Evanescence by Austin Keck
3DP is commissioning Austin to write a percussion quartet Evanescence for all four of us! The recording of the new commission will be released during the summer of 2023.
contact us at threedpercussion@gmail.com for more information!
Statement from Composer:
Evanescence, for percussion quartet, is composed for 3D percussion trio in collaboration with Austin Keck. The piece follows a narrative arch that is evanescent in nature, both in its form and musical motifs. The idea of music slowly disappearing and dissipating into nothing has always fascinated me, which serves as the main inspiration for this piece. Many ideas presented are developed only to be quickly faded out of the texture and on to the next idea. The congruence of each idea lies in manipulation, and the fabrication of new motives through a common thread. As you listen to the piece, my goal is that the audience is taken on an experience that is linear in form, but memorable for the emotion and feeling it evokes rather than the thematic or motivic material. In the end there is a return of the opening material but only to fade quickly into oblivion and forgotten forever.
PASIC 2022 performance of Austin’s piece Passage to an Uncharted World
About Austin:
Austin Keck is an American percussionist, composer and arranger from Dallas, TX who specializes in contemporary solo and chamber music. As an active performer, Keck has performed all over the United States, and been the featured soloist on numerous concerts and festivals such as the Music for All Summer Symposium in Indianapolis, IN, and the National Percussion Festival in Indianapolis, IN.
As a composer, Keck strives to push the technical and musical boundaries of classical percussion repertoire and discover new ways of incorporating electronics in music. In November 2022 Keck’s percussion ensemble Passage to an Uncharted World was premiered by the Eastman Percussion Ensemble at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. In addition to this, Keck’s most recent work Reversion, commissioned by pax duo was premiered in November 2022 at Indiana Wesleyan University. Keck’s unequivocally contemporary voice has led him to pursue a career in film composition, aiming to bridge the gap between concert and visual music.
Keck has had tremendous success in his career in several international competitions including 1st prize at the Great Plains International Marimba Competition 2019 and 2016, 1st prize at the 2019 Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition, and the prestigious Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Keck has performed in a variety of musical genres such as the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps, where he received two Fred Sanford percussion caption awards, and a gold and silver medal at the Drum Corps International World Championships 2017 and 2018.
Keck holds a Bachelors of Music, Minor in Audio and Music Engineering at the Eastman School of Music, and is currently pursing a Masters of Music in Contemporary Media and Film Composition at the Eastman School of Music.
Keck is a Malletech Performing Artist.