Percussionists making a 'bang'

The Percussion Ensemble, featuring 17 musicians playing over 40 instruments, will perform in the Light Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow night. The ensemble will play many different genres of music, including jazz, Western art music, contemporary and standard percussion ensemble and transcription. "It's going to be a good show," Tobie Wilkinson, senior lecturer of music and ensemble director, said. "We're going to be doing different pieces with many different groups of ensemble members." To go along with the different types of music, different instruments will be played. Sophomore member Andrew Stone said while he will only be playing a few instruments, other members will be playing 10 or more. "I could probably spend a half hour listing all the different instruments we're going to be performing with," Stone said. "I'm playing the marimbas in a quartet, and I also play on three different size drums during another piece. With the amount of different instruments we play, I think it makes the show that much more interesting." One of the characteristics of the ensemble is they will never all be playing with each other at the same time. At most, there will be 12 musicians playing at once. The show will have some solos, but it mostly consists of pieces with about three to nine players playing at once. Besides playing for the ensemble, some of the members also play for UW-Whitewater's marching band. "I'd say about two-thirds of the kids play for the band as well as the ensemble," Wilkinson said. "What's different about the ensemble is that it helps foster musical growth by allowing the percussionists to play without the accompaniment of horns and other instruments." Stone said the percussion ensemble provides members with the chance to perform in a different setting, which is one of the reasons why he enjoys it so much. "With the ensemble, not only do we provide the beat, but we provide the rhythm and the melody as well," Stone said. "Instead of having one steady sound playing in the background like we do with the marching band, we're the featured performers. It gives us an opportunity to showcase our individual skills."

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