Pete's Percussion Podcast - Pete Zambito Pete Zambito

Minneapolis-based percussionist Eri Isomura returns to talk about how she recovered from overuse injuries physically and mentally after undergrad (02:05), her time as a grad student at the Boston Conservatory (MA), studying with great teachers, attending summer festivals, and why it’s so challenging to have a performance career in Boston (12:55), and finishes with the Random Ass Questions segment, including portions on being a woman in the field of percussion, Japanese food, great books, private Karaoke rooms, and Andy Warhol (34:30).
Finishing with a Rave on the 1975 film Nashville (01:11:00).
Eri Isomura Links:
Eri Isomura’s Website
10th Wave Collective
Previous Podcast Guests mentioned:
Matt McClung in 2022
Keith Aleo in 2020
Other Links:
“Velocities” - Joseph Schwantner
“Merlin” - Andrew Thomas
“Reflections on the Nature of Water” - Jacob Druckman
“Psappha” - Iannis Xenakis
Piano Sonata No. 3 in F Minor - Johannes Brahms
“See Ya Thursday” - Steve Mackey
Nancy Zeltsman
Sam Solomon
Doug Perkins
Okonomiyaki
Arrival trailer
Parasite trailer
Snakes on a Plane trailer
Speak, Okinawa - Elizabeth Miki Brina
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me - Bess Kalb
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
Crazy Rich Asians trilogy - Kevin Kwan
Born a Crime - Trevor Noah
“Don’t Stop Believin’” - Journey
Andy Warhol - “Art is what you can get away with”
Raves:
Nashville trailer

Minneapolis (MN)-based freelance percussionist and educator Eri Isomura stops by to discuss her freelancing work, 10th Wave Music, networking, and the amount of planning needed to put it all together (03:40), her responsibilities when she taught at St. Olaf (MN), changes in her life once she became a mom, and the “Three M’s of Freelancing” (22:30), more about 10th Wave Collective and her entrepreneurship training in Boston (33:25), growing up in Minneapolis, her father the cellist, and her extensive piano background (42:20), and discusses her time as an undergrad at St. Olaf, the development of one’s musical taste, and how to create great sound from percussion instruments (56:45).
Finishing with a Rave on the 2022 book Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library (01:15:00).
Eri Isomura Links:
Eri Isomura’s website
10th Wave Collective
Previous Podcast Guests mentioned:
Matt McClung in 2022
Matthew Coley in 2021
Other Links:
Heartland Marimba
Peter Klatzow
Doodle
LettuceMeet
Dave Hagedorn
Nancy Zeltsman
Black Lives Matter
American Composers Forum
New Music U.S.A.
Piano Concerto No. 3 - Sergei Prokofiev
Piano Concerto No. 23 - W.A. Mozart
Ballade No. 1 - Frederic Chopin
Piano Concerto No. 3 - Sergei Rachmaninov
“Merlin” - Andrew Thomas
The Golden Girls TV theme song
Sonatas and Interludes - John Cage
American Songbook No. 1 - George Crumb
Raves:
Overdue: Reckoning with the Public Library - Amanda Oliver

Allen Otte returns to talk about getting to Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, taking over the percussion program, establishing the Percussion Group Cincinnati at the school, and building a program (01:40), the changing personnel of PGC, commissioning composers, performing with students, being the “institutional memory”, and his decision to retire (17:15), and finishes with the Random Ass Questions, including segments on percussion literature choices, “Otte-speak”, diversity issues, The Met Opera Online, English novels, sports in the 1960s, and Renaissance Choral Music (38:10).
Finishing with a Rave on Nick Tosches’ 2005 book on Arnold Rothstein (01:12:05).
Allen Otte Links:
Part 1 with Allen Otte
The Innocents
Percussion Group Cincinnati
Other Links:
Ben Toth
Jack Brennan
Bill Youhass
Herbert Brün
“Third Construction” - John Cage
Mark Saya
Lou Harrison
Tár trailer
Eugene Onegin - Piotr Tchaikovsky
Middlemarch - George Eliot
Jane Austen
Thomas Hardy
Charles Dickens
The 1960s Green Bay Packers
Warren Spahn
Henry Aaron
Lift-Off - Russell Peck
“Ave Maria” - Josquin des Prez
“Sick cervus” - Giovanni da Palestrina
“Ave Maria” - Tomás Luis de Victoria
Raves:
King of the Jews - Nick Tosches

