Percussion Ensemble presenting spring concert April 13

Northwest Missouri State University’s Percussion Ensemble will present its spring concert this month, featuring an eclectic mix of music performed on traditional instruments as well as the performers’ bodies.

The concert begins at 7 p.m. Monday, April 13, in the Charles Johnson Theater at the Olive DeLuce Fine Arts Building. It is free and open to the public.

Payton Dollins, center, and the Northwest Percussion Ensemble will present a spring concert on April 13. (Photo by Chloe Timmons/Northwest Missouri State University)

The concert will feature a variety of music and percussion combinations, including a vibraphone duet, “Hall of Mirrors,” and a marimba concerto, “White Pines,” as well as original compositions by Zane Papek, a senior mathematics major at Northwest from Smithville, Missouri.

The program also will offer non-traditional percussion works that play off the performers’ bodies, including a duet based on the game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, and “Bodix,” which features a quartet creating a groove from the varied timbres of their bodies.

“Not only is it a good place to go listen to music, but it’s an experience,” said Payton Dollins, a senior instrumental music education major from Liberty, Missouri, who will perform a marimba arrangement of “Over the Rainbow.” “We really incorporate transitions and stage sets that catch your eye and that are visually interesting.”

The ensemble is under the direction this spring of Ethan Martin, a doctoral student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

For more information about musical ensembles at Northwest, visit www.nwmissouri.edu/finearts/music/.