Percussion Concert Features World Music Beat
KEENE, N.H. 3/18/03 - The beats of Brazilian sambas, Asiatic dances, Mexican keyboards, and Scottish marimbas will add a global sound to the Keene State College Percussion Ensemble concert on Tuesday, April 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Recital Hall of the Redfern Arts Center on Brickyard Pond. Tickets are $7 for the general public and $5 for KSC students, senior citizens, and youth 17 and under. Call the box office at 603-358-2168.
Keene State faculty member William Hanley will direct 10 students through a diverse repertoire of percussion music that includes Brazilian composer Ney Rosauro’s 1990 Samba and Mexican-American composer Alice Gomez’s Rainbow, an evocative work for keyboard percussion. Another world-music-influenced piece is George Frock’s Three Asiatic Dances.
A performance of the world-renowned Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie’s A Little Prayer will be dedicated to the crew of the space shuttle Columbia. This solo marimba piece will be transcribed for four marimbists by KSC student Steve Giannuzzi.
Giannuzzi, a senior music education major from Keene, also will conduct Alan Abel’s playful Tom Tom Foolery.
Hanley, principal timpanist of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, will be the featured soloist in John Beck’s Concerto for Timpani and Percussion Ensemble. Hanley recently retired from his position as associate professor of music after 25 years at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He also taught music for nearly 20 years at Dartmouth College. He now is a percussion instructor at Keene State.
The Percussion Ensemble provides music students an opportunity for public performance that is essential to graduation from Keene State with a degree in music. Students pursuing a music degree may opt for one of three programs: bachelor of music in music education, bachelor of music in music performance, and bachelor of arts in music. Music is one of 35 major programs offered at Keene State, which has an enrollment of 5,165 students. For further information about the music program, call 603-358-2177.
