Ouachita Stories

Ouachita Baptist University will host steelpan percussionist Liam Teague in concert Wednesday, March 15, at 8 p.m. The concert, which is open to the public, will be held in Jones Performing Arts Center on the Ouachita campus. Tickets are $12 each and can be purchased at www.obu.edu/boxoffice or by calling the OBU box office at 870-245-5555.

“Liam Teague is a virtuoso musician and a wonderful, giving, humble person – the perfect person to bring to campus to work with our students and community. He will demonstrate the amazing versatility of the steelpan by performing classical, jazz, funk and calypso music with OBU faculty and student ensembles,” said Dr. Ryan Lewis, associate professor of music at Ouachita. “This will be a concert people will be talking about for a long time! Audience members will be stunned at his musical and technical abilities, as well as entertained by wonderful music.”

During the concert Teague will collaborate with several Ouachita artists and ensembles, including collaborating with pianist Dr. Adam Haas for his first two pieces. Haas serves as visiting assistant professor of music at Ouachita. Together they will perform “Allegro” by Joseph Hector Fiocco and “Moto Perpetuo” by Niccolo Paganini.

Teague will next perform steelpan solos and will then be joined by the OBU Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Craig Hamilton, OBU’s Lena Goodwin Trimble Professor of Music and director of Bands. Together they will perform “Origins and Expansions: Concerto for Pan and Wind Ensemble” by Kevin Bobo. After a brief intermission, Teague will return to the stage and perform two jazz selections accompanied by the OBU Faculty Jazz Combo, followed by a collaboration with the OBU Percussion Ensemble, “Triplets” by George Hamilton Green. The OBU Percussion Ensemble is under the direction of Lewis.

To wrap it all up, the OBU Steel Band, also under the direction of Lewis, will join Teague for a four-song set. Two songs, “Sunday Morning Funk” by Len “Boogsie” Sharp and “Tico Tico no Fuba” by Zequinha de Abreu, were arranged by Teague, and the other two songs Teague wrote himself: “Pearls” and the famous “Hands Like Lightning.”

Dubbed the “Paganini of the Steelpan,” Teague is an internationally acclaimed performer and recording artist who has performed steelpan throughout the world. Teague has appeared in concert with Grammy-Award winning musicians Paquito D’Rivera, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Zakir Hussain and Dave Samuels.

Teague currently serves as professor of music and head of steelpan studies at Northern Illinois University, where he also directs the renowned NIU Steelband. He is the steelband director at Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Door County, Wis., and has taught and performed at the California State University Summer Arts Camp and the Interlochen Academy for the Performing Arts.

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Teague’s commitment to demonstrating the great musical possibilities of the steelpan has taken him all over the world and has earned him many awards from his homeland, including the prestigious Hummingbird National Award (Silver) and the Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Award for Excellence. He also has won a number of notable competitions, such as the Trinidad and Tobago National Steelband Festival Solo Championship and the Saint Louis Symphony Volunteers Association Young Artiste Competition.

Tickets are $12 and can be purchased at www.obu.edu/boxoffice or by calling the OBU box office at 870-245-5555. Discounts are available for groups, OBU faculty/staff and students, Henderson State University students and OBU Friends of Fine Arts. For more information about the concert, contact Dr. Ryan Lewis at [email protected] or 870-245-5421.

 

By Hannah Hines

March 9, 2017