Day of Percussion

For the third straight year, the New Hampshire/Maine Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society is presenting a Day of Percussion (DoP) at Keene State College. This year’s visiting artists include Robert Paterson (composer, Director of the American Modern Ensemble), Matt Ward (Talujon Percussion Quartet, Queens College), Amy Williams (composer, University of Pittsburg), and Jan Williams (percussionist, Professor Emeritus, SUNY-Buffalo). A PAS information session by Chapter President Christopher Swist will take place at 11:30AM, followed immediately by master classes by Robert Paterson and Matt Ward. At 2:00PM, a panel discussion on “American Percussion Music: History and Influence” will take place with the 4 distinguished guests and KSC faculty member’s Murray Mast, Heather Gilligan, James Chesebrough, Joseph Darby, and Christopher Swist.

The Day of Percussion will conclude with a concert in the Main Theater by the Keene State College Percussion Ensemble, directed by Murray Mast and Christopher Swist. The program will include compositions by Amy Williams, Robert Paterson, and Christopher Swist. In addition KSC faculty member Marcia Lehninger will be the soloist in Lou Harrison’s epic Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra. The concerto features the solo violin backed by an orchestra of pipes, brake drums, flower pots, wash tubs, clock coils, an inverted contrabass played with triangle beaters, and some more typical percussion instruments. Rob Paterson’s Stealing Thunder will feature a sextet of KSC student percussionists accompanied by recorded thunder. Robert Paterson and Amy Williams will also be performing their own compositions on the show, a piano solo and a marimba duet.

Remember faculty and staff receive 1 complimentary ticket to the performance!