CMU alumnus shares his journey of releasing first music album
Courtesy of Von Hansen. Von Hansen poses for a picture named "Octovon" because of the multiple hands.
Von Hansen, a 2011 Central Michigan University graduate, came out with his first percussion music album "Mortal Coil" on Feb. 1, 2025.
Hansen is a musician and presented concerts and masterclasses at several universities and conferences such as at the Electronic Music Midwest, The National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy and SEAMUS, according to his website.
Since childhood, Hansen said he has been surrounded by music.
"My dad was always playing music," Hansen said. "What really got me into music was that there was always music all over my house".
Hansen eventually started playing once he was in the 4th grade, and then joined the high school marching band.
At the collegiate level, he studied at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas and received his bachelor's in music education.
He then decided to learn more about percussion and composition and found CMU where he earned his master's in percussion and master's in composition.
Hansen later earned his doctorate degree in percussion performance at the University of Kansas. He now works at Washburn University as the percussion professor.
Von Hansen's New Album Cover "Mortal Coil." Courtesy of Von Hansen.
Through all his music-making experiences, Hansen said he found ways to make music creatively.
"My music is inspired by hip hop and jazz, and has a lot of that combined in there," Hansen said, "It has a lot of different sounds, too, with all the different types of instruments. I have pieces prepared where I stick a bunch of coins and other things all over the instruments to create these different sounds."
The oldest piece on the "Mortal Coil" album is from 2008, and it all started from a special moment when a professor at CMU asked Hansen to write a piece for his concert, Hansen said.
"My dad had died five years earlier, and I decided to write a piece basically dedicated to him," he said. "That whole process of writing that piece, I really enjoyed (it), so I decided that I'd want to write an album."
Since writing that piece, Hansen started his work on writing "Mortal Coil."
Hansen said in May of 2024 he got together with his team of 16 people and recorded the whole album. He said he learned a lot from the process.
Hansen worked on this album with Marco Schirripa, the assistant professor of percussion at CMU.
"I went to school to study music, it became pretty much my whole life and has remained that way ever since," Schirripa said. "Von reached out to me about a year beforehand and simply asked me to play a few pieces for the album.
"I then perform solo for all 4 tracks of Von’s Suite for Prepared Vibraphone, which is a work for one player on vibraphone, prepared so that the keys make unexpected sounds."
Not only was Schirripa on the album, but so were people from all around the country.
"So there are really some fantastic players here," Hansen said. "The people who were playing on the album are some of the most in-demand young players within the next ten to fifteen years. They'll be the percussionists winning the Grammy's."
With the new album release, Hansen is hosting a solo percussion tour to support the album starting on March 20 in Brooklyn, New York. He then will travel through Nebraska, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas throughout the month of April.
The album is available to buy digitally, on CD, or vinyl on Band Camp. It'll be released to streaming services on April 1.
