Romaeuropa Festival and the American Academy in Rome have invited Blow Up Percussion to present the Italian premiere of Field of Vision, a work for 40 percussionists by American composer Michael Gordon. Field of Vision is conceived as a spatial, three-dimensional sonic experience in which the music moves through space, immersing both performers and listeners in an almost meditative mode of perception.

The work is part of a series in which Gordon explores the spatial distribution of instruments, creating an ever-evolving sonic architecture. The composition transforms the ensemble into a single collective sonic organism, exploring complex textures and hypnotic dynamics. Gordon employs unconventional instruments, including industrial metal objects, gongs, and even automobile brake drums, to create a rich and striking palette of sounds.

For this performance, Blow Up Percussion launched an international call to select percussionists from across Europe, resulting in a unique continent-wide collaboration. Combining technical virtuosity, experimentation, and artistic exchange, the Italian premiere of Field of Vision promises to be a landmark event in contemporary music.

Michael Gordon is an American composer renowned for his monumental, immersive works. Decasia, scored for 55 re-tuned instruments arranged throughout a performance space and accompanied by Bill Morrison's acclaimed cult film, has been presented at the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Minimalist Jukebox Festival and at the Southbank Centre. Timber, a tour de force for percussion sextet performed on amplified microtonal simantras, has been performed on every continent, including by Slagwerk Den Haag at the Muziekgebouw (Amsterdam) and Mantra Percussion at BAM (Brooklyn). Natural History, a collaboration with the Klamath Tribe's Steiger Butte Drum, received its world premiere by the Britt Festival Orchestra and Chorus on the rim of Crater Lake, Oregon, under the direction of Teddy Abrams, and is featured in the PBS documentary Symphony for Nature.

Gordon's vocal works include Travel Guide to Nicaragua, an autobiographical choral work written for The Crossing; the opera What to Wear, created with legendary director Richard Foreman; and the film-opera Acquanetta, made in collaboration with director Daniel Fish. His recent recordings include Clouded Yellow, Gordon's complete string quartets, performed by the Kronos Quartet.

Gordon is the co-founder of Bang on a Can music collective with David Lang (1991 Fellow, 2017 Resident) and Julia Wolfe. He will be in residence at the American Academy of Rome in the spring of 2027.

Blow Up Percussion is a percussion ensemble founded in Rome in 2012. Alongside its performances of the modern and contemporary repertoire, the ensemble is committed to presenting new works developed through collaborations with composers, ensembles, and musicians from a wide range of artistic backgrounds. Its collaborators have included composers Francesco Filidei, Vittorio Montalti, Bryce Dessner, Christopher Cerrone, Laurent Durupt, Francesco Antonioni, Michele Tadini, and Eric Nathan; the ensembles PMCE and Prometeo; the London-based electronic duo Plaid; and cellist Mario Brunello. The ensemble has also distinguished itself through its interpretations of works by Steve Reich and post-minimalist composers David Lang, Julia Wolfe, and John Luther Adams.

In collaboration with Vittorio Montalti, Blow Up Percussion created The Smell of Blue Electricity for percussion quartet and electronics, a large-scale work exploring the relationship between electronic sound and live performance. A recording of the work was released by Col Legno in 2024. The ensemble is currently collaborating with Christopher Cerrone, who composed the quartet Ode to Joy for the group, and has begun recording an album to be released by Neuma Records in 2025.

Since 2019, Blow Up Percussion has also organized the concert series Cerimoniali Ritmici ("Rhythmic Ceremonies"), in which the ensemble and guest musicians present newly-commissioned works alongside recent compositions, offering audiences a window onto the diverse musical aesthetics of our time. The group has performed at Romaeuropa Festival, Ravenna Festival, GRAME Lyon, MITO, MA/IN, Tempo Reale, Nuova Consonanza, Cantiere Internazionale D'Arte, Accademia Filarmonica Romana, L'Arsenale, Traiettorie, Jeans Music Festival, Contemporanea, In my Life, Le Forme del Suono, NO GO, Composit, Half-Die, Fondazione "W. Walton", Non Luoghi Musicali, and the concert season of the University of Rome, Tor Vergata.

Tonino Battista is the director of Blow Up Percussion. His training and practice in orchestral conducting and composition have given him an exceptional depth of understanding and interpretation of scores from all periods, as well as the ability to engage on equal footing with new musical languages, including electroacoustic music and improvisation. These qualities have established him as one of the most versatile conductors on the international scene. After studying piano, composition, and electronic music at the Conservatory of Perugia, he studied conducting with Daniele Gatti and Péter Eötvös. In 1996, in Darmstadt, he won the orchestral conducting competition, and Karlheinz Stockhausen counted him among his preferred interpreters. From 2000 to 2004, he served as principal conductor of the Kyoto Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. In 2016, he was appointed resident conductor for contemporary music of the Abruzzo Symphony Orchestra. His discography includes a CD released by ECM featuring works by Scodanibbio and a CD for Wergo featuring H. W. Henze's Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra. Since 2009, he has been principal conductor and artistic coordinator of the Parco della Musica Contemporanea Ensemble at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome.

Flavio Tanzi is the ensemble director of Blow Up Percussion. He is a professor of percussion instruments at the "G. Briccialdi" Conservatory of Terni. His work is dedicated to the study, research, and dissemination of contemporary music. He is the percussionist of the PMCE and Blow Up Percussion. He has also collaborated with Algoritmo, AlterEgo, Ars Ludi, Contempoartensemble, Le Balcon, Logos, and MDI ensemble. He has performed at numerous international music events, and his solo and chamber music activities have enabled him to work closely with leading composers such as Steve Reich, Giorgio Battistelli, Salvatore Sciarrino, John Luther Adams, Kaija Saariaho, Ivan Fedele, Francesco Filidei, Francesco Antonioni, Vittorio Montalti, Bryce Dessner, and Cristopher Cerrone.

As an orchestral musician, he has collaborated with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Teatro Massimo, the Teatro La Fenice, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, the Arena di Verona, and the Teatro Petruzzelli, working with conductors including Maazel, De Burgos, Pappano, Gergiev, Temirkanov, Petrenko, Tilson Thomas, Valčuha, Chung, Nagano, Franck, and Nézet-Séguin in major concert seasons both in Italy and abroad. He has also gained extensive experience in film music, collaborating with composers such as Ennio Morricone, Nicola Piovani, Franco Piersanti, and Pasquale Catalano.

Blow Up Percussion Ensemble members include Aurelio Scudetti, Alessio Cavaliere, Pietro Pompei, Davide Fabrizio, Alessandro Di Giulio, Jose Espì Vicente, Matteo Rovatti, Martino Mora, Francesco Pedrazzini, Marco Lazzaretti, Alberto Anhaus, Alessandro Morsuillo, Cristiano Rossi, Alice Comparin, Emanuele Trenca, Matteo Lelii, Lorenzo Colombo, Marco De Mojà, Matteo Rossi, Giuliano Caposeno, Gaspare Renna, Matteo Nompenso, Fabio Macchia, Berardo Di Mattia, Lorenzo Timperi, Aldo Chiarulli, Niccolò Fino, Davide Soro, Federico Tramontana, Antonio Gaggiano, Alberto Toccaceli, Gianni Santori, Luca Caliciotti, Assunto Palazzo, and Gerardo Zarro.