Third Coast Lullaby is a study about pulses, about those little temporal units that are traditionally associated with stability. One just has to think of a metronome, or a clicking analogue clock: pulses mark and measure time. In Third Coast Lullaby they very slowly begin to drift, though, and while the hierarchy of strong and weak beats loosens, we as listeners are less and less certain how these markers of time relate. The piece thus enters an almost dreamlike state, where temporal order vanishes as fast as it appears, eventually being replaced almost entirely by ever-transforming waves of sound.

Hans Thomalla  is currently a fellow at the Accademia Tedesca di Roma Villa Massimo.

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The event will take place on the auditorium rooftop.
Free admission until capacity is reached.

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Hans Thomalla is a German American composer living in Chicago and Berlin. A particular focus of his work lies in music for the stage. He has written four operas, Fremd (Stuttgart Opera 2011), Kaspar Hauser (Freiburg and Augsburg Opera 2016), Dark Spring, and Dark Fall (both Mannheim Opera 2020 and 2024). He studied at the Frankfurt Musikhochschule and received his doctoral degree in composition from Stanford University. From 1999-2002 he was Assistant Dramaturge and Musical Advisor at the Stuttgart Opera. Thomalla is the Helen A. Regenstein Professor of Composition at the University of Chicago, and he has served for many years on the composition faculty of the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. Thomalla has received numerous awards and fellowships, including the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis, a Koussevitsky Commission, a Fromm Comission, the Composer Prize of the Ernst v. Siemens Music Foundation, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. During the academic year 2014/15 he was a fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and in 2024/25 he is a winner of the German Rome Prize, staying as a Fellow at the Academia Tedesca Villa Massimo.  Hans Thomalla is the co-founder of the Chicago based record label Sideband Records.

Blow Up Percussion is an ensemble of percussionists born in 2012 in Rome. On the one hand it interprets the modern and contemporary repertoire, on the other it offers innovations born from collaborations with composers, groups and musicians of different origins. Among the collaborations: the composers F. Filidei, V. Montalti, B.Dessner, C. Cerrone, L.Durupt, F.Antonioni ; the ensembles PMCE and Prometeo, the London duo Plaid, the cellist Mario Brunello. From the twentieth century repertoire, the ensemble is characterized by the interpretation of the works of Steve Reich and David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, John Luther Adams. With Vittorio Montalti he created"The Smell of Blue Electricity for percussion quartet and electronics, a long-term work on the relationship between electronics and performers and the album of this work was released by Col Legno in 2024 , and this year the album resulting from the collaboration with Chris Cerrone will be released. The group performed at the Romaeuropa Festival, Ravenna Festival, GRAME Lyon, MITO, MA/IN, Tallinn, Tempo Reale, Nuova Consonanza, Cantiere Internazionale D'Arte, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, L'Arsenale, Traiettorie, Contemporanea, Half-Die.