Graded on a Curve: Metropolis Ensemble, Erik Hall, and Sandbox Percussion, Canto Ostinato
ALBUM REVIEW
April 1, 2026
Metropolis Ensembles new studio album, Canto Ostinato, received an A+ from Joseph Neff/The Vinyl District. Read more »
“For this recording, the members of the GRAMMY-nominated Metropolis Ensemble are conductor-artistic director Andrew Cyr, saxophonist-flutist David Leon, clarinetist-bass clarinetist Madison Greenstone, and violinists Kristin Lee, Isabelle Ai Durrenberger, Pauline Kim, Jennifer Liu, Suliman Tekalli, and Henry Wang. Sandbox Percussion, also GRAMMY-nominated, consists of Ian Rosenbaum and Terry Sweeney on marimba and Jonny Allen and Victor Caccese on vibraphone, glockenspiel, and crotales.
Hall is limited to one piano on this recording, an undertaking that is an immense but consistently graceful expansion upon its foundation, a 106-part piece that ten Holt composed for four pianos. Hall’s solo work was already a sharply methodical spreading out of the work.”
“This reengagement with Canto Ostinato is remarkable from start to finish, at times dynamically breathtaking and at other moments soothing in its assured flow, an altogether deft blossoming anyone enthusiastic over contemporary composition needs to hear. Metropolis Ensemble, Sandbox Percussion, and Erik Hall have realized a work of great beauty beyond any reasonable expectation.”
- Joseph Neff, The Vinyl District
