Youngstown State University Percussion Ensemble
Dr. Glenn Schaft - Director and Ed Davis - Assistant Director
Butler North
Personnel
Keith Born - Bethel Park, PA
Joshua Colson - Transfer, PA
Ed Davis - Poland, OH
Jeff Farber - Coralville, IA
Evan Gottschalk - East Palestine, OH
Matthew Hayes - Coshocton, OH
Dylan Kollat - North Jackson, OH
Dustin May - Westerville, OH
Moriah Placer - Warren, OH
Nick Sainato, Boardman, OH
Troy Schaltenbrand - Allison Park, PA
Sarah Sexton- Belz Mineral Ridge, OH
Robert Young - Austintown, OH
Eric Zalenski - Bloomingdale, 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.
Rain Tree (1981)
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)
Rain Tree represents Takemitsu’s third period of composition, which was marked by less experimentation, fewer complex rhythmic materials, and a movement towards tonality. This piece belongs to the Waterscape series that reference rain or water. Besides the images portrayed in the music, Takemitsu include indications for dramatic lighting. Each player has a spotlight, which depict drops of water or rain. During the final improvised ‘rain drop’ section, however, the lights improvise with the musicians. The lighting, being so intricately connected to the musical materials, transcends the role of technical support to a performance of its own.
Transmigration (2010)
Phillip Richardson (b.1986)
Scratch for four scrapers or guiros (1998)
Eugene Novotney (b. 1960)
I. Theme
II. Cage
III. Dos-Tres
IV. Mess(age)
V. Paganini
Born October 29, 1960 in Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Eugene Dominic Novotney received his Bachelor of Music Degree in Percussion from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and his Master of Music Degree & Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Illinois with emphasis in Percussion, Composition, and Ethnomusicology. He has studied Brazilian percussion at the "Instituto de Investigacio Musico" in Salvador, Brazil, and Ewe drumming and Dagara xylophone music at the "Dagara Music Center" in Medie, Ghana, West Africa. He has also conducted research trips to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and Accra, Ghana, West Africa, resulting in numerous transcriptions and analytical studies.
Point Bak (1997)
Gerard Lecointe
Point Bak was composed on request of a French festival dedicated to the work of Jean Sebastien Bach. Point Bak is loosely based on themes, tonalities, and formal prelude and fugue practices from Bach’s “First Book of the Well Tempered Clavier”.
INTERMISSION
New South Africa (1995)
Bela Fleck (b. 1958)
arr. E. Davis
Béla Fleck is often considered the premier banjo player in the world. A New York City native, he picked up the banjo at age 15 after being awed by the bluegrass music of Flatt & Scruggs. While still in high school he began experimenting with playing bebop jazz on his banjo, mentored by fellow banjo renegade Tony Trischka. In 1980, he released his first solo album, Crossing the Tracks, with material that ranged from straight ahead bluegrass to Chick Corea’s “Spain.” In 1982, Fleck joined the progressive bluegrass band New Grass Revival, making a name for himself on countless solo and ensemble projects ever since as a virtuoso instrumentalist. In 1989 he formed the genre-busting Flecktones, with colleagues equally talented and adventurous as himself.
The Missing Piece
Miguel Zenón (b. 1976)
arr. D. May
This is an original composition released on Zenón’s 2008 release "Awake." In his relatively short career, Miguel has made a dent in the community of jazz, world, and improvised music. The MacArthur Foundation, who in 2008 selected him and 25 others to receive The MacArthur Grant, otherwise known as the "Genius Grant" said this about Miguel's work: This young musician and composer is at once reestablishing the artistic, cultural, and social tradition of jazz while creating an entirely new jazz language for the 21st century.”
Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Percussion Orchestra (2000)
Russell Peterson (b. 1969
Gretta Johnson - Soloist
I.
II.
III.
Greta Johnson earned her Bachelor’s degree in Music and Mathematics in 2009 at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where she was the 2009 Concordia Concert Band Concerto Competition Winner. Greta is currently a student at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio where she is pursuing a Master’s degree in Saxophone Performance. Her primary instructors have included Russell Peterson and James Umble.
Russell Peterson is an accomplished classical/jazz saxophonist, bassoonist and composer who holds degrees from Youngstown State University (Ohio), Le Conservatoire de Bordeaux (France), and Bowling Green State University (Ohio), where he studied with Dr. James Umble, Donald Byo, Jean-Marie Londeix, Dr. Jeffery Lyman and Dr. John Sampen. Winner of numerous prizes, including the top prize at the International Geneva Saxophone Concours, (Switzerland), and first place winner of the MTNA National Music Competition, Mr. Peterson has soloed with orchestras in the United States as well as Europe, including the Dana Chamber Orchestra, (USA), Concordia Orchestra, (USA), Bowling Green Philharmonic, (USA), L'Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, (Switzerland), Collegium Musicum, Basel (Switzerland), The Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, The Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra (USA), The Orchestra Conservatorio Superior De Música (Spain), The Western New York Chamber Orchestra (USA), and The St. Petersburg Philharmonic, (Russia). Mr. Peterson has served on the faculty at Youngstown State University (Ohio), The University of Toledo (Ohio), Minnesota State University Moorhead, The Interlochen Summer Arts Camp (Michigan), The International Music Camp, and is currently Assistant Professor of Saxophone, Bassoon, and directs Jazz Ensemble I at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.
