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TONIGHT: TTU Percussion Ensembles & Steel Bands present "Chaos to Creation"

The Texas Tech University School of Music will host a free concert featuring the Percussion Ensembles and Steel Bands TONIGHT at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 14) in Hemmle Recital Hall. The student performers are all in the studios of percussion professors Lisa Rogers and Alan Shinn. Additional ensemble direction is from graduate students Josh Frans, Jeremy Isley, and James Pendell.

 

The first half of the concert will feature Percussion Ensembles 1 and 2 alternating their performance selections. Two works are of particular interest, as performed by Percussion Ensemble 1.

 

The August 2017 passing of American composer David Maslanka prompted the ensemble to perform one of his lesser-known works for percussion ensemble, titled “Hurtling Through Space at Unimaginable Speed.” The work features a special instrument called a wind machine, which was hand-built by TTU percussion graduate student Bill Wilkinson.

 

Percussion Ensemble 1 will also be performing Blake Tyson’s “The Surface of the Sky” as a result of a consortium to bring the work to fruition and perform it this year. The TTU School of Music was a member of the consortium along with the Eastman School of Music, Michigan State University, and other prominent universities and percussion programs. The work itself commemorates the 60th anniversary of the integration of Little Rock Central High School, and is dedicated to the nine students who courageously led the way.

 

The second half of the concert will feature the steel bands, performing traditional and popular music on steelpans with rhythm section backup. Staple steel drum tunes by Irving Burgie, Harry Belafonte, and Rafael de Leon (a.k.a. “Roaring Lion”) will all proudly showcase the national instrument of Trinidad & Tobago, along with some more immediately recognizable songs. Made famous by Santana, Clarence “Sonny” Henry’s “Evil Ways” will be given a steelpan treatment, in addition to Van Morrison’s classic “Brown Eyed Girl.” In a nod to the popularity of steel bands in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the TTU bands will also perform a setting of Irish songwriter Sean McCarthy’s “The Hills of Connemara,” about the illicit production of the unique style of Irish whiskey called “poitín.”

Posted:
11/14/2017

Originator:
Ben Robinette

Email:
N/A

Department:
School of Music

Event Information
Time: 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM
Event Date: 11/14/2017

Location:
TTU School of Music - Hemmle Recital Hall


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