At the 49th Annual Pacific-Southwest Emmy Awards, Alex Stopa’s (Music) original composition, Spiral, received three Emmy nominations, winning two of these in the categories of "Arts and Entertainment" and "Director – Short Form Content."
Stopa says, “I’m thrilled and honored to receive these Awards. I hope that this unique project helps to showcase our local arts community, and the unique talent that we have here in Las Vegas.”
Spiral is an original composition for percussion quartet that fuses classical, pop, and jazz styles. Stopa writes of the piece, “As a musician living in Las Vegas, I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to perform a broad range of musical styles. One night I might be in the Smith Center with the Philharmonic or a touring Broadway show, the next I might be in a jazz or rock club. The music that I write is inspired by this diversity.”
The piece is built around a repeated rhythmic motif: a pattern of five that can be heard on the vibraphone near the beginning of the piece. “I imagined this spiraling pattern as the rhythmic DNA of the work; a musical double helix. This imagery formed the inspiration for the title.”
The video was shot at the Art Square Theatre in Las Vegas by a local film crew including multiple EmmyÒ award winning editor and director Michael Tushaus (Digisphere Productions) with cinematographer Tim Harbour and camera operator Gray Gubler. The recording engineer was Josh Connolly (Studio A) and mix engineer was Robby Wingfield. This project is supported in part by the Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Pana Percussion Quartet members are Alex Stopa, Ryun Louie, Jeffery Crowell, and Eliseo Rael.
Stopa is a drummer, percussionist, marimba soloist, and composer based in Las Vegas who graduated from UNLV with a Doctorate of Musical Arts in 2013.
