Marimbas, Steel Drums Highlight Percussion Concert
A broad range of music highlighting drums, marimbas, xylophones and
a variety of other less-traditional instruments will highlight the
annual fall performance of the Alma College Percussion Ensemble.
The concert featuring the Classical Chamber Ensemble and Jazz
Percussion and Steel Drum Ensemble takes place at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Nov.
25 in the Remick Heritage Center.
Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for seniors 62 and up, and free for Alma
College staff, students and youth 18 and under. Seating is reserved.
Call (989) 463-7304 for ticket information.
A scene from the Percussion Ensemble's homecoming concert.
Music
Instructor David Zerbe directs the approximately 28-member student
ensemble. The award-winning group most recently performed at the
Detroit Jazz Festival over Labor Day weekend.
The first half of the Nov. 25 program will feature all drums in
“Bonham” by Christopher Rouse, 16 marimbas and two double bass players
in the Allegro Vivace from Felix Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No. 9 in
C Major, and a marimba quartet, xylophone soloist and traps in the
1930s ragtime “Nola” by Felix Arndt.
The second half will include a performance of “Bag’s Groove,”
originally composed by Milt Jackson for the Modern Jazz Quartet and
arranged for big band by John Clayton.
“Nicholas Terpstra, one of our students, took the Clayton arrangement
for trumpets, saxophones and trumpets and transcribed it for steel
drums and jazz percussion,” says Zerbe. Terpstra is a junior from
Caledonia.
The concert also will include “Yes or No” by Wayne Shorter and arranged
by Allen Park senior Joe Moscheck, “Speedball” by Lee Morgan, and “a
couple of surprises,” according to Zerbe.
Zerbe and his percussion students are planning to celebrate the group’s
20th anniversary at its spring concert next April 8 and 9.
Posted: Fri, November 14th, 2008 at 8:25AM
