Music Lecturer Murray Mast and Resident Artist Christopher Swist were performers on Cantaloupe Music’s premier recording of Inuksuit by John Luther Adams. This recording has made NPR Classical’s 10 Favorite Albums of 2013, the New York Times’ Favorite Classical Recordings of 2013, the Boston Globe’s Best Albums of 2013,  The New Yorker’s Notable Classical Recordings of 2013, and the New Music Box’s 2013 Staff Picks. This piece is scored for a battery of percussion instruments (from nine to 99 musicians) dispersed throughout a large space. Each performance of the work varies depending on location and number of instruments: This version was recorded in the woods in Guilford, Vermont. KSC Percussion Ensemble staged Inuksuit on Appian Way back in 2011, and it will be performed again this year around Brickyard Pond on May 2.

How did these two faculty members become performers on the recording? Swist first played in the piece at its New York City premier at the Park Avenue Armory in Feb 2011. “Inspired, I had the KSC Percussion Ensemble perform the New Hampshire premier of Inuksuit on Appian Way in April of 2011,” Swist explained. In June 2011, Mast joined with a group of 99 musicians for an outdoor performance at New York City’s Morningside Park. “Eventually a smaller group (30) was formed to do the recording at Guilford Sound in Vermont in June 2012, which included both Murray and me, and that’s how we ended up on this critically acclaimed recording,” Swist said.