Since its founding in 2006, the Meehan/ Perkins Duo (Todd Meehan and Doug Perkins) has redefined the American percussion duo through its diverse commissions and engaging performances. The Duo has been called “superb young players” by the New Yorker and “gifted percussionists” by the Wall Street Journal. Dedicated to creating a new body of work for the percussion duo genre, to date the Duo has collaborated with composers David Lang, Paul Lansky, Tristan Perich, John Supko, Nathan Davis, Jonathan Leshnoff, and Matt McBane to expand the repertoire and produce eclectic new acoustic and electro-acoustic works for percussion. The Duo has shared this music with audiences throughout the country, including performances at Weill Recital Hall, MoMA, the Bang on a Can Marathon, (le) poisson rouge, the Ojai Music Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, the International Festival-Institute at Round Top, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and abroad in Russia, Brazil, and Mexico.

February 2011 marked the release of the Duo’s first recording on New World Records entitled “Restless, Endless, Tactless – Johanna Beyer and the Birth of American Percussion Music”. The recording, a joint project with the Baylor Percussion Group, chronicles a largely unknown body of early percussion works from the 1930’s written by Johanna Beyer, Henry Cowell, Harold Davidson, Ray Green, John J. Becker, and Doris Humphrey. The release was praised by the press as “immaculately played by the duo” by the BBC Music Magazine and “an engaging experience” by Gramophone. Fanfare Magazine sums up the experience by stating “This is a must-hear for anyone remotely interested in the development of music in the past century and is strongly recommended.”

In early 2015 the Duo will release Parallels by Tristan Perich, a 50-minute work for hi-hats, tuned triangles, and 1-bit electronics funded by a 2013 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning grant.

The Meehan/ Perkins Duo uses Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Pearl/Adams drums and keyboards, Black Swamp Percussion accessories, Remo drumheads, and Zildjian cymbals.
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