Hopes of this school year being back to “normal” didn’t quite pan out, but again, the positive spin is that this first semester at least included a lot of music-making and it felt closer to “normal” than last year. We had a successful student percussion ensemble concert in early November on a more condensed cycle so that we could start some new repertoire of world percussion music for a February World Percussion Night concert (on 2/26). That event will feature guests Samba da Vida, the UWM Steel PANthers Steel Band, and student ensembles playing on our new Guatemalan marimbas as well as some Brazilian Candomble. I’m really excited for that concert, which has been almost 2 years in the making!
I had more performances this fall than almost all of last year combined, but there were still a few additional gigs that were cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns. I performed with Present Music again, this time on their annual Thanksgiving concert, and I also played seven Nutcrackers with the Milwaukee Ballet and a concert with the Wisconsin Philharmonic. I had the opportunity to perform at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis as well as present a clinic at the Wisconsin Percussion Day, hosted by UW-Madison. For the new year, I am recording a piece with Present Music as part of an album they’ve been hired to record and I also have four different performance trips scheduled with Fifth House Ensemble February through May!
For my ongoing Electrified Percussion project supported by a UWM Advancing Research and Creativity Grant, I’ve enjoyed working with composers to create new works while also working on a new piece of my own. The project will be finishing up by the end of the school year, with a culminating solo recital scheduled for May 1st at noon. I still have a good amount of work to do to record several of the works and prepare for the recital, which I’m looking forward to putting everything together!