Iktus Percussion

Based in New York City, IKTUS PERCUSSION is an ambitious, dynamic young ensemble committed to expanding the boundaries of the percussion genre. Iktus is a collective-based operation, featuring an array of industrious and multi-talented percussionists with Chris Graham, Justin Wolf, Josh Perry, Sean Statser, and Piero Guimaraes at the core. As a group with strong ties to the local artistic community, Iktus is dedicated to collaboration with emerging artists, having commissioned over fifty new works for percussion from such composers as Daniel Wohl, Lisa R. Coons, Aaron Siegel, Paul Pinto, Angélica Negrón, Jenny Olivia Johnson, Stefan Weisman, and Billy Martin (of Medeski, Martin and Wood), among others.

With an exciting and diverse range of repertoire, Iktus has performed at such venues and festivals as the Bang on A Can Marathon, Galapagos Arts Space, Le Poisson Rouge, National Sawdust, Roulette, Issue Project Room, Symphony Space, The Tank, and Trinity Church. Iktus has been appointed to several residencies including SUNY Purchase College (where they performed Laura Kaminsky’s Terra Terribilis, a concerto for percussion quartet and orchestra), CUNY Brooklyn College, and the Pre-College Music Program at Stony Brook University. As performer-educators, Iktus has also performed concerts and hosted master classes at the Eastman School of Music, Oberlin College, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Michigan, University of Western Michigan, Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University, William Paterson University, Western Washington University, University of Washington, and Onondaga Community College, as well as various public schools.

Community outreach and public performance is an essential aspect of Iktus’ mission: in September of 2011, Iktus performed an exciting all-percussion outdoor concert in Fort Greene Park, including works by Steve Reich, Julia Wolfe, and Iannis Xenakis, as well as Stockhausen’s Musik im Bauch in Central Park as part of Make Music New York in 2012.

Iktus was selected as a Time Out New York Critic’s Pick: Top Ten Concert of the Year in 2010, received critical acclaim from the New York Times for their performance with the St. Petersburg Chamber Symphony in the “Wall to Wall” series: Music of the Soviet ERA and a concert of selected works of John Cage at Le Poisson Rouge, and sold out the final evening of the 2012 Gaudeamus Muziek week at Issue Project Room. Iktus is endorsed by Vic Firth and Black Swamp Percussion.