Ouachita to host Percussion Ensemble in concert April 10
March 27, 2017
- Haley WilkersonOuachita Baptist University will host the OBU Percussion Ensemble in concert on Monday,
April 10, at 7:30 p.m. The concert, which is free and open to the public, will be
held in McBeth Recital Hall in Mabee Fine Arts Center on Ouachita’s campus.
The OBU Percussion Ensemble will perform four pieces, each adapted to highlight Ouachita’s
percussion students and alternating between drum-based pieces and keyboard-based pieces.
The ensemble is directed by Dr. Ryan Lewis, associate professor of percussion.
The concert will begin with “Trio per Uno” by Nebosia Zivkovic. For this three-movement
work, different trios will perform each section to allow more student musicians the
opportunity to participate.
The concert will continue with student musicians accompanying the silent film “The
Balloonatic” by director Buster Keaton. This piece will consist of nine students playing
in a ragtime band while five students will perform live sound effects, just like Foley
artists in Hollywood. Lewis anticipates that audiences will find this approach “unique
and interesting … especially considering today’s technologically advanced movies.”
The next piece on the program is “Strange Loops” by Patrick Long and will be conducted
by Van O’Rorke, a senior instrumental music education major from Hot Springs, Ark.
This piece for percussion quartet, each with two drums and a cymbal, “includes the
unusual feature of having the conductor play a woodblock throughout (who is also responsible
for a surprise at the very end),” Lewis noted.
The concert will conclude with David Mancini’s “Suite for Solo Drum Set and Percussion
Ensemble.” This piece typically features a single solo drum set player, but “we have
three seniors, each with terrific drum set skills, so we will feature all three of
them at the same time on the piece,” Lewis said. He added that this selection promises
to be “a terrific way to end the concert.”
For more information on the percussion ensemble, visit www.obu.edu/percussion or contact Dr. Ryan Lewis at [email protected] or (870) 245-5421.
By Haley Wilkerson
March 27, 2017
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