FAC Percussion and Winds Chamber Music Classes Are Underway

My percussion and winds chamber classes at the Fine Arts Center are completing Week 3 as I post this blog, and I wanted readers to know what the students were doing to advance their musical abilities and otherwise keep themselves out of trouble! All are working to achieve short-term goals as musicians as well as busily preparing themselves for their first recital, will be held in the Fine Arts Center Recital Hall on Thursday, October 25th, starting at 7:30 PM.

Percussion I students, pictured left to right are Andrew Strain, Laura Hill, Tyler Cope, Camden Tomlinson, Brian Shepherd, (Percussion Intern David Katilius), Chet Young, Marshall Terry, and Christian Johnson. At any one time, these musicians will have five projects going that should keep them busy practicing for about 45-60 minutes daily. Currently, we are developing elegant, relaxed hand technique, playing single stroke and long roll exercises on the practice pad. (In week 4 we begin short, rudimental rolls and paradiddles.) The class is developing counting and sight reading abilities with eight-note rhythms in various time signatures, using Garwood Whaley's Fundamental Studies for the Snare Drum. Four-way rock coordination, sound, and theory of movement are the current topics on drum set; students are using exercises from Ted Reed's famous Progressive Steps to Syncopation as exercise material. Next we begin studies in jazz time keeping. Every Friday, Percussion I students have to demonstrate their progress in a weekly playing check.

My Winds & Brass Chamber Music Class is peopled by (left to right) Faith Russell, Blake Dutcher, Fiona Aldrich, Chris Askew, Lindsay Quackenbush, Hunter Goldsmith, Jay Belanger, and Sara Hoggatt. In various combinations of flute(s), oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon, they are rehearsing quintet arrangements from Felix Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words, quartets by Franz Josef Haydn, Romantic Trios for three flutes and a beautiful four-flute arrangement of Maurice Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante Defunte. Additionally, ensemble members are planning term projects including composer profiles, the evolution of their particular instruments, and aspects of period performance. Since the level of musical interaction amongst ensemble members and course expectations are both high, Winds & Brass Chamber Music musicians can expect to log in up to 45 minutes of dedicated practice each evening.

Like Percussion I, Percussion II students are enmeshed in layers of concurrent projects. Drummers Andrew Smith, Jaron Ferrer, Robert Mullis, and Zach Perdun are reviewing the 40 essential drum rudiments (currently, paradiddles and flam rudiments) and digesting two solos weekly from Charlie Wilcoxen's The All American Drummer and Garwood Whaley's Musical Studies for the Intermediate Snare Drummer. The class is undertaking studies in Samba rhythms and coordination using the Drum Stuff class anthology and Ted Reed's Progressive Steps for Syncopation. For jazz studies, the Percussion II class is the first at the Fine Arts Center to use John Riley's famous The Art of Bop Drumming. On any given day, members of Percussion I can expect to put in 60-90 minutes of practice at home to keep up with their studies.

Peter DiLeo, Jacob Lawler, Josh Caprell, Rebecca Schillizzi, Wesley, and Intern David Katilius populate the Fine Arts Center's Advanced Percussion Class, For Term I, class members are focusing their 2-mallet and four-mallet marimba playing. Nearly all members of the class are laying foundations using Fundamental Method for Mallets by Mitchell Peters and the famous Method of Movement for Mallets by Leigh Howard Stevens. Their solo repertoire includes Alice Gomez's Mexican Murals, Gordon Stout's Mexican Dances Ney Rosauro's Concerto #1 for Marimba, Mitchell Peters's Yellow After the Rain and Sonata Allegro, JS Bach's Preludio in E Major, and other works. In addition, Advanced Percussion students are preparing a five-marimba arrangement of selections from Bizet's Carmen. These serious percussion students can be expected to practice up to three hours daily, counting the studio time they log in at the Fine Arts Center.