Retired Cincinnati Conservatory of Music Professor, co-founder of BlackEarth Percussion Group and the Percussion Group Cincinnati, and performing percussionist Allen Otte stops by to talk about his current work with an early music improvisational group and The Innocents Project with John Lane (03:50), growing up in Sheboygan, WI, playing in church and with polka bands, his beginnings in piano and percussion, and studying with Michael Rosen (32:20), attending Oberlin (OH) for undergrad and getting into improvisation and new chamber music (43:50), and his work with BlackEarth, “inhaling music” vs. building repertoire and programs, and eventually making his way to CCM (56:40).
Finishing with a Rave on Ireland, its people, and its parades (01:17:30).
Allen Otte Links:
Percussion Group Cincinnati’s PAS Hall of Fame page
The Innocents
Previous Podcast Guest Mentioned:
John Lane in 2023
Other Links:
Anthony Braxton
“The Fall of the Empire” - Frederick Rzewski
Herbert Brün
Garry Kvistad
“Guantanamera” - Pete Seeger
“If I Had A Hammer” - Peter, Paul, and Mary
“So What” - Miles Davis
“My Favorite Things” - John Coltrane
Michael Rosen
Richard Weiner
Cloyd Duff
George Hamilton Green
“Log Cabin Blues” - G.H. Green
The Polka Belt in the USA
“Zyklus” - Karlheinz Stockhausen
“Concertino for Marimba” - Paul Creston
George Szell
Pierre Boulez
“Oiseaux Exotiques” - Olivier Messiaen
The Rite of Spring - Igor Stravinsky
“Third Construction” - John Cage
“Music for a Summer Evening” - George Crumb
Jan Williams
“Suite for Percussion” - Lou Harrison
“Inuksuit” - John Luther Adams
“Ionisation” - Edgard Varése
“Bolero” - Ravel
“Atmospheres” - György Ligeti
“String Quartet” - Witold Lutoslawski
String Quartet No. 14, Op. 131 - Ludwig van Beethoven
Al O’Connor
Tom Siwe
The LaSalle Quartet
Bill Youhass
Raves:
Marching Mizzou at St. Patrick’s Day Parade 2024

University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Music Professor Bill Sallak stops by to talk about his job and dual role as director of percussion and audio engineering, working previously at Kent State (OH), Akros Percussion Collective, and manufacturing his own percussion items (03:20), growing up near Buffalo (NY), his interests in science and math, and watching transcendent athletes and teams (29:05), attending SUNY-Fredonia for undergrad (48:40), his research into J.S. Bach’s music transcribed for marimba (56:25), attending the University of Akron (OH) for his master’s and accompanying for modern dance (01:06:30), his sabbatical year at Ohio University and his doctoral studies at Arizona State (01:20:45), and finishes with the Random Ass Questions, including segments on flexibility in performance, making pasta sauce, Invisible Cities, great percussion music, and Barbara Kingsolver (01:35:50).
Finishing with a Rave on Marissa R. Moss’s 2022 book Her Country (01:57:50).
Bill Sallak Links:
Bill Sallak’s homepage
Bill Sallak’s UWGB page
Bill’s version of the JS Bach Cello Suites
Previous Podcast Guests mentioned:
Elizabeth DeLamater in 2019
Aiyun Huang in 2023
Kay Stonefelt
Other Links:
Phoenix Studios
Center for Games and Interactive Media
“Mutatis Mutandis” - Herbert Brün, performed by Akros Percussion Collective
“Bird of Passage” - Karlheinz Stockhausen
Steven Schick
“Piano Concerto” - Györgi Ligeti
“Nothing is Real” - Alvin Lucier
Michael Rector
Larry Snider
Thomas Siwe
“Sextet” - Steve Reich
Domino Hasek Highlights
Pat LaFontaine Highlights
Golden State Warriors 2015-2016 Highlights
Liverpool FC wins 2020 Champions League
Jurgen Klopp
Mo Salah highlights
Bernard Woma
“Psappha” - Iannis Xenakis
“Zyklus” - Karlheinz Stockhausen
Jean Geoffroy
Leigh Howard Stevens
J.J. Quantz on Ornamentation
Wieland Kuijken
Merce Cunningham
Joan Meggitt
“The Anvil Chorus” - David Lang
Roger Braun
J.B. Smith
Mark Sunkett
Anner Bylsma - Bach Cello Suites
Paul Tortelier - Bach Cello Suites
Decasia trailer
Michael Gordon and the Bang on a Can All-Stars
Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino
“Hold On I’m Comin’” - Sam and Dave Live
The NOW Pizzeria - Hamburgh, NY
“Top of the Hill” - Tom Waits
“Tom Traubert’s Blues” - Tom Waits
“A Valentine Out of Season” - John Cage
Demon Copperhead - Barbara Kingsolver
Raves:
Her Country - Marissa R. Moss

Denver-based sound bath specialist and freelance percussionist Arin Levy returns to talk about getting their DMA from Alabama, falling out of interest in getting a teaching job, and their personalized dissertation (01:35), getting into sound baths, moving to Denver, and working for MakeMusic (19:25), and settles in for the Random Ass Questions segment, with segments on the 432 Hz Debate, their experience in Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity, terrible jobs, the extensive Star Wars universe, the Twilight movies, traveling internationally, and Everything Everywhere All At Once (27:15).
Finishing with a Rave with 2 films from the True/False Documentary Film Festival (01:07:10).
Arin Levy Links:
Part 1 with Arin Levy
Enso Sounds
Other Links:
Tim Feeney
“Reflections on the Nature of Water” - Jacob Druckman
Pauline Oliveros TedX Talk
“Bor——-H” - Anthony Braxton
MakeMusic Cloud
Schumann Resonances
AWAKE Festival
Biofreeze
The Bad Batch trailer
Twilight Saga - “Doesn’t He Own A Shirt?”
Tao Te Ching
The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff
Luigi’s Restaurant in Akron, OH
Robert McClure
Everything Everywhere All At Once trailer
Raves:
Daughters
This is Going to Be Big trailer