Purdue News

March 17, 2000 'Brooms Hilda to Bach' concert stretches definition of percussion NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: Great visuals are available during rehearsals of "Brooms Hilda," which uses push brooms a la "Stomp," and of "William Tells's Canned Overture," which uses soup cans as percussion. Purdue percussion specialist Pamela Nave also is available for interviews. To arrange photos or interviews, contact Kathy Matter, Purdue Bands publicist, at (765) 496-6785. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Most people think drums when they think percussion instruments. But Purdue's Winter Drumline plans to expand that definition to include brooms and tin cans in a free "Brooms Hilda to Bach" concert at 7 p.m. Sunday, April 2, in Fowler Hall of the university's Stewart Center. The performing group "Stomp" recently made unusual forms of percussion popular, but the art of making music with odd instruments has been around for a long time, said Pamela J. Nave, assistant professor of bands and Purdue's percussion specialist. "The basic premise is that if it makes a noise, and you use your hands, then it's percussion," she said. "It's been that way for a long time. 'Stomp' just made people aware of it. They found a niche with it." During the spring semester, when Purdue's percussionists aren't setting the tempo for the marching band, there's time to explore a wider range of percussion literature, which led Nave and her students to "Brooms Hilda," a piece that uses push brooms, and "William Tell's Canned Overture," which employs coffee cans and big soup cans as instruments. "It is fun, but it is serious literature for us," explained Nave, who said it's harder than it sounds to create interesting rhythms and stay on beat while using offbeat instruments. The audience also will be treated to the Purdue Symphonic Band percussionists in "Quiet," a piece that gets quite vocal. The musicians "say quiet in all kinds of different ways. It's very visual," Nave said. To showcase the more classical side of the spectrum, marimba soloist Jennifer Arin Smith, a freshman from Huntertown, Ind., will be featured in Ney Rosauro's "Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra." The Winter Drumline will also perform J.S. Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D minor." Before the concert, percussion students and anyone else who's interested can attend a master class with Dave Samuels and Dick Sisto that focuses on mallet jazz improvisation. Samuels, Nave said, is considered one of the top mallet players of his generation. He enjoyed a long association with Spyro Gyra, stretching from 1977 to 1994, and has won two Grammy Awards. After the Purdue workshop, he will go on tour with The Caribbean Jazz Project, which he founded in the mid 1990s. Sisto, another marimba player, is a regular adjudicator and clinician at the Purdue Jazz Festival. He is the music director at The Seelbach Hilton Hotel in Louisville, Ky., where his house trio has backed many jazz greats. Admission to the master class is also free. It will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Fowler Hall. CONTACT: Kathy Matter, Purdue Bands publicist, (765) 496-6785, kcmatter@bands.purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page