Percussion will compete in the 4th annual TCU percussion festival April 5 at the TCU Music Center. Two groups will compete: “Blue Soul” at 3:50 p.m. and “Hurtling Through Space” at 4:05 p.m.
“[The percussion festival] has become the ‘who’s who’ of percussion ensembles throughout the state,” percussion director Benjamin Koch said. “While some schools are still doing indoor [Winter Guard International Percussion,] it’s been the place where schools that are prioritizing the concert percussion ensemble strut their stuff.”
The first group will perform “Blue Soul,” a quintet by David Burritt containing the percussion’s top wind symphony members. The second group will perform, “Hurtling Through Space at an Unimaginable Speed” by David Maslanka, which involves 18 members from across the percussion section.
“The percussion program has never done anything competitively in our ensembles,” senior Ben Guidry said. “This is a shift starting from last year [to start] to push our ensembles competitively. We’ll occasionally submit for [the Percussion Arts Society International Convention(PASIC)] but [in this festival,] we’ll be going against groups who have won PASIC — every group that shows up there is incredible.”
Percussionists from the feeder middle schools will compete in the intermediate middle school division. Last year, the percussion section only brought Killian Middle School percussion to the festival. This will be one of the only field trips the middle school band members go on this year.
“[The other middle school percussion groups] were upset that they [couldn’t] go last year, so now they’re all excited,” senior Bryce Radtke said. “Last year when Killian went, they won Outstanding Ensemble Overall — it could be possible again.”
This year, the percussion festival will introduce time penalties for a strict 30 minute performance slot.
“This [festival] is going to be great,” Koch said. “If we feel great about the performance, and we put our best foot forward, there’s nothing else we can leave. Everyone is set up to know we did our best and [be] happy with what we’ll do.”
