The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Percussion Ensemble is one of four university percussion ensembles to win the Percussive Arts Society’s International Percussion Ensemble Competition. The will perform in front of thousands of attendees during the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) Nov. 9-12 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
“It’s really exciting,” said Glenn Korff School of Music Assistant Professor of Percussion Dave Hall. “It’s unprecedented for the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. The Percussion Ensemble has never won this competition before.”
Hall equates it to winning the Super Bowl in the percussion world.
“It’s really the highest achievement in the percussion ensemble art form,” he said. “To be selected is really a confirmation of the quality of students here and their playing.”
Mike Roe, a second-year doctoral student from Brookings, S.D., said he is thrilled with the honor.
“Playing a showcase concert at PASIC is like winning the Percussion Olympics, or at least medalling,” Roe said. “After the initial excitement started to wear off, I started to think about all the things we would need to do to be prepared for this concert. I knew right away it would be a lot of work, but it would all be worth it once we got on that stage in Indianapolis.”
Paige DeDecker, a junior percussion major from Flower Mound, Texas, has been to PASIC before.
“I’ve been to PASIC many times and seen many collegiate groups perform, and it means a lot that this time we’ll be the ones performing for others,” she said. “I also feel accomplished, as the pieces we had submitted encompassed multiple years’ worth of percussion ensembles. It was nice to feel that the cumulative hard work from the entire studio had paid off.”
The 16 members of the Percussion Ensemble, along with pianist Dimitra Kokkinopoulou, Hall and Senior Lecturer and Associate Director of Bands Tony Falcone will travel to Indianapolis to PASIC to perform and attend the convention with support from the Glenn Korff School of Music and Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts.
“PASIC is a blast,” Hall said. "There are clinics over drum set, keyboard and marching percussion. There’s a giant convention hall where they have instruments on display, and the students can try them out. So the fact that they get to have this educational opportunity and also have their playing on display for this audience is just a huge honor.”
Roe said he is looking forward to seeing other collegiate ensembles.
“I usually look forward to the collegiate percussion ensembles,” he said. “It’s so cool to see what other programs are doing and to hopefully hear some new pieces that I’m not familiar with.”
Prior to their performance at PASIC, the Percussion Ensemble will have a “PASIC Preview Concert” on Tuesday, Oct. 25 at 5 p.m. in Kimball Recital Hall. The concert is free and open to the public. It will also be live webcast. Visit music.unl.edu the evening of the concert for the link.
Their program includes five contemporary pieces, including “Spine” by Michael Laurello, featuring multiple percussion and piano; “120bpm" from "neither Anvil nor Pulley” by Dan Trueman, featuring laptop and percussion quartet; “Estudios de Frontera” by Alejandro Viñao, featuring a quintet of mostly keyboard percussion; “to wALk Or ruN in wEst harlem” by Andy Akiho, which has been commissioned as an arrangement for percussion and will be a world premiere; and “Slide” by Hall, which is a new piece for percussion orchestra that he composed for this occasion and will also be a world premiere.
“Overall the program is very energetic,” Hall said. “We don’t have a slow tune, so it’s all high impact, high energy music.”
Roe said, “It’s a great program, really varied and diverse.”
Hall said his students are excited for the performances.
“They are really excited,” he said. “If they’re just coming from high school, they may not necessarily know the gravity of the achievement, but certainly the older students and graduate students who have seen great groups play before have thought it’s outstanding. This has been one of my goals for the group.”
DeDecker said the students are under pressure, but it’s a good thing.
“It’s a great honor to be selected to perform at PASIC in any capacity,” she said. “There’s also an element of pressure to put all this music together quickly and perform it in front of such a large audience in November, but it’s an exciting kind of pressure. Everyone is ready to put in the level of dedication necessary, and that’s really powerful and motivating for me.”
It was the first time they have applied for the competition.
“I was floored that it worked out and was ecstatic for our program,” Hall said. “The students are putting in a lot of time and rehearsing at a high level.”
Hall said over the Labor Day Weekend, he came to Westbrook on Sunday.
“As soon as the building opened, I heard four of my students, just on this floor, all practicing for the PASIC show,” he said. “Their professionalism and commitment to their craft is on display every day in our practice rooms."
Hall said the recognition comes after several improvements to the percussion program in the Glenn Korff School of Music in the last several years.
“When I arrived here, the whole percussion studio was in-state students, which isn’t a bad thing inherently,” Hall said. “But we also didn’t have any graduate students or national diversity in the studio. The recordings we submitted [for the competition] last year, we had five graduate students and also had students from 8-9 different states. This year, we have students from eight different states, so we are recruiting from all over the country. They are intelligent and skilled students with great attitudes and work ethic. We wouldn’t have been able to do this without their playing and their work.”
The School and College have also helped support upgrading the instruments in the percussion studio.
“We have upgraded our instruments significantly in the last three years, and that was something that was necessary if we wanted to play the literature we are playing now,” Hall said. “Our administration wanted the students to play on professional-level equipment, and we have professional-level equipment now. That helps a lot.”
Two years ago, the Percussion Ensemble was invited to participate in the McCormick Marimba Festival in Tampa, Florida, and last year, the graduate percussion ensemble, along with Hall, toured Chicago and parts of Iowa.
“The Percussion Ensemble had never traveled before 2013, but this will be the third year in a row now that we’re traveling.” Hall said. “Repeat performances are invaluable, as well as face to face interaction with other percussionists around the county.”
They also do three concerts per academic year now instead of two.
“I’ve seen the group improve each year I’ve been here,” Hall said. “They enjoy playing, and I enjoy watching them play. They love to perform with each other, and I think that energy comes across.”
Hall thinks the process of preparing for the PASIC performance is valuable for his students.
“I think what we learn from preparing for something like this and the journey of getting the concert ready to go is just as valuable as the prestige of the concert performance,” he said. “We’ll be rehearsing this afternoon on a Friday night, when many other college students might be out celebrating the weekend early. The students get together on their own over the weekends and rehearse. There’s a certain level of bonding that you get from being around people a lot like that and working on a common goal. That’s the most exciting part for me.”
He also thinks they will benefit from attending PASIC.
“The trip to PASIC and getting to feel, in a very real way, their connection to the larger percussion community and realizing all the great collegiate programs and professional groups that are out there is beneficial,” Hall said. “They’re going to get to see their percussive heroes perform. They’ll get to hear world-class clinics. The educational value of going to PASIC alone is beautiful.”
Roe said the performance will put Nebraska on the map.
“I think we’ll see an increase in interest in undergraduates and graduate students auditioning to be in the program in the semesters and years following the concert,” he said. “And along with all that, preparing for a concert like this is pushing all the students in the ensemble to whole new levels of preparation and performance. It’s been so cool to see the younger students really starting to take ownership in preparing for this program.”
Hall also thinks winning this competition will help the program for many years to come.
“It will have an impact on the percussion program here for a long time. It’s a defining moment in the history of the program, frankly,” Hall said. “We’ll see the results of this for years and decades.”
DeDecker hopes people attend their October conference to send them off to PASIC.
“The concert is very unique, and there’s something in it for everyone,” she said. “It’d mean a lot to all the members in the studio for a large turnout at our Oct. 25 concert before we head out.”