Dressage, Canada
Karen Yu, Percussion
Katelyn King, Percussion
Austin Lamarche, Percussion
Inspired by Mauricio Kagel’s theatrical work, Dressur, the trio Dressage became whole through the creative, collaborative, and unique process of forming their interpretation of Dressur in October of 2014 at McGill University.
The members (Karen Yu, Austin Lamarche, Katelyn King) all come from varying backgrounds of culture and education, but come together to champion historical theatrical works by composers such as Thierry De Mey, Georges Aperghis, and Mauricio Kagel. In Spring 2015, Dressage was honoured to work with Jean-Pierre Drouet, who, as member of the Trio Le Cercle worked closely with these prominent French composers to premiere influential theatrical percussion works.
Based mainly in Montréal, part of Dressage’s mission is to tour these rarely performed works around the world. Future performances include festivals in Hong Kong as well as schools in China, Canada, and the United States. Dressage was recently awarded second prize in the McGill Sound Recording Competition, allowing us to compile a video collection of theatrical works, including Dressur. The trio will return again to Montréal to perform Dressur at the 2015 Transplanted Roots Percussion Symposium.
Dressage hopes to inspire musicians and non-musicians to question the borders between music and theatre, and to collaborate with composers to write new works for this medium. Although Dressage is a relatively newly formed group, we have already commissioned a piece by McGill composer, Zihua Tan entitled Silent Spring, which received its premiere by the McGill Percussion Ensemble in April 2015.
