Canto Ostinato with Erik Hall and Metropolis Ensemble
April 8, 2026
7:30 pm
New York, NY
Tishman Concert Hall
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Sandbox Percussion performs Simeon ten Holt’s minimalist masterpiece, Canto Ostinato, with Metropolis Ensemble and Erik Hall.

The piece’s captivating harmony and winding structure prove an adventurous enterprise for any like-minded players embarking down its path, and it is at this very threshold that Metropolis Ensemble artistic director/conductor Andrew Cyr, musician/composer Erik Hall, and the members of Sandbox Percussion all find each other. Their ensuing undertaking marks a world-class collaboration that yields an expansive and beautifully detailed new presentation of ten Holt’s iconic work.

In conjunction with a brand new studio album—out April 3rd on Western Vinyl—the collective’s new large-ensemble arrangement of the work extracts and reframes every line, motif, and arpeggio from the original score, expanding ten Holt’s piano manuscript into a prismatic chamber array. Sandbox Percussion’s mallet instruments maintain a unified and gracefully athletic expression of the piece’s duration, while David Leon’s woodwinds overlay a kaleidoscopic tapestry. Strings—led by award-winning violinist Kristin Lee—provide cinematic, otherworldly depth. And Erik Hall’s concert grand piano threads through it all, a passionately reverent preservation of the piece’s keyboard origins.

Altogether, a breathtaking new form for Simeon ten Holt’s already-monumental opus, each element serving the whole while driving towards a rapturous resolution.