Concerts

Beyond his over 90 commercial recordings as principal timpani of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Liuzzi can be heard on several Decca releases with Seiji Ozawa's Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra, with which he has been a guest timpanist for 12 seasons. As a former percussionist with the Network for New Music, and also for area composers, he has recorded contemporary chamber works for the CRI, Crystal, and Albany labels. His percussion solo and chamber CD release from 2012, Movement in Time (Equilibrium), is volume I of the Philadelphia Percussion Project. This first volume features music by Maurice Wright, Maurice Rissman, and William Kraft. Volume II, Zones, was released in May 2015 and is a Philadelphia Orchestra percussion group (POPG) recording featuring Jennifer Higdon's Zones, as well as six other world premiere recordings including his own composition, Seoul Spirit. A participating musician in the documentary film, Music from the Inside Out (2005), Mr. Liuzzi also served as the film's coordinating producer and was integral in helping develop the accompanying middle school teaching curriculum published by Alfred Books. The feature length film by Anker Productions, which features The Philadelphia Orchestra, was re-released digitally on iTunes in June 2013 and is also available on Netflix. Mr. Liuzzi's other electronic media activity (under his company name of Beat the Drum Entertainment, Inc.) has included two other CD projects with the DePue Brothers Band: performing drums and singing, and executive producing Weapons of Grass Construction and their latest album, When It's Christmas Time, released in December 2013.

Mr. Liuzzi has given master classes at most major music schools throughout the United States and in Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, Korea, Japan, and China. He has been a percussion and timpani coach at the National Orchestral Institute, the New World Symphony, the Pacific Music Festival, the Canton International Summer Music Academy, the Lindenbaum Music Festival (in Korea), the Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and the National Youth Orchestra USA run by Carnegie Hall. He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in January 1994. He has also held faculty positions at Rowan University and guest faculty status at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the Manhattan School of Music. Mr. Liuzzi just completed 10 years as music director of the Philadelphia All City High School Orchestra, and is founding conductor of the Curtis Institute's 20-21 New Music Ensemble.

Mr. Liuzzi's early orchestral experience included the Flint Symphony, the Michigan Opera Theater Orchestra, and the Colorado Philharmonic. He has also played in the Spoleto Festival Orchestra for three seasons and was a Tanglewood Fellow in 1980. In July 1996 he made his solo debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, and his subscription solo debut in January 1998. Having consulted with Yamaha for over 20 years on the development of professional timpani and percussion, he is a Yamaha Performing Artist with a highly regarded Yahama Global Youtube interview and performance. He is married with two adult daughters.

Mr. Grimm attended Northwestern University where he majored in trombone performance, studying with Michael Mulcahy, Doug Wright, Tim Higgins, Randy Hawes, and Christopher Davis. During college, he performed in the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and the Big Band, and he performed and recorded with the DW Jazz Orchestra, the Brian Eng Jazz Orchestra, and the Andy Baker Orchestra. After his undergraduate, he spent a year in New York City performing with regional orchestras and studying with Colin Williams of the New York Philharmonic at the Manhattan School of Music. In the summer of 2023, Mr. Grimm was a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, performing on trombone and bass trumpet with the Aspen Festival Orchestra. Outside of performing, he enjoys hiking, writing music, as well as playing and watching tennis.

The Concertino for Trombone is filled with the finest elements of the German Romantic period, combining rhythmical motifs characteristic of Beethoven with the lyricism of Mendelssohn. Skillfully interwoven into the composition is music that enables the trombonist to portray a broad range of expressive styles, from pure brassy bravado to soft, lyrical singing. From the outset, the first movement displays the giant expressive range of the trombone, alternating from flashy technical passages to sweet lyrical phrases. A short, operatic recitative brings the movement to a close, leading without pause into the second movement, subtitled funeral march. In the words of one commentator, “the soloist [in the second movement] seems to be playing the part of the eulogist, contrasting deep despair with fond remembrances.” The third movement, also begun without a pause between it and the previous movement, recalls material presented in the first movement, coupled with further development. A flashy, triumphant coda brings the work to a close.

Movement 2 is delightful nod to his ballet composing side, and was actually a wedding march in his unpublished opera, Undina. It has a tuneful folk song, Spin O my Spinner, in E flat major. It starts with a gentle ostinato timpani “walk” followed by the pleasing happy “Spinner” melody. Development of this melody again comes in the form of varying the orchestration and dynamics from very soft to a full-out boisterous orchestral declaration. Like the first movement, we return to the quiet timpani “walk” where the “Spinner” melody gets stated in somewhat broken phrases as it quietly comes to an apologetic close.

Movement 3 is a flat-out roller coaster ride of a scherzo, that wildly unfolds itself in small phrases that morph into related tonalities. A trio section (again) is a nod to his ballet writing proclivity, now in a gentle 2 beat feel. After this “trio” we return to the wild material of the scherzo, with its chromatic descending accompaniment that reminds one of a thrilling somewhat “scary” Halloween ride!

Movement 4 is a theme and variation of a joyful folk song titled The Crane, and is a “tour-de-force” for an orchestra at the peak of its powers, propelling itself to a triumphant close.