Matters/Mind (2021) by Alexis Lamb

“Do you ever feel like your mind overthinks and gets in the way of what truly matters?

... Yes, I do too.”

Commissioned by Chicago-based percussion quartet Third Coast Percussion, Matters/Mind is scored for drums, various found metals, wood slats, cymbals, and marimba. Lamb uses these distinct categories of instruments to achieve a wide range of textures in a complex yet accessible way.

About the Composer:

Alexis C. Lamb (b. 1993) is a composer, percussionist, and educator whose work seeks to cultivate a connectedness to natural, historical, and societal relationships. Her music incorporates a variety of mediums, such as oral histories, field recordings, improvisation, and community input. Lamb’s music has been regarded as “a pleasure in its own right” with “sparkling optimism throughout” (I Care If You Listen).

As a composer, Lamb has collaborated with numerous individuals and professional ensembles. Her works have been played on 4 continents and she is a recipient of a 2022 Presser Foundation Graduate Music Award, a 2021 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and a 2018 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award. She is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition at the University of Michigan. Learn more about Alexis Lamb and purchase her music on her website: https://www.alexislamb.com/

Performed by Matchstick Percussion at their Launch Party on September 23nd, 2023 at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Washington D.C.

Video and Audio Recording by Brendan Sweeney

Video Edited by Ben Hausman