Percurama Percussion Ensemble

Denmark's Percurama Percussion Ensemble is a versatile group whose membership ranges from two to 25 musicians, as required by the music. The group is active in many artistic forms, including contemporary percussion music, modern dance, world music (including Indonesian gamelan), children's music, trash percussion, musical theater, choral music with percussion, and the accompaniment of real-time painting. The Percurama Percussion Ensemble was created by Gert Mortensen, the former principal percussionist of the Danish Royal Orchestra, internationally prominent solo percussionist, and professor of percussion at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Its membership has been a flexible, rotating group that has featured many participants in Denmark's percussion scene, including both students and teachers associated with the Academy. The group is sometimes known as the Royal Danish Academy of Music Percussion Ensemble Percurama, or simply as Percurama. "One thing all Percurama activities share," the group members write, "is the fascination with the ritual power of drums, pulse and rhythm that is created by a blend of sounds, sound-effects and the use of a large number of instruments." Percurama has toured Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. At home, the group joined the choir Ars Nova for a performance of John Cage's Song Books at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark; the performance also included electronics and actors. For larger works, the Percurama Percussion Ensemble relies on an ongoing collaboration with conductor and contemporary music specialist Jean Thorel, enabling the group to perform music with large numbers of percussion parts, including Edgard Varèse's Ionisation, Lou Harrison's Labyrinth No. 3, Gérard Grisey's Le noir de l'étoile, and Alberto Ginastera’s Cantata para América Mágica, Op. 27 (with 53 parts). Percurama has also collaborated with contemporary composers such as Per Nørgård and Askell Masson. The Percurama Percussion Ensemble has made several recordings, beginning with one of Nørgård's A Light Hour for the Dacapo label in 2010. In 2021, with Thorel conducting, the group release American Percussion Music: Cage, Ginastera, Harrison, Varèse. Percurama has also appeared with Mortensen on DVDs featuring the music of composer Axel Borup-Jørgensen.
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