Meet Percussion soloist Terry Longshore and learn about the program selections for Orchestra Concert II: Our Blue Home. The final piece of the festival features Longshore as soloist for Losing Earth composed by Adam Schoenberg. This is a unique percussion concerto commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony in 2019. Schoenberg traced the history of percussion, the most earthy and grounded instruments, and in many cultures is considered the heartbeat of music.
Longshore is the percussion soloist for the Oregon Coast premiere of Losing Earth. His genre-crossing work blends the artistry of the concert stage, the spontaneity of jazz, and the energy of a rock club. He maintains an active career as a performer, composer, and educator, serving as Professor of Music, Artist in Residence, and Director of Percussion Studies at Southern Oregon University, where he directs Left Edge Percussion and the SOU Percussion Ensemble. Longshore has premiered more than 100 works for solo percussion, ensemble, orchestra, and theatre, including the 2023 premiere of Teddy Abrams’ Mammoth with Yo-Yo Ma and the Louisville Orchestra in Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave.