04.19.2022 ENS Percussion Ensemble

PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE Ralph Sorrentino, Director Greg Giannascoli, Guest Soloist WCU High School Honors Percussion Ensemble Brent Behrenshausen, Conductor

TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2022 MADELEINE WING ADLER THEATRE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 8:15 PM

PROGRAM Mercury Rising .............................................................................................................................................Nathan Daughtrey (b. 1975) Mayhem ....................................................................................................................................................... Daniel Montoya Jr. (b. 1978) WCU High School Honors Percussion Ensemble Brent Behrenshausen, conductor

African Welcome Piece ......................................................................................................................................... Michael Udow (b. 1949) Garage Drummer ..............................................................................................................................................James Campbell (b. 1953) * First WCU Percussion Ensemble performance

Luke Thurston, multi-percussion

Intermission Popet .................................................................................................................................................................... Carl Schimmel (b. 1975) * First WCU Percussion Ensemble performance

Matt Langlois, Anthony Maldonado, Jacob Scheidt, and Sean Slattery; multi-percussion

Please Scream Inside Your Heart ......................................................................................................................Adam Silverman (b. 1973) * First WCU Percussion Ensemble performance

Matt Langlois, Sean McWilliams, David Sabella, and Luke Thurston; multi-percussion

Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra, Op. 34 .............................................................Robert Kurka (1921-1957)/arr. G. Giannascoli * First WCU Percussion Ensemble performance

I. Allegro molto

Greg Giannascoli, marimba Luke Thurston, xylophone; Jacob Scheidt and Kathleen Carter, marimba; David Sabella and Mike Dettra, vibraphone

Hungarian Rhapsody .................................................................................................. David Popper (1843-1913)/arr. G. Giannascoli * First WCU Percussion Ensemble performance

Greg Giannascoli, marimba Matt Langlois and Sean McWilliams; marimba

West Chester University Percussion Ensemble Kathleen Carter Mike Dettra Craig DiGiamarino Ben Ernst Sean Hayes Ben Kutay Matt Langlois Kelly Lawrie

Anthony Maldonado Sean McWilliams Kris Nelson Jon Partridge Eric Rodgers David Sabella Anton Saliaris Caitlyn Scanlan

Jacob Scheidt Sean Slattery Nick Stalford Mason Stroop Luke Thurston Zack Volturo Loryn Whistler

West Chester University High School Honors Percussion Ensemble Meg Cramer (Wilson HS) Zachary Crothamel (Garnet Valley HS) Joey DiNapoli (Oxford Area HS)

Brian Gambler (Schuylkill Valley HS) Connor Hasson (Wilson HS) Luke Hathaway (Springfield HS)

Nathan McCarty (Sun Valley HS) Colin Plank (Pottstown MS) Milo Salvucci (Westtown School) Matt Langlois, assistant conductor

Please silence all cell phones and electronic devices.

ARTIST PROFILE

Greg Giannascoli Grammy nominated marimba artist Greg Giannascoli was a winner of the 2001 Artist International New York Recital/Young Artist Competition and was also top prize winner of the 1997 Patrons of Wisdom International Young Artist Competition. Greg performs regularly on many Community Concert Series programs throughout the United States, as a soloist with orchestras, and in recital throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Greg has performed recitals in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Theatro Juarez in Mexico, and the Glenn Gould Studio in Canada. Greg performs on the Yamaha 6000 marimba. He performed with Orchestra 2001 on the Grammy nominated recording of George Crumb’s American Song Book VII, Voices from the Heartland. In Greg’s forthcoming book, Opinions on Playing the Marimba, he interviews many leading marimba players about what they learned from their teachers, what evolved along the way, and what they now teach their students. Reviews of Greg’s performances include “here is music played so well it would capture and hold anybody’s attention indefinitely” (Classical New Jersey), and “with great mastery and two mallets in each hand Giannascoli gave a true lesson with what can be done with this singular instrument” (The National of Mexico City). Reviews of Greg’s first CD, Concertino, include “...elegantly phrased and sensitively performed...sails confidently through the most challenging technical passages” (Percussive Notes).

SELECTED PROGRAM NOTES Garage Drummer was inspired by my memories of rock band jam sessions (commonly known as garage bands) held in various household basements

and garages during my career. The occupants of the host household, at first, notice little more than random noises and feedback seeping through the walls of their living room. As the jam session unfolds, the drummer's experiments with sounds, grooves, and fills increase with confidence and join a cacophony of wild guitar, bass, and keyboard riffs. As usual, the drummer not only ends up driving the band, but also drives the occupants out of the house! I have to say that I’ve served on both ends of the experience as a drummer and a parent.

- James Campbell

In creating Popet, I was interested in the possibilities of a piece in which one player’s actions – even arm movements and stick motions – were accompanied by percussive sounds made by a different player. It would appear, I thought, as if the percussionist who is actually producing the sound would have agency and power, and that the percussionist whose actions constitute the choreography of the work would seem to have been manipulated; it would be akin to the experience of a puppet show. Rather than assign one of the two roles to each of the players, I constructed a plot which requires the players to exchange roles during the course of the piece. The work thus developed into a theater piece which incorporates spoken word in addition to choreography and music. I deliberately chose not to use an easily intelligible text, as I wanted to recreate the experiences that I have had when attending performances of nagauta or yōkyoku in Japan, during which my vague understanding of what is happening in the story is obscured by a layer of mystery and cultural “otherness” that makes the performance more striking. I chose to set the text in Middle English, so that English-speaking audiences would perceive as familiar certain elements of the text (the words “of” and “the” for example) but would fail to fully comprehend the tale being told. The result is an experience which emphasizes musicality and theatricality rather than narrative. Still, I tried to create as accurate a text as possible, and some of the lines are drawn directly from “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” and “Pearl,” which are Middle English texts of the late fourteenth century from the Northwest Midlands region of Britain.

- Carl Schimmel

Please Scream Inside Your Heart for percussion quartet with electronic accompaniment track was composed for The Green Vibes Project as music

that requires no percussion instruments made from unsustainable and endangered woods and offers options to use salvaged materials. Aside from vibraphones, performers are encouraged to substitute upcycled materials for any other instrument called for in the music, matching the mode of sound-production and general tone of traditional percussion instruments as creatively as possible. The music has an incessantly propulsive recorded track with lo-fi sounds of synthesized arpeggiations and a distorted Wurlitzer electric piano. Composed entirely during the 2020 lockdown resulting from the Covid-19 global pandemic, the music is intended to express a bottled-up tension of unease and fear. Its title comes from a sign posted at a roller coaster in Fujiyoshida, Japan, insisting that mask-wearing riders remain completely silent, lest they risk spreading infection. This title, shared as a global meme, resonated intensely with the limitations caused by this disease, and inspired the music. This music is dedicated to the members of The Green Vibes Project, long-term collaborators whom I greatly admire and appreciate their mission for making change and promoting the hope of a continuing future.

- Adam Silverman

UPCOMING WELLS SCHOOL OF MUSIC EVENTS For full event details visit www.wcupa.edu/music or call (610) 436-2739 Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 8:15 PM Woodwind Chamber Recital Henry Grabb, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building

Thursday, April 21, 2022, 8:15 PM Keyboard Honors Recital Emily Bullock, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building

Saturday, April 23, 2022, 7:00 PM New Music Series: Singularity Jacob Cooper & Van Stiefel, directors Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building

Sunday, April 24, 2022, 3:00 PM Symphony Orchestra & Choirs Concert David P. Devenney & Ryan Kelly & Joseph Caminiti, directors Emilie K. Asplundh Concert Hall Philips Memorial Building

Sunday, April 24, 2022, 7:00 PM Student String Quartet Concert Jesus Morales, director Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building

Monday, April 25, 2022, 8:00 PM Faculty Recital: Jonathan Ragonese, saxophone & Peter Paulsen, double bass Ware Family Recital Hall Swope Music Building

Tuesday, April 26, 2022, 8:15 PM Jazz Combos & Statesmen Concert Daniel Cherry, director Emilie K. Asplundh Concert Hall Philips Memorial Building

Wednesday, April 27, 2022, 8:15 PM Wind Symphony & Concert Band Concert M. Gregory Martin & Adam Gumble, directors Emilie K. Asplundh Concert Hall Philips Memorial Building

*Tickets required for this event.

Events at the Wells School of Music are often supported by individual donors and organizations.

Contributions to the Wells School of Music may be made out to: WCU Foundation, 202 Carter Drive, West Chester, PA 19382 Please include “Wells School of Music Excellence Fund” in the memo line.

For further information, please call (610) 436-2868 or visit wcufoundation.org A majority of performances are available to watch via live stream at Facebook.com/WellsSchoolofMusic and Vimeo.com/WSOM Mr. Robert Rust, Audio & Visual Technician Steinway & Sons Piano Technical, Tuning and Concert Preparations by Gerald P. Cousins, RPT If you do not intend to save your program, please recycle it in the baskets at the exit doors.

The Wells School of Music | West Chester University of Pennsylvania Dr. Christopher Hanning, Dean