Baylor Welcomes Recognized Musicians for Percussion Symposium

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The 2012 Baylor Percussion Symposium will present two days of lectures, master classes and concerts with a number of musicians, including Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Lang and renowned percussionists Steven Schick and Doug Perkins, on Friday, March 2, and Saturday, March 3, on the Baylor University campus. The events are free and open to the public.

The symposium will begin with a master class featuring Schick, distinguished professor of music at the University of California, and Perkins, lecturer and percussion director at Dartmouth College, at 4:30 p.m. Friday in Sternberg Hall (Room 118) of the Glennis McCrary Music Building. The class will feature student performances of Steven Mackey's "See Ya Thursday," Joseph Schwanter's "Velocities," Iannis Xenakis' "Rebonds A" and Lang's "Scraping Song."

Following the class, the Baylor Symphony Orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. in Jones Concert Hall of the McCrary Music Building. The performance will include Bela Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra" and Maurice Ravel's "Rapsodie espagnole."

On Saturday, there will be a panel discussion with Lang, Schick and Perkins, including a performance of Lang's "The Anvil Chorus" at 10 a.m. in Jones Concert Hall. The discussion will be followed by two afternoon concerts.

The first concert will explore percussion music of the 20th century, featuring works by Edgard Varese, John Cage, George Crumb, Iannis Xenakis and Terry Riley, at 2 p.m. Saturday in Jones Concert Hall. Performers will include: Schick; Todd Meehan, assistant professor of percussion at Baylor; Dr. Francesca Arnone, assistant professor of flute at Baylor; and students and colleagues of the School of Music.

The second concert will focus on the percussion music of Lang at 5 p.m. Saturday in Jones Concert Hall. The performance will include Lang's works "The So-called Laws of Nature," "The Anvil Chorus," "Unchained Melody," "Table of Contents" and "String of Pearls." Performers will include Schick, Perkins, Meehan and the Baylor Percussion Group.

Lang is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's music collective Bang on a Can. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the Rome Prize and the BMW Music-Theater Prize (Munich), as well as grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts.

The Baylor Percussion Symposium is sponsored by the Baylor School of Music's Lyceum Fund, the Baylor University Lecturers Committee, the Baylor University Office of the Vice Provost for Research, the Baylor Percussion Excellence Fund, New Music USA, Vic Firth, Pearl/Adams, Zildjian and Remo.

For more information, contact the Baylor School of Music at (254) 710-3991.

by Katy McDowall, student newswriter, (254) 710-6805