This includes one involving the creation of the TU Steelband.
The end of the semester is a marker, not just for finals and the upcoming summer, but also for the many concerts and performances done by various groups on campus. One of these groups is the University of Tulsa Percussion Ensemble, which performed their semester’s work on Wednesday, April 29. The performance included six pieces, which involved a marimba quartet, the premier of composer Adam Bruce’s latest work and a piece made up of practically only steel drums, making for the introduction and creation of TU’s own steelband.
The performance ran very smoothly and efficiently. The concert ran on time and never dragged, keeping the audience entertained throughout its entirety. The music was well rehearsed with very few slip-ups, showing the sheer amount of work and effort the musicians had put into this ensemble. “Preparation for this concert was quite tedious since we only had an hour and a half a week to rehearse as a full group,” explained senior Chandler Baumgartner following the concert. The group had to begin performing at the very beginning of the semester in order to make enough time to learn the six pieces. “There was a lot of trying to find [time] throughout the week to not only have everyone available to rehearse … With that being said, it was definitely worth the work.”
The concert was directed by Professor Chris Harris, the new percussion teacher at the university. Along with conducting the concert, Harris provided all of the needed steel drums in order to form the TU Steelband. The School of Music did not have access to these drums prior to rehearsal of this performance as they are costly both to purchase and maintain. The drums themselves are made from oil drums with this kind of instrument originating from the 1930s in Trinidad and Tobago — a history explained extensively during transition periods between pieces. The song performed with these drums was X-Man, composed by Farmer Nappy and arranged by Andrew Richardson.
Though X-Man was the main event of the evening, the other compositions were performed just as well and almost as entertaining. These include Watercolor Sun by Ivan Trevino, Shenandoah by Adam Bruce, Catching Shadows by Ivan Trevino, Bonham by Christopher Rouse and Ragtime Robin by George Hamilton Green and arranged by Bob Becker. Of these, the stand-out performances had to have been Shenandoah and Bonham. This ensemble performance was the premier of Shenandoah, a mallet piece that involved the entire ensemble, meaning the audience at the concert was the first to hear this song live. Bonham, however, differed from all the other songs because, aside from X-Man, it was the only performance to almost exclusively use drums. These include snares, toms, timpanis and a drum set solo by sophomore Louis Cierpiot. Other solos of the night were played on either the marimba or xylophone, which were done by Baumgartner and junior Riley Groves in Catching Shadows and another by Baumgartner in Ragtime Robin. “It pushed everyone beyond their comfort zone and it made everyone a better musician,” stated Baumgartner when asked about the benefits of performing in the ensemble.
The night did not come without its own challenges, the most prominent being the lack of space given to the performers. The Tulsa Ballet was sharing the Lorton Performance Center with the ensemble the night of the concert, meaning their performance had to take place in the Meining Recital Hall rather than the main stage room. This made for difficult transitions between pieces since there was little room to move instruments around. It also caused songs that included the drum set, namely Bonham and X-Man, to be very loud when performed in the small room that lacked sound absorption. However, that did little to diminish the performance, and it was still just as entertaining as it would have been in a larger theater. The concert gave for a lovely experience, and the group is sure to do great things in the future.
