Duo Tierra Fria

Duo tierra fría was formed by Brant Blackard and Connor Stevens while both were students at the Eastman School of Music. Brant and Connor are focused on performing contemporary music within the percussion duo repertoire, as well as presenting their own arrangements of classic repertoire. Duo tierra fría has performed at the Eastman School of Music, the George Eastman House, the 2015 Great Plains International Marimba Competition, the 2015 Valencia International Performance Academy & Festival in Spain, and the 2016 McCormick Marimba Festival.

Brant and Connor have been actively touring schools and universities with concerts, masterclasses and clinics. Their various clinics have been on performing chamber music, performing transcriptions and arrangements, and how performers can arrange music for themselves. Recently, Duo tierra fría has performed and presented at Florida State University, the University of South Alabama, the University of Central Arkansas, the University of South Carolina, Virginia Tech University, the Atlanta Percussion Symposium, and several other universities.

The duo also has performed regularly as part of the Eastman Broadband Ensemble. They have performed with Broadband at the soundSCAPE festival in Maccagno, Italy as well as the Valencia International Performance Academy & Festival. In 2016 they joined Broadband for a collaborative opera performance of music, dance, puppetry, and theater which premiered in Guadalajara, Mexico.

In Spanish, tierra fría means "cold land," a reference both to Rochester, New York, where the duo was formed and also to the piece "sonnes de tierra fría" by the great composer, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. Brant Blackard and Connor Stevens are Malletech performing artists and endorsers.