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HSU Calypso Band, Percussion Ensemble, World Percussion Group Concert

Van Duzer Theater

Please join the HSU Percussion Ensemble, World Percussion Group & Calypso Band in Concert on Saturday, April 22nd at 8:00 p.m. in HSU’s Van Duzer Theater, presenting traditional and contemporary music for Percussion Ensemble, the exciting rhythms of West Africa, and the festive steel drum sounds of the Calypso tradition of the Caribbean. Directed by Eugene Novotney & Howard Kaufman, this evening’s performance will feature precise rhythmic interplay and driving rhythms, and will be a spectacle for both the ears and eyes. This is a show that will have something for everyone! $10 General, $5 Senior/Child, $3 HSU students with ID. The HSU Percussion Ensemble will be featuring one of John Cage’s most famous and innovative works from the 1940’s entitled, Second Construction for Percussion. This highly experimental work calls for percussionists playing traditional Western percussion instruments combined with exotic instruments from around the world, including Thai Gongs, German Almglocken, African Pod-Rattles, and Chinese Temple Bells. One of the more unusual instruments employed in the work is Cage’s infamous “water gong,” where the percussionist submerges a Chinese “Feng” gong in water to alter and manipulate its pitch. Also featured in this work is Cage’s famous “Prepared-Piano,” an instrument created by taking a classical grand piano and adding nuts, bolts, washers, rubber, paper, and other objects to the piano strings and sound-board. The effect creates an instrument that sounds more like an electronic synthesizer than an acoustic piano, and the effect is both stunning and surprising. The Percussion Ensemble will also be presenting a jazz fusion arrangement for percussion ensemble of the piece, Oops, made famous by jazz vibraphonist, Mike Manieri, and the seminal jazz-fusion group, Steps Ahead. Oops features an infectious groove and a phenomenal arrangement orchestrated for Marimbas, Vibraphones, Bells, Chimes, Steelpans, Bass, and Drumset, and will feature a vibraphone solo by HSU percussion performance major, Eric Tolfa. The Percussion Ensemble will also be playing a dynamic piece by Ed Argenziano entitled, Lids, which is composed for aluminum and rubber trash cans. The first half of the show will end with a suite of traditional Mandeng Drumming of West African, and an inspiring arrangement of Kpanlogo from Ghana, presented to the Humboldt audience in its classic form using all indigenous instruments. The second half of the show will feature the festive dance music of the Humboldt State Calypso Band. One of Humboldt County’s favorite ensembles, the Calypso Band will feature several high-energy dance compositions from the Caribbean in their set. The Humboldt State Calypso Band prides itself in maintaining an accurate and authentic connection to the roots of the steel band movement and the innovative musicians of Trinidad, the island on which this unique percussion phenomenon was born. The band is dedicated to the performance of traditional and contemporary music from the Caribbean, Africa, Brazil, Cuba and the United States, and through their 30-year history of performances at HSU, the Calypso Band has become a virtual “institution,” and stands as one of the most popular groups on the entire North Coast.

DATES/TIMES

WHERE

• Van Duzer Theater

PRICE

CONTACT INFO

• Phone: 707-826-3531
• Email: patrick@humboldt.edu
• Web site