Many have childhood memories of waking up in the early hours of the morning, only to be met with the sights and sounds of the “George Lopez” show and its iconic theme “Low Rider.” Audiences at the Alumni Recital Hall got a piece of that nostalgia on April 6 with Percussion Ensemble’s spring concert, in which they played six pieces including “Low Rider.” Ensemble director Dr. James Walker said that the song became part of the program because in the fall semester, a student would play the melody of it, and a fellow ensemble member said they should perform it during a concert. Additionally, Walker believed that “Low Rider” fit the theme of the ensemble, as it “would fit well when played on marimbas and vibraphones.”
Walker said that he chose these songs because he saw it as an opportunity for the students to play some instruments they wouldn’t typically get to play.
When asked if any of the ensemble’s pieces were challenging, first-year ensemble member Nicholas Dahl said, “Not really, we’ve been practicing a lot and we’ve been doing really well, and it’s been a couple of months of these pieces.”
Dahl added that performing in front of others doesn’t bother him anymore. “It’s just another thing,” he said.
Walker said he viewed Percussion Ensemble as not just a group of performers, but that “on another level, it’s a class that’s about learning to play in an ensemble, how to play with other musicians, how to interact, how to get rhythms fitting in together.”
The future of the ensemble, according to Walker, is “doing something similar with Samba music, music from Brazil. Trying to expose students to a wide variety of instruments.”
Michael King can be contacted at
Michael.P.King@keene.edu
“It’s a class that’s about learning to play in an ensemble, how to play with other musicians, how to interact, how to get rhythms fitting together,”
DR. JAMES WALKER
DIRECTOR OF PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE
