October 29, 2009
SIUC Percussion Group to offer free concert
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Southern Illinois University Carbondale Percussion Group, with percussion faculty member Ron Coulter, offers a free concert in Altgeld Hall.
The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 6 in Altgeld Hall, Room 112.
As always, the Percussion Group offers new and innovative approaches to musical sound, this time incorporating a set of 12 brake drums into the percussion instrument lineup.
The group has plenty of performance experience to its credit, with performances at the National Association for Music Education North Regional Convention in Indianapolis, Ind., Illinois Day of Percussion, DeKalb, Ill., and the Athena Festival VI of Women Composers in Murray, Ky. Closer to home, the group also participated in the annual SIUC Outside the Box New Music Festival.
The group’s reputation as an exciting and talented musical ensemble is growing statewide, as it auditioned for and received an invitation to perform at the 2010 Illinois Music Educators Association State Conference, set for Peoria. The performance gives the ensemble a chance to showcase not only themselves but also the SIUC School of Music.
The Percussion Group will also collaborate with the Chicago Composers Consortium next spring to present a concert of work composed just for them.
The group got its start in 2005 with the goal of encompassing a broad range of percussion chamber music, from classic to contemporary to improvised, including influences from around the world, including the distinctive percussive rhythms from Africa, Brazil, Cuba and Mexico. The group often incorporates a multi-media approach to its musical performances, including other instruments, imagery, performance art or dance -- or all of the above.