By Russell Fisher
Invited annually, graduate schools of music present the Presser Graduate Music Award to an outstanding graduate music student whom they select. The program is designed to encourage and support in a special way the advanced education and career of truly exceptional graduate music students who have the potential to make a distinguished contribution to the field of music. The Award is a cash stipend of up to $10,000, which is made available to a graduate student designated by the institution.
Russell Fisher received the Award in 2021-22 from Yale University. For his project, he commissioned and recorded compositions on the steel pan to promote recognition of the instrument and highlight underrepresented composers.
Background
When I began my undergraduate studies in percussion at New York University, I instantly fell in love with the steel pan. Each Sunday, I would eagerly await our steel band rehearsals as they provided a musical release that I had not found in other ensembles. The music was infectious and the rich timbres of the instrument are unlike any other I had experienced. Over the four years I spent at NYU, I had the privilege to join panorama Steel orchestras in Brooklyn during the summers. I experienced the steel pan’s unique culture firsthand and became even more enamored with the instrument. The community I was welcomed into without hesitation inspired a musical ethos I would strive to live by in my musical life.
Since then, I have constantly sought out opportunities to bring the steel pan into the classical contemporary concert hall. Having performed works by Andy Akiho, Steven Mackey, and Gabriela Ortiz, I have found myself wanting to contribute to the expansion of the repertoire of the instrument in contemporary music.
Project Goal and Focus
My mission has been twofold: first, I wish to expand the steel pan repertoire so I can reach a wider audience. Second, I wish to uplift the voices of a culture that has been suppressed throughout much of its existence. Only recently has the steel pan started to be considered more than a novelty instrument in classical music.
As part of the Award, I commissioned three composers of various backgrounds to write solos for double seconds steel pans (pans composed of two barrels and in a lower range than lead pans). I chose Liam Teague, a Professor of Music and Head of Steelpan studies at Northern Illinois University, where he also directs the renowned NIU Steelband; Sophia Jani, a relatively new composer from Berlin whose music is impressive based on its emotional capacity, modern blend of genres, intellectual stimulation, and immediate accessibility; and Soomin Kim, an innovative and emerging composer from South Korea.
By commissioning these remarkable composers to write for this unique instrument, I have been able to have an innovative and exciting program to market. This has allowed me to set myself apart from many of the artists in my field, and carve out a niche area in contemporary percussion performance. Furthermore, by commissioning two women and one composer from Trinidad, I have been able to fulfill my artistic mission to contribute to a discipline-wide initiative of giving voice to people who have previously been otherwise underrepresented in contemporary classical music. It is important that I commission music directly from the culture the steel pan primarily exists in, but also to help propel it into the forefront of the contemporary percussion field. For this reason, I chose a composer who grew up in the tradition contrasted by two young composers who are new and original voices in contemporary music.
Commissions & Recording
Teague wrote a new piece titled “Darkness” that was completed in January 2023. I have already been able to book several performances in the past year (more on that below). Jani composed a new solo called “For Steelpan” for double seconds with pre-recorded electronics, and Kim wrote a titled “Five Prayers.” I hired Four/Ten Media LLC to create professional performance videos of the new works, and we recorded them over Summer 2023 at Rittenhouse Soundworks in Philadelphia.
Throughout the commissioning and recording process, I have also developed new ways to approach demonstrating and teaching composers some of the idiomatic ways to write for the instrument, and the path to access characteristics of its beauty.
Impact
This project has already granted me numerous opportunities to help launch my career as both a performer and educator. I traveled to and performed Liam Teague’s new solo “Darkness” in Boston, MA, Bridgeport, CT and Huntington, NY. In Boston, I performed the piece as part of a small New Music workshop where I was able to network with other new composers, and already have plans to collaborate in the future. Furthermore, I have plans to perform the set of pieces at the Sandbox Percussion Summer Seminar at Mannes in the summer of 2024. I believe that once I finish the recordings this summer, I will continue to gain opportunities to perform these works at several other schools.
As an educator, I accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Bridgeport beginning in the summer of 2023. A large part of my teaching portfolio centers around the history and performance of steel pan. Through this project I have not only been able to work with each composer and develop a relationship professionally, but also to begin to make an impact in the creation of a repertoire for the steelpan in the contemporary music landscape. In the case of Sophia Jani and Soomin Kim, who both never wrote for the steelpan before, have expressed interest in collaborating on future projects involving the instrument.
With steel pan as a centerpiece of my pedagogical portfolio, I believe that I will be able to put my mission into action. I will be able to blend the styles of rote teaching from the Trinidadian steel orchestra tradition with the precision driven techniques I honed at Yale during my studies to help students flourish in a time where music itself is becoming more malleable than ever.
This project has not only positively affected my life as an emerging voice in contemporary music, but also amplified the voice of an instrument that has been supremely underestimated since its beginning. The steel pan comes from a culture full of fervency for music making, passion for education, and, most importantly, a devotion to community. I have always cited my experiences in the panyards of Brooklyn as the source of my spirit as a collaborator, chamber musician, and human being.
The support I received from The Presser Foundation has given me a springboard to continue being at the center of the blossoming steel pan art form in a way that I can affect change both in my communities and that of my students.
Russell Fisher is a percussionist and educator. As an emerging voice in the contemporary music landscape, Fisher has commissioned new works for many mediums.
As a chamber musician, Fisher has been featured in the Yale Percussion Group, Yale In New York Concert Series at Carnegie Hall, on the Brooklyn Bound Series, Sō Percussion Summer Institute, and the Oneppo Chamber Music Series at the Yale School of Music. Fisher is a co-founder of several chamber music groups including a percussion quartet, percussion duo, and viola-percussion duo. As a soloist, he has performed with the NYU Symphony Orchestra, Greater Bridgeport Youth Symphony, and NYU Chamber Music Ensemble.
In education, Fisher currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music, Director of Ensembles at the University of Bridgeport where he has piloted new courses and established UB Steel, the new steel band. As an active teaching artist in the northeast, Fisher has worked in the New Haven Public Schools, Queensbury Public Schools, Yellow Barn “Music Haul,” Margret Brown Elementary School in Baltimore, and Celia Cruz High School in the Bronx among others.
Fisher earned a Master of Musical Arts Degree from the Yale School of Music, a Master of Music Degree from the Peabody Institute at the John’s Hopkins University and a Bachelor of Music Degree from New York University. Currently, he is a Doctorate of Musical Arts Candidate at the Yale School of Music.
