Tigran Hamasyan, and more. 

Known for its devoted audience engagement, TCP has performed live in 41 of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., plus international tour dates across four continents and 13 countries, amassing more than 300,000 total audience members. Its artists are also accomplished teachers who have developed a wealth of K-12 workshops, family programming, and educational partnerships benefiting thousands of Chicago students.

TCP has commissioned and premiered new works from Zakir Hussain, Jessie Montgomery, Philip Glass, Clarice Assad, Danny Elfman, Jlin, Tigran Hamasyan, Augusta Read Thomas, Devonté Hynes, Missy Mazzoli, Ivan Trevino, Tyondai Braxton, and leading early-career composers through their annual Currents Creative Partnership. Commissions from many of these artists feature in TCP’s extensive discography. Jlin’s Perspective, a TCP commission, was a 2023 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The ensemble has also produced exciting new art through unlikely collaborations with engineers, architects, and dancers. With strong ties throughout Chicago, Third Coast has collaborated with many of the city’s cultural and civic institutions.

TCP’s recordings include 21 feature albums and appearances on 14 additional collaborative releases. Besides putting its stamp on iconic percussion works by John Cage and Steve Reich—including its GRAMMY®-winning album of Steve Reich’s works for percussion—the quartet has created recordings of numerous TCP-commissioned works and original compositions. During the 2024–2025 season, they released two new acclaimed albums: Aguas da Amazonia (Rockwell Records), capturing TCP’s bespoke arrangement for Twyla Tharp Dance of the title work by Philip Glass, and Standard Stoppages (Cedille Records), the ensemble’s 20th Anniversary album.

The four members of Third Coast Percussion (Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and David Skidmore) met while studying percussion at Northwestern University and formed the ensemble in 2005. Members of Third Coast also hold degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Rutgers University, the New England Conservatory and the Yale School of Music.

Follow Third Coast on Instagram (@ThirdCoastPercussion), YouTube (@thirdcoastpercussion), TikTok (@thirdcoastpercussion), Facebook (@Third Coast Percussion), and LinkedIn (linkedin.com/company/third-coast-percussion).

*Third Coast Percussion is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization.

*Photo Credit: Saverio Truglia