Youngstown State University Percussion Ensemble
Dr. Glenn Schaft-director & Tetsuya Takeno-assistant director
Butler North
Personnel
Graduate Assistant:
Tetsuya Takeno Kanagawa-Ken, Japan
Senior:
Mario Butera, Pittsburgh, PA
Cory Doran, Columbus, OH
Zachary Taylor, Bloomingdale, OH
Junior:
Kevin Rabold, Pittsburgh, PA
Sophomore:
Joshua Colson, Transfer, PA
Robert Young, Austintown, OH
Eric Zalenski, Bloomingdale, OH
Freshmen:
Mike Farinelli, Cranberry Twsp., PA
Thomas Goldthwait, Youngstown, OH
Matthew Hayes, Coshocton, OH
Dustin May, Westerville, OH
Gino West, Poland OH
Gary White, Warren, OH
About the Director
GLENN SCHAFT is Professor and Director of Percussion Studies at Youngstown State University. He is the advisor/co-founder of the Youngstown Percussion Collective and an artist with Avedis Zildjian Co., Innovative Percussion Inc., Remo Inc., and a member of the Black Swamp Percussion Educators Network. Glenn earned the DMA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the MA from Eastern Illinois University, and the BM from Baldwin Wallace University. He pursued post doctoral studies in contemporary music and orchestral percussion at Cleveland State University, Afro-Cuban music in Havana, Cuba and world percussion at the Berklee School of Music World Percussion Festival. Glenn’s teachers include John Hollenbeck, John Riley, Tom Freer, Jay Burnham, Lewis Nash, Ted Piltzecker, Tom Siwe, Johnny Lee Lane, George Kiteley, Harold Damas, Linda Pimentel, and Ruben Alvarez. A member of the Percussive Arts Society, Glenn serves on the Drumset Committee and has appeared as performer, lecturer, and panelist at PAS international conventions.
Glenn’s career spans idioms such as classical, new music, world music, jazz, blues, rock, reggae, funk, Brazilian, West African, and Afro-Cuban. Glenn has recorded and served as executive producer with the Youngstown Percussion Collective, Dave Morgan, Ron Coulter, John Hollenbeck, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Scott Wyatt, Amanda Powell, Air Force Band of Mid-America, Youngstown State University Wind Ensemble, and myriad jingles.
His credits include conductors Giora Bernstein, Jeffery Siegel, Anton Coppola, Edwin London, Gunther Schuller, Paul Martin Zonn, Peter Schickele, aka P.D.Q. Bach ensembles such as Colorado Music Festival, Skaneateles (NY) Chamber Music Festival, "Artist In Residence" at Baldwin-Wallace University with BATTU contemporary/world percussion group, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Cleveland Ballet, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, Robert Page Singers, Akron Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Springfield (IL) Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, Duluth-Superior Symphony, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Dance Theater of Harlem, Cleveland Dance Collective, and artists such as Paul Sperry, Julie Newell, Robert Weirich, Robert Van Sice, Peter Erskine, and Ben Toth.
Glenn drumset and world music credits include Ruben Alvarez, American Jazz Orchestra, Chuck Berry, Nick Brignola, Freddie Bryant, Ndugu Chancellor, Sarah Jane Cion, Stewart Copeland, Anthony Cox, 1940's Radio Hour Show-US Tour, Todd Coolman, Harold Danko, Paquito D’Rivera, Larry Elgart, Raul Esparza, John Fedchock, Five By Design, Reynaldo Gonzales, Taku Hirano, Laurence Hobgood, Engelbert Humperdink, Randy Johnston, Sean Jones, Mike Kocour, Alison Krauss, Victor Krauss, Ralph Lalama, Tony Leonardi, Robert Lockwood Jr., Bryan Lynch, Jim McNeely, Hank Marr, Phil Palombi, Ken Peplowski, Chita Rivera, Trichy Sankaran, Michael Spiro, Marvin Stamm, Chip Stephens, The Texas Tenors, Alan Vizzutti, Dan Wall, James Weidman, Michael Weiss, Mike Wofford, Women of the Phantom, Andrea Zonn, and Youngstown State University Faculty Jazz Group.
About the YSU Percussion Ensemble
Notable performances include the 2018 Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis, Percussive Arts Society Ohio Chapter Days of Percussion at Capital University, Ohio Northern University, Youngstown State University, and Ohio Music Education Association Conferences in Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. A central part of our mission involves collaborations with composers in the commissioning, premiering, and critically acclaimed recording of their works. Our 2005 release "Dark Wood" includes six premiere recordings and commissions. Our commission project with New York City-based percussionist/composer John Hollenbeck on his "Ziggurat" for five percussionists and four saxophonists, was premiered at the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, and is available on his 2008 release "Rainbow Jimmies." The Youngstown Percussion Collective's 2012 release "Forms Of Things Unknown" is a concert-length suite by YSU professor of jazz studies, bass, and composition, Dr. Dave Morgan. Our 2012 recording of Ron Coulter's "Cajon Trio" will appear on an upcoming 2019 Coulter CD release.
