Keene State’s Percussion Ensemble got an audience in the Redfern Arts Center’s Alumni Recital Hall moving and grooving to its beat during its annual spring concert.
On Thursday, April 10, the ensemble took to the stage with mallets and drumsticks in hand to perform their set of percussion pieces. Some of the instruments featured in the concert included a marimba, xylophone and vibraphone.
According to Director of the Percussion Ensemble James Walker, each of the ensemble’s concerts is slightly different in the specific instruments that are used.
“The actual choice of instruments can vary greatly, depending on the material being played,” Walker said. “This semester’s performance by the ensemble focused largely on mallet percussion, along with drum set and some smaller percussion instruments such as bongos and shakers.”
Walker said the ensemble performs one concert each semester, and each concert is given its own theme or focus for the program.
“This semester’s concert focused largely on music associated with the great British drummer and composer, Bill Bruford,” Walker said. “I try to use this as an opportunity to educate my students about important musicians in the history of percussion.”
When it came to choosing the specific pieces of music that the ensemble would play in the concert, Walker said he made the decision based on what would be the best fit for the instruments and players that are available in the ensemble.
“Several of the works on this concert utilized what is known as odd-time signatures … or changing meters, where the number of beats may change from one measure to the next,” Walker said. “I also look for material which will help the musical development of the students – perhaps giving someone their first opportunity to improvise or introducing them to an instrument they might not have played previously.”
Walker said one of the biggest challenges that the ensemble had to work through in rehearsals for the concert was the unusual rhythmic style of Bruford’s music.
“One example is the closing piece on the program, ‘My Heart Declares a Holiday,’ which at one point had some of the members of the ensemble playing phrases with four beats each, while simultaneously others were playing a melody consisting of thirteen beats, each group repeating their rhythmic figures until the patterns lined up again,” Walker said. “Playing these sections of contrasting rhythms requires a certain amount of trust between the different members of the ensemble, knowing that if they play their part correctly, and the other musicians play their contrasting part correctly, that everyone eventually will arrive together on the same beat.”
The ensemble was able to overcome these challenges, in part because of what Walker described as a supportive community environment within the group of students who make up the ensemble.
“I have been quite fortunate in my time directing the KSC Percussion Ensemble, in that without fail, the students all have not only devoted time and energy to learning their own parts, but they have been supportive of their fellow students,” Walker said. “We seem to strike a good balance between enjoying the process of preparing this material while still getting the work done.”
Walker went on to say that many of the students who play in the ensemble are not music majors.
“One of our players is majoring in Architecture, and another majors in Biology, but that has no bearing on their roles in the ensemble. If someone can play, they are welcome,” Walker said.
Overall, Walker said he was appreciative of the support that the community has shown to the ensemble.
“I just want to express my appreciation, not only to the students who went above and beyond in preparing a very difficult collection of music for this concert, but also for those who attended our performance,” Walker said. “I’m pleased and honored to note that the attendance at our concerts has increased from one semester to the next, and that support is greatly appreciated by all of us affiliated with the ensemble.”
One of the recent traditions of the ensemble’s concerts, Walker said, is to perform music that has been composed by members of the KSC community. For this concert, that meant performing a piece that had been composed by the group’s own Victoria Young.
Young, a senior and percussion performance major, said she has been a part of the percussion ensemble for all four years that she has been a student at KSC, but this was her first time composing a piece for the ensemble.
“It was definitely a learning curve to write for that instrumentation,” Young said. “I’m really thankful, Dr. [Heather] Gilligan and [Walker], my percussion professor, helped me in terms of expanding it, but also providing ideas and brainstorming because I had never done that before, but both of them encouraged me to do it.”
Young said she was looking forward to hearing people’s reactions to the piece that she composed.
“I’m excited to hear what people think about it,” Young said. “I’ve enjoyed the rehearsal process with it and I’ve heard from the other percussionists that they have enjoyed it, but I’m excited to hear for someone who has never heard it, what their first impression is because I’ve heard it so many times now.”
Young also spoke to the strong feeling of community within the percussion ensemble.
“The percussion sections are always honestly one of the closest of the instrument families. Because we’re so mobile in our instrument, there’s just a lot more opportunity to interact with each other,” Young said. “It’s just so much fun and it’s a really welcoming and comfortable environment.”
As a graduating senior who performed in her last concert with the group, Young said the percussion ensemble is going to be one of the hardest things for her to leave behind at KSC.
“It’s really bittersweet. There’s definitely going to be tears, but I wouldn’t do anything different. I wouldn’t change anything. It’s definitely going to be one of the things I miss most,” Young said.
Sophomore Cailyn Gorman said she decided to attend the concert because she is a student in the music department herself, and she wanted to come to support her friends. Gorman said she really enjoyed the performance.
“I absolutely loved it,” Gorman said. “Specifically, the ‘Conundrum’ piece. That was really cool. All the people were paired up and they really seemed in-sync, and you can tell that they practiced and they were having a lot of fun up there onstage.”
Justin Dearborn can be reached at
