January 12, 2005
TSO drums up crowd
360 attend Drumming and Beyond Saturday Family Symphony program
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Seven area musicians captivated a multi-age audience Saturday morning as they led a tour of percussion traditions from around the world.
The Saturday Family Symphony's Drumming and Beyond program featured more than 50 different instruments, including drums from Africa, America, South America, Scotland and the Caribbean. In addition, the musicians showcased the fife, maracas, bells, tom toms, vibraphone and xylophone. Non-drum instruments played during the hour-long program included the bagpipes, piccolo and pennywhistle.
The rapt audience of 360 included mostly children and their parents who delighted in the varied sounds reverberating through the Milliken Auditorium. During portions of the program, host Lana Smith invited the audience to march in place or move with the beat.
The program found many enthusiastic listeners - and some hopeful future drummers.
"Drums make a lot of cool sounds," said Mike Lambert, 6, of Traverse City. "I want to play them before I'm seven."
Clara Lambert brought her son to their first Saturday Family Symphony, drawn by his vast enthusiasm for percussion instruments.
"He loves the drums, that's what he's interested in," she said, adding of the program in general: "I didn't know what to expect but this was really great because of all the different countries and all the different sounds."
David Warne, the principal percussionist for the Traverse Symphony, put together the program and recruited the participants. Musicians included Marc Alderman, Jose Carlos, Gabe Clark, Peter Deneen, James Koch and Sue Pocklington. Each musician delved into areas or instruments he might not have played before, Warne noted. For example, Deneen had never played the steel pan drums before but the veteran musician learned the technique and the song "Matilda, Matilda" from just two rehearsals.
"They are all really, really fine players and I'm so grateful to work with them, it was a very, very uplifting experience," said Warne, who also teaches concert percussion at Northwestern Michigan College. "We love to showcase the wonderful pastiche of music around the world."
The owner of Sun Radius Music also tapped his African dance teacher, Stella Astor, for the show. Astor and her daughter, Isabell, demonstrated traditional African dance steps and costumes during the show.
In addition to the Astors' bright costumes, the musicians donned appropriate accessories during the show to highlight the music they played.
"I thought the show should be as eclectic as possible and we wanted to have a little bit of costuming," Warne said. "That always attracts people and kind of breaks the ice of the tuxedos and that kind of formality."
Warne noted that percussion is a ubiquitous form of music for human beings, something found in every culture in the world.
"You can walk in another culture's shoes in percussion," he said. "Not everyone has a string instrument or a brass instrument or a woodwind, but every single culture has percussion."
The event was the biggest Saturday Family Symphony Series program since the Traverse Symphony began keeping track of attendance, noted Kathleen Light, general manager of the orchestra.
"I think it was the percussion, people really love these instruments, and it was also Family Day at the Museum, too," she said.
Each Saturday Family Symphony series during the school year introduces another family of instruments, culminating with a full symphony program that concludes the year's educational outreach program.
"Our goal is to teach kids about the orchestra and give them an entryway to listen to the orchestra," Light noted. "We're just trying to make classical music interesting for them."
The next event of the Saturday Family Symphony Series is the Concerto Concert featuring the full Traverse Symphony Orchestra and Young Artists Competition soloists. This event will be held on Saturday, February 20, at 7:30 p.m. at the Milliken Auditorium. For more information on the Saturday Family Symphony series, call the TSO at 947-7120.