On March 17 UTM will be hosting the Yale Percussion Collective directed by Robert Van Sice. Sice will also be giving a free percussion concert at 7:30 p.m. in the Fulton Theatre located in the Fine Arts building as well as a masterclass at 2:30 p.m. featuring Reich Drumming and Cage Story.
The group is made up of world-renowned musicians who have studied under the direction of Robert Van Sice at Yale University over the past decade and are now preforming and teaching all around the world.
Shane Jones, Assistant Professor of Percussion/Co-Director of Percussion Studies says, “The Percussion Collective [with] Robert Van Sice brings its star lineup of percussionists into the world with an energetic program featuring two masterpieces for six players. Steve Reichās Sextet is a cornerstone of the repertoire, comprised of five continuous movements ranging from lush, to jarring, to groovy and everything in between.”
Along with Drumming’s sextet, the group will also be preforming a new work written specifically for The Percussion Collective, Seaborne. For this piece, Robert Van Sice brought together Emmy Award winning composer Garth Neustadter and a water photographer/videographer Kjell Van Sice to awaken sensibilities in the audience and to bring light to the beauty and importance that our oceans possess.
“This new commission of a thirty-minute work for six percussionists and video projection is at the nexus of the percussive art soundscape and the visual celebration of our endangered oceans. Just as rhythm and the percussive voice are the heartbeat of music, our precious oceans are the lifeblood of the planet and thus our very existence,” says Jones.
For more information on this event or future music events, you can contact Sherry Adams via phone at 731-881-7402 or via e-mail at sadams@utm.edu.
