Hello, and welcome! I’m thrilled to be sharing this new website and want to thank my good friend David Pensato for making this happen along with Lucas Pauls for creating the BR logo. I feel that this site represents a new phase in my life, maybe a turning point where I better understand what it is I want to do musically and creatively. If nothing else, it is simply a new look and a more informative site.
This blog is about the drumset and my experiences with the relatively new genre of contemporary solo drumset music that I have been researching, performing and commissioning over the past few years. I hope to create an open dialogue with other drummers and composers, sharing ideas about performing, writing and developing contemporary drumset music.
What is Contemporary music? I don’t really know… This music has been described as Classical, Modern, 21st Century or Art Music. I can confuse things even more by putting all of these terms together for one long definition: Contemporary music is written by modern composers (living in the 21st century) using classical music techniques, usually performed in a concert hall or art music stage.
However you define it, this is the world I live in and where I choose to find a place for my instrument, the drumset. I look forward to digging deeper into this topic in future posts, defining the new role of drumset in contemporary music and sharing experiences along the way.
Here is one of the “classics” of the contemporary solo drumset repertoire by James Dillon called “Ti-Re-Ti-Ke-Dha”.
Ben Reimer 