Performative difficulties in contemporary percussion repertory: why do they arise and how can they be tackled?

A vast amount of new music is composed for percussion in this era, always taking the complexity and the often enigmatic notation to a further step. This research project wants to lead the way into a better understanding of the question why composers of today write in such a demanding way for contemporary percussion in solo as well as in ensemble repertory and how to tackle the arising problems.
It will research the difficulties one encounters in the practice and performance of a representative selection of pieces coming from various compositional trends over the past fifty years , by interviewing the respective composers and making a classified inventory of the presented problems in these trends for solo and ensemble contemporary percussion repertory.
It will assess new ways to progress in the demanding performance of contemporary percussion music and will be brought to practice by means of lecture-recitals and performances. Its goal is, through excessive collaboration with the leading composers of this era, to develop a new practical model for composition, which exceeds the problems that have arisen in the past. This model will be reviewed in the percussion class of Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel and in live solo and ensemble performances.