USU percussionists to perform a wide variety of music at concert
Car parts, gongs, bowed vibes and mallets played inside of a piano are just some of the many unique instruments that will be featured in the Utah State University percussion concert Friday.
The concert starts at 7:30 p.m. in the Kent Concert Hall of the Chase Fine Arts Center, and is free for students with and ID and $5 for everyone else.
It is the percussion and Caine Ensemble’s first and only concert this semester, said percussionist Alissa Kirk.
The Utah State Percussion Ensemble, Cache Valley Percussion Ensemble and the Caine Percussion Ensemble will play in the concert.
In the Caine Ensemble there are fewer people but more instruments, Kirk added.
Local high school percussionists from Sky View, and Bear River will be featured in the Cache Valley percussion ensemble.
“We’re playing a lot of everything. There’s something for everyone,” said Kirk, a sophomore in music education. “Jazz, classical, Ragtime and 20th Century music” will be performed.
The Cache Valley Percussion ensemble will play “The Dance of the Comedians” by Kabalevsky, “Evening Prayer” from the opera “Hansel and Gretel,” by Humperdinck and “Scherzino” by Moszkowski.
For the Moszkowski piece 12 players will be playing on six marimbas and it will sound like a string section in orchestra, said Dennis Griffin, director of percussion programs at USU.
“Different kinds of styles [and a] full range of dynamics from mellow to pretty wild,” will be featured, Griffin said.
They are playing jazz pieces. “Those are a lot of fun,” he added.
Sam Bryson, a senior majoring in music, will be featured in a toe tapping rendition of “Sing, Sing, Sing,” by Benny Goodman.
Also an arrangement of “El Cumbanchero,” a Mexican folk song, will be performed.
“There are pieces originally for orchestra but we arranged them for percussion,” Griffin said.
Transcriptions of “Espana Rhapsody” by Chabrier, Dvorak’s “Slavonic Dance No. 2,” and the Adagio from Saint-Saens’ “Third Symphony,” will be played by the USU ensemble.
Kirk will be featured in a ragtime song “Log Cabin Blues,” and Tyler Whitesides will play his original ragtime song “Ragtime Rooster,” also.
Bowed vibes, gongs and mallets played on the strings of a grand piano will be featured in “Contrasts” by Philip Parker.
“I’ve got some pretty good players this year so we’ll do really good,” said Griffin.
Two percussion program graduates, Casey Cangelosi and Tyson Titensor, are also going to be performing a duet with multiple non-pitched instruments, Kirk said.
“They’ve played together a lot over the years,” Griffin said.
They are both headed to graduate school and Cangelosi has a $24,600 scholarship to Boston College.
“He’s one of the best players in the country,” Giffin said.
Titensor, a percussion music and business major, has is own online percussion business, which is “one of the largest in the country.
“I think a lot more people would get into percussion music if they had more experience listening to it,” Bryson said. “I think it’s a riot. It’s fun to listen to and it’s a lot of fun to play.”
Bryson said he thinks that percussionist are the most relaxed people in the department, because they get to play around and hit on things all day.
“Anything you can hit and can make a sound it can be a percussion instrument,” Griffin said.
-ranaebang@cc.usu.edu