Glenn Kotche, the Chicago-based percussionist and composer has been heralded as one of the most exciting, creative and promising composers and performers in modern music. His eclectic works have focused on the creative use of rhythm and space, navigating the territory between the academic and the primal, the consonant and the disonant. Glenn's various stints with groups and ensembles have resulted in participation in over 90 albums to date, including three recorded solo works, the most recent of which, Mobile (Nonesuch Records, 2006) was released to critical acclaim from such publications as the Guardian & the New York Times.
Kotche has received international attention for his "unfailing taste, technique and discipline" (Chicago Tribune), and has been commissioned to write pieces for Kronos Quartet, Bang on a Can All-Stars and So Percussion . In addition to collaborating with renowned contemporary music sextet Eighth Blackbird, Kotche's compositions have been performed at venues as wide-ranging as Highland Park's Ravinia, Carnegie's Zankel Hall in New York and Teatro Castro Alves in Salvador, Brasil. In 2006, Kotche was invited as a featured performer at the Modern Drummer Festival, was the headlining performer at the inaugural concert for New York’s Wordless Music, and was an artist-in-residence at SoundRes in Lecce, Italy.
In addition to his work as a composer and solo percussionist, Kotche is member of the ground-breaking American rock band Wilco, with whom he has played since 2001. The first album recorded after Kotche joined the group, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was met with critical and mass acclaim with Rolling Stone magazine recently calling it the 3rd best album of the decade. Follow-up albums include the Grammy-winning A Ghost is Born, Sky Blue Sky, and Wilco's latest release, the Grammy-nominated Wilco (The Album).
Regarded as one of the world’s best live bands, Wilco has performed at virtually every major jazz, rock, and folk festival in North America, Europe, Brazil, Japan, Australia and New Zealand and have headlined shows everywhere from Madison Square Garden to Tanglewood to Millennium Park to Massey Hall. The band recently became festival curators successfully launching the inaugural Solid Sound Festival in North Adams, MA.
Beyond Wilco, Kotche records and performs regularly with the jazz experimental duo On Fillmore. Their latest recording, Extended Vacation (Dead Oceans / BounDee, 2009) was released to critical acclaim, with the New York Times calling it “a peculiar update of early-1960s exotica, with a heart of darkness in a place of setting sun.” Their previous release, Sleeps with Fishes (Drag City, 2003 and Columbia Music Entertainment, 2007), landed them at the prestigious 2005 Percussion Pan Festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
