Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University’s School of Fine Arts will host the Line Upon Line percussion trio in a guest artist concert at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 26 in Mabee Fine Arts Center’s McBeth Recital Hall. The trio will also lead a percussion master class at 3 p.m. in McBeth Recital Hall the same day.

Dr. Ryan Lewis, assistant professor of percussion, explained that this concert and master class will provide participants “the opportunity to make contact with, learn from and perform with these professionals.”

“Bringing guest artists to campus is important to the musical education of our students across campus in that bringing professional musicians exposes students to music, composers, genres, ideas, styles and performers that they might not have come in contact with otherwise,” Lewis said.

“Having guest artists on campus is especially important for our percussion students because their presence provides our students with professional musical role models in the field of percussion,” Lewis added.

Line Upon Line is a Texas-based trio of percussionists that concentrates on performing percussion masterworks by the most significant 20^th century composers, such as Takemitsu, Cage, Xenakis and Reich, as well as new music compositions by living composers. Members of the trio are Adam Bedell, Cullen Faulk and Matthew Teodori.

The trio formed in 2009 at the University of Texas at Austin and released their first CD in August 2011. The trio has also been nominated this year for an Austin Critics’ Table Award for Best Classical Ensemble. The group has performed at various academic institutions around the country in addition to the Long Center in Austin, the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin, Fast Forward Austin and the International Festival-Institute in Round Top, Texas.

Both the master class and concert are free of charge and open to the public. For more about the Line Upon Line and to hear their music, visit their website at www.lineuponlinepercussion.com. For more about the concert, contact Dr. Ryan Lewis at [email protected] or (870) 245-5421.

By Lara Overman