Ostinato Pianissimo (1934)
Ostinato Pianissimo (1934)
Bob Young – xylophone
The work is based on an ostinato (repeated) phrase that varies in length for each performer and these are juxtaposed in various ways. Only at the very end do the performers come together in unison rhythms. Early percussion music including Ostinato Pianissimo was frequently played by non-percussionists since percussion ensembles largely did not exist at this time. Cowell states in his score that the only “professional” percussionist required for this piece be the xylophonist. Notes by Glenn Schaft
Variations on a Ghanaian Theme (1981)
Daniel Levitan (b.1953)
Fox Grove (2004)
Jeffrey Alan Matter (b. 1978)
Fox Grove is written in memory of my friend Amanda who was taken from this earth by an act of violence. The title is based on the subdivision in which we would take long walks and discuss the important social issues of high school and life in general. The opening motive represents the tears of everyone who has lost a loved one through a violent act. Notes by Jeff Matter
Music for Five Pieces of Wood (1973)
Steve Reich (b. 1936)
Music for Pieces of Wood is scored for five sets of tuned claves and consists of three sections each systematically decreasing in length. Reich’s compositional technique involves a gradual-process whereby each player successively adds to the original rhythm. The three sections consist of progressively shorter rhythmic cycles – section one 12 notes, section two 8 notes, and section three 6 notes. Each player begins with a one-note pattern and adds notes, one at a time, until a complete pattern results. This process is then repeated with successive players. The music allows the listeners to perceive various tempi and rhythmic patterns. Notes by Joshua Haggerty
Three Argentinian Tangos (1996)
Charlo
arr. Werner Thomas-Mifune
Mifune’s arrangements are published for string quartet and are transcribed here for marimba quartet. The Tango is an Argentine urban song/dance form that remained popular throughout the 20th century but which originated in the poor neighborhoods of Buenos Aires in the late 19th century. The dance, for couples in a tight embrace, is characterized by sensual movement, the music is frequently in a minor mode, and includes dramatic rhythmic and dynamic contracts. Notes by Glenn Schaft
INTERMISSION
Piru Bole (1986)
John Bergamo (b.1940)
Although Piru Bole is based on East Indian drumming concepts, it is not traditional but rather more in line with some of the experiments happening with non-traditional percussion ensemble throughout India. The chant-vocalizations utilize some of the syllables, or vocal chant language called Konocol of South India. Notes by John Bergamo and Glenn Schaft
Piano Phase (1980)
Steve Reich (b. 1936)
Cory Doran & Tetsuya Takeno - Marimba
Piano Phase may be performed by two pianists or two marimbists. This work explores the concept of music as gradual process. This process determines the note-to-note details and the overall form simultaneously. The process is audible because it is happening gradually. One cannot improvise in a musical process as the concepts are mutually exclusive. The piece consists of three large sections (composed of various repeated melodies) each of which undergoes a rhythmic phasing process. For example, the first section is comprised of a twelve-note pattern that is constantly repeated, joined (in unison) by the second player, and then the second player begins to embark on a series of twelve phasing episodes. During each phasing the second player gradually accelerates his pattern (against the fixed tempo pattern of player one) until he advances to the second note of the pattern, then the third, etc. This process continues until player two arrives back at the original unison pattern. Then the second section, an eight-note pattern, undergoes the exact same process. And finally, the third section is based on a four-note pattern. Notes by Glenn Schaft
Conga Trio World Premiere (2008)
D. Anshutz, C. Doran, T. Takeno
Dean Anshutz, Cory Doran, Tetsuya Takeno
Square Dance (1996)
Yoshioka Takeyoshi
Four marimbas are placed so that two players face the audience and the other two do not. The consideration how to show the faces of the latter two generated the concept of this piece; to change positions. When I envisioned four players moving around the instruments, it seemed as if they were dancing around a square frame and the title “Square Dance” emerged. Notes by Yoshioka and Glenn Schaft
Sharpened Stick (1999)
Brett Dietz (b.1972)
The Sharpened Stick is a Native American war song and dance that is in the "fish-step" style. It is said that the popular 1920's dance craze the "Charleston" was derived from this dance. At certain points of the composition, the performers shout "Yo-Ho"- In Native American music, this is sounded by the 'head singer' and signifies a change of direction in the music as well as a change in the direction of the dance. Notes by Brett Dietz
Special thanks to Avedis Zildijian Co., Remo Inc., ProMark Inc. , Dynasty USA, and Black Swamp Percussion for their product and artist support.
