(Posted April 23, 2012)

Past members of the Juniata Percussion Ensemble perform in concert, This year, their concert is at 7:30 p.m., April 30.
Past members of the Juniata Percussion Ensemble perform in concert, This year, their concert is at 7:30 p.m., April 30.

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- The Juniata College Percussion Ensembles will find a complementary rhythm with Portal Percussion Group, a student ensemble from Millersville University, at a spring concert at 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 30 at Rosenberger Auditorium in the Halbritter Center for the Performing Arts on the Juniata campus.

Admission to the concert is $3 for adults and free for children under age 18 and Juniata students with current ID. The Juniata College Percussion Ensembles are directed by James Latten, associate professor of music.

The concert will open with two selections performed by Juniata's Keyboard Percussion Ensemble. The first piece, is the famous "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" ("A Little Night Music"), by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The composition is one of the composer's most familiar pieces. The second piece is "Air for the G String," composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. The title comes from a 19th-century musician who created an arrangement of Bach's composition that could be played only on the G string of a violin.

Next, the Juniata Percussion Ensemble will perform some more modern pieces. "Three Brothers," by Michael Colgrass, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his percussion-based work, is a polyrhythmic classic. "Three Brothers" is the first composition he wrote.

"The Blarney Stone," by Murray Houllif, a former percussionist at North Texas State University and a retired band director in New York public schools, will be performed, followed by "Teamwork," by Lynn Glassock.

The Portal Percussion Group will perform four compositions, directed by James Armstrong, instructor of percussion at Millersville University and a member of the Marassa Duo and the Robert Hohner Percussive Ensemble. Millersville students in Portal Percussion are: Matt Bracciante, a sophomore from West Chester, Pa.; Forrest Black, a sophomore from Lancaster, Pa.; Brian Doherty, a junior from Mechanicsburg, Pa.; and Rich Klimowicz, a junior from Norristown, Pa.

The Portal group will play the Afro-Cuban piece "Bata Toques Yakota, Wardo Yesa" as its first selection. Next, the ensemble will play the "Allegro" movement from Joseph Haydn's "The Emperor."

The final selection is "Kuka Ilimoku," written by Christopher Rouse. The piece features Hawaiian-flavored percussion and is named for the Hawaiian god of war.

Members of the Juniata College Percussion ensembles are:

Jon Bogue, a junior from East Berlin, Pa.; Amanda Durofchalk, a junior from Wernersville, Pa.; Stephen Estright, a sophomore from Hollidaysburg, Pa.; Alexis Hadden, a freshman from Franklin, Pa.; Nicole Kiss, a sophomore from Huntingdon, Pa.; Reinaldo Liem, a sophomore international student from Bandung, Indonesia; Tyler NeuCollins, a senior from Solon, Iowa; Katya Rebman, a sophomore from Elizabethtown, Pa.; Silas Robinson, a freshman from Sinking Spring, Pa.; Xin Shen, a senior from Edgewater, N.J.; Jacqueline Swain, a sophomore from Hampstead, Md.; and Laura Vannucci, a freshman from New Fairfield, Conn.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.