REFLECT harp+percussion
WHO we are
REFLECT harp+percussion consists of Dr. Alaina Graiser (harp) and Dr. Brian Graiser (percussion). Their roots as a duo come from a mutual passion for the French Impressionist music of the Belle Epoque and Fin de siecle periods. Their musical identity reflects this passion in two ways: by looking back and preserving the music of those periods through innovative and faithful transcription, and by harnessing the surge of creativity and experimentalism of that time in the promotion of new works for harp and percussion today. Separately, the two have taken the stage across the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Italy, Panama, and Switzerland, presenting at venues such as the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the World Harp Congress, the American Harp Society Summer Institute, the College Band Directors National Association, Carnegie Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. Together, they have performed on the national/international stage at PASIC and the AHS Summer Institute, as well as on several national and regional tours. REFLECT's goal is simple: to promote and share their love of music for harp and percussion through performance, education, research, recording, and the composition of new works.
WHO we are
REFLECT harp+percussion consists of Dr. Alaina Graiser (harp) and Dr. Brian Graiser (percussion). Their roots as a duo come from a mutual passion for the French Impressionist music of the Belle Epoque and Fin de siecle periods. Their musical identity reflects this passion in two ways: by looking back and preserving the music of those periods through innovative and faithful transcription, and by harnessing the surge of creativity and experimentalism of that time in the promotion of new works for harp and percussion today. Separately, the two have taken the stage across the United States, Australia, Canada, China, France, Italy, Panama, and Switzerland, presenting at venues such as the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the World Harp Congress, the American Harp Society Summer Institute, the College Band Directors National Association, Carnegie Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. Together, they have performed on the national/international stage at PASIC and the AHS Summer Institute, as well as on several national and regional tours. REFLECT's goal is simple: to promote and share their love of music for harp and percussion through performance, education, research, recording, and the composition of new works.
Above: Live performance of REFLECT's duo transcription of De l’aube à midi sur la mer, the first movement of Claude Debussy’s timeless masterwork La Mer, with cues taken from both the original orchestral version and Debussy’s own four-hands piano duo version. This nine-minute transcription was first performed on REFLECT’s 2019 National Tour, including an afternoon showcase concert at the American Harp Society Summer Institute, and is primarily for harp and extended-range vibraphone (with some extra percussion, e.g. suspended cymbal and bell plate, for necessary musical color).
Above: Live performance of Brian Graiser’s original composition We Measure in Victims (2016), written in response to the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, France. The ten-minute piece is for harp and a largely metallic percussion setup which includes several cymbals, pitched and unpitched gongs, temple bowls, crotales, and glockenspiel. Unfortunately, terror attacks have manifested themselves as a defining characteristic of the 21st Century, to the point where many people are even now desensitized to their occurrence unless they strike close to home. The percussion instrumentation is specifically taken from “exotic” cultures, alluding to the unfortunate and unjust rise of orientalist fear often expressed by communities against other ethnicities in the wake of such tragedies. However, We Measure in Victims ends on a hopeful note, in reference to a touching development from another emergent trend of the future: the use of social media as a political medium. In the minutes and hours following the attacks, the phrase #porteouvert (“open door”) started trending on French social media, with those posting the message communicating that their homes were open to those fleeing the danger.
WHAT we play
The program sample below, taken from our 2019 national tour, is a good representation of what we do:
PROGRAM SAMPLE (2019 Tour)
Images I (1905) Claude Debussy
Reflets dans l’eau (1862-1918)
Music for Harp (1967-1977) Lou Harrison
Avalokiteshvara (1917-2003)
Beverly’s Troubador Piece
4 Prisms [After Brown] (2019) Brian Graiser
- World Premiere - (b. 1986)
Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-1917) Maurice Ravel
I. Prelude (1875-1937)
V. Menuet
IV. Rigaudon
-intermission-
Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon (1917) Claude Debussy
We Measure in Victims (2016) Brian Graiser
La Mer (1903-1905) Claude Debussy
I. De l’aube à midi sur la mer
- World Premiere of this arrangement -
The program sample below, taken from our 2019 national tour, is a good representation of what we do:
PROGRAM SAMPLE (2019 Tour)
Images I (1905) Claude Debussy
Reflets dans l’eau (1862-1918)
Music for Harp (1967-1977) Lou Harrison
Avalokiteshvara (1917-2003)
Beverly’s Troubador Piece
4 Prisms [After Brown] (2019) Brian Graiser
- World Premiere - (b. 1986)
Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914-1917) Maurice Ravel
I. Prelude (1875-1937)
V. Menuet
IV. Rigaudon
-intermission-
Les soirs illuminés par l’ardeur du charbon (1917) Claude Debussy
We Measure in Victims (2016) Brian Graiser
La Mer (1903-1905) Claude Debussy
I. De l’aube à midi sur la mer
- World Premiere of this arrangement -