Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University senior Carter Harlan earned several honors in his field this summer, performing in the annual Hot Springs Music Festival, receiving an undergraduate research grant from the Arkansas Department of Higher Education and being selected as a member of the Percussive Arts Society All-Star Percussion Ensemble.

Harlan, a music education major from Fayetteville, Ark., first auditioned for the Hot Springs Music Festival back in the spring. The two-week long festival gave him the opportunity to perform alongside percussion students from schools such as Temple and Northwestern University, as well as professionals from the Kansas City and New World Symphony Orchestras.

Through the research grant, Harlan and Dr. Ryan Lewis, assistant professor of music at Ouachita, plan to study the effects of mass on the velocity, force and tone color frequencies produced by keyboard percussion mallets.

"[We] are trying to understand why mallets sound the way they do by looking at how they are constructed and the frequencies they produce when struck against an instrument,” Harlan explained.

Harlan also recently was selected as a member of the first-ever Percussive Arts Society All-Star Percussion Ensemble, which will consist of 20 percussionists chosen from an international pool of applicants. These chosen few will have the unique opportunity of performing with noted percussionist Michael Burritt at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in San Antonio this November.

“I am most excited to play with the international percussion ensemble,” Harlan said. “I have found there is something really special about making music with people from different cultures and backgrounds.”

Lewis affirmed Harlan’s artistic abilities, as well as the quality of his character through his leadership on campus. During his four years at Ouachita, Harlan has been actively involved on campus through the Division of Music, working on an administrative level as well as on a high a musical and artistic level.

“Carter has impacted the music department in only a positive way,” Lewis said. “He has helped us see ways that we can improve, from processes and procedures to the website to knowing how college and prospective students think.

“Carter dedicates himself wholeheartedly to any task that is put before him,” Lewis added. “I think his work ethic, dedication and dependability will serve him well throughout his life no matter what he is doing, whether it is music-related or not.”

Harlan also affirmed the work of Ouachita’s music faculty, saying, “The faculty here genuinely care about the success of their students, and they are willing to sacrifice much of their time and energy to give students like me opportunities to grow as musicians."

 

By Cimber Winfrey