I have some unexpected and wonderful news to share – Sandbox Percussion has just been awarded a 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant. This honor is granted to a group of performers and ensembles each year, and the list of past winners includes many incredible artists that I’ve looked up to for years. We are the first percussion ensemble to receive this honor in the program’s 50-year history, and we are quite blown away by this recognition.

One of the reasons that we started this ensemble is to do what we can to expand the reach of percussion chamber music. When we began in 2011, others had started to pave the way for us – Nexus, So Percussion, Amanda, Third Coast Percussion, and others – and we made it our business to put this music that we cared deeply about in front of as many people as we could.

When we started this little ensemble 13 years ago, I don’t think we ever could have imagined some of the amazing things that would happen to us, and the way our brand of collaboration and music-making would resonate. We’re not finished yet – among other things, this award comes with a generous grant, that can be used towards any artistic purpose that will further our career. We’re going to use part of this grant to commission a new piece – a forthcoming work from Andy Akiho, a continuation of the collaborative work that we’ve started with Seven Pillars.

Last night, we played a short performance, along with our fellow awardees, at The Greene Space in NYC. You can read more about the award and watch the performance here.