This past Saturday, September 19, 2026, the Academy hosted the Italian premiere of Field of Vision as part of Romaeuropa Festival, composed by Michael Gordon, 2027 Paul Fromm Resident in Composition at the American Academy in Rome, and performed by Blow-Up Percussion.
We sat down with Flavio Tanzi, the ensemble director of Blow-Up Percussion, to learn more about how the collaboration came to be, how the ensemble prepared for this massive undertaking, and how the experience was. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
How did you prepare for the concert? What was the preparation process like?
The preparation was very long, because what we proposed was really the realization of a work in which every small detail had to be considered. Blow-Up is a modular ensemble, but with a fixed formation that begins with the quartet. We have also performed other concerts with larger formations, but 36 percussionists is really a lot. Forming the ensemble was therefore the first aspect of the preparation.
The second was instrumentation, because percussion is by nature a very cumbersome type of instrumentation. Percussion is a sonic world that encompasses practically everything, and Michael Gordon took full advantage of this aspect, working with a precise idea while requiring a very substantial and, in fact, very unusual set of instruments.
A large part of the instrumentation that you were able to see and hear on Saturday was essentially built by us. That, too, was an enormous amount of work.
What was the experience like for the performers? How did you experience the interaction with the audience?
We obviously hope to repeat this performance many, many times, in different venues, but we enjoyed every second of it, because what we experienced here in Rome could be a unique moment. This was the fourth or fifth performance of the work ever.
The young performers were all very enthusiastic. For someone who is studying percussion or has just graduated, working with an important composer like Michael Gordon, as part of a work for 36 percussionists, at a major festival like Romaeuropa, and in a beautiful and prestigious location like the American Academy, was a unique experience.
Even in the moments when we were most overwhelmed by fatigue, worries, and everything we had to do, they always managed to maintain a positive attitude. They made us see things through the eyes of someone young who, quite rightly, focuses above all on the beautiful aspects.
I think the important thing is that there is always a kind of barrier between new music and the audience, and I think that on Saturday we helped, so to speak, break down a whole series of barriers and preconceptions.
Was there any improvisation within the performance, or was everything choreographed?
Absolutely: the performance was entirely written out; there was absolutely no improvisation. In fact, it is often almost a perfect example of mathematical calculation. When you look at the score, it looks like a blueprint.
Everything is absolutely precise and rigorous. Often each of us was playing something different, but everything was perfectly calculated: one playing a figure on two, another on three, another on four, another on five, another on six, another on seven. Sometimes we were organized into groups, and sometimes these groups separated.
The same thing happened with the brake drums. The bass drums and tam-tams, on the other hand, were always completely in unison. It is mathematical, rigorous, and very precise writing. There was absolutely no room for improvisation.
The gestures were also precise. There were 36 of us, plus the conductor, but we also had a click track in our headphones because the space was enormous and you couldn't properly hear what someone thirty meters away from you was doing well enough to play in the traditional way. So we had this guide, and everything was paced from beginning to end. Nothing was improvised: everything was written, studied, and prepared.
Tell us a little more about the instruments that were used in this piece, because they're quite unconventional.
Apart from the six bass drums, which were the most traditional instruments, and the interlude with the bundles of sticks and rocks, the rest of the instrumentation was composed almost entirely of metal.
In the final movement, each of us played a sixxen, an aluminum U-shaped plate. There were 49 pieces, distributed among 36 percussionists, and they all had to be perfectly tuned.
Another unusual feature of the second movement was the two central circles, each formed by 12 percussionists, where each person used a brake drum. We salvage these pieces from scrapyards, because they aren't instruments: they are actual parts from cars, trucks, and buses.
How did this collaboration come about?
I met Michael Gordon personally during a production with the Contemporanea Ensemble of the Parco della Musica, where I am a percussionist. I had seen the first images of Field of Vision coming from New York and other places in the United States, and I immediately became curious and interested in trying to produce this work here in Italy as well. He responded positively to my proposal, and from there we began working together to try to make it happen.
At Romaeuropa Festival, on the artistic side, the idea was very well received and immediately embraced. At the American Academy, we found a partner and a very important collaboration in every respect.