For most Ohio University Percussion Ensemble performances, members typically play mallet percussion and a variety of drums, but for the ensemble’s special performance Wednesday, one piece calls for a different instrument — an iPhone.
The OU Percussion Ensemble will perform with visiting composer and percussionist Ivan Trevino on Wednesday in Glidden Recital Hall.
Utilizing the app Loopy, Trevino can record several sounds and loop them over one another and have them all play back on his phone.
“We do very diverse stuff and (Trevino’s) music fits really well,” said Roger Braun, director of the OU Percussion Ensemble and a professor of percussion. “He writes a lot for the marimba but there’s also a vibraphone, bells and then the iPhone and percussion piece. It’s a very different instrumentation.”
Trevino is a member of the cello rock band, Break of Reality, an act part of the Performing Arts Series that performed Tuesday. After additional communication between Braun, Trevino and Andrew Holzaepfel, associate director of the Campus Involvement Center, it was arranged for Trevino to stay another day to perform with the OU Percussion Ensemble and to hold a music business presentation.
With a variety ranging from solos to quartets, the Wednesday performance is dedicated entirely to work Trevino composed, which he described as having a rock, pop feel. One piece will feature a duo between Braun and Trevino where they both perform on one marimba.
“It’s always exciting to see professionals collaborate,” said Dave Crider, a member of the ensemble who will perform Wednesday and a third-year graduate student studying percussion performance. “It’s a rare treat to see people perform at that level.”
The collaboration doesn’t end with the professionals. Trevino will play with former OU student Erik Mullins in a duo for marimba. Trevino said Mullins was the first person to buy this composition when it was released in 2010. Braun added that his students were the reason he became aware of Trevino’s work.
“That duo has been a launching pad for my composing career,” Trevino said. “I think it’s really cool that (Mullins) helped cultivate this relationship and experience here at OU.”
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