By: Nicole Plowright
On Tuesday November 10th Adams State College Department of Music put on the Percussion Spectacular in Richardson Hall. The concert opened with “Head Talk” by Mark Ford. This piece was done by the Percussion Ensemble on old heads of drum sets. The entire piece was performed in a comical fashion that had the crowd laughing. The Percussion Ensemble also performed “October Mountain” by Alan Houchanes. This piece was five movements and played on various percussion instruments.
Next was the drum line lead by David Gittings. The drum line gave an up close performance of the 2009 Street Beat Sequence that they have been performing at all the football games. These beats were composed by Gittings.
The fourth piece of the night featured a drum set solo by junior music education major David Noller. The piece, “Red Turtles”, was a competition piece composed by Noller, shared by Mr. James Doyle, associate professor of music.
The first act ended with a piece performed by the Percussion Ensemble. This was a multimedia piece, a composition by Doyle accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation designed to raise awareness about Child Soldiers. Doyle’s piece is entitled “Let Silence Bring Night”. The song also featured the flute styling of Dr. Tracy Doyle, ASC Music Department head, as well as, the vocal talents of Matt Ortega, April Martin, Lisa King, Casey Bachurski, and Marcos LeBlanc.
The second act was filled with performances by The Rocky Mountain Pan Handlers and The San Luis Valley Community Steel Drum Band. During these performances audience members heard the famous tunes, “Margaritaville”, “Hot, Hot, Hot”, and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”. Other songs included “Banana Boat Song”, “Miami Beach Rumba”, and “Natural Mystic”. The night concluded with “Limbo”. The limbo stick was brought out and audience members were encouraged to get on stage and show off their limbo skills.
After the concert senior music performance and secondary English education major, Leslie Kahler, stated that, “Performing with the Rocky Mountain Pan Handlers is a blast! Putting on this performance together took a lot of hard work on everyone’s part but performing it made it all worth it!”
All proceeds from the concert will be sent to the Child Soldier Organization. The next even the Music Department will host is the Fall Jazz Concert. It will be held November 17th at 7:00 p.m. in Richardson Hall. For more information, or to purchase a recording of the Percussion Spectacular call (719) 587-7621.
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