Youngstown State University Percussion Ensemble
Dr. Glenn Schaft – Director of Percussion Studies
Butler North
Personnel
Bryan Teeters – Graduate Teaching Assistant
Charles Battaglia, Warren, OH
Aaron Graneto, Canfield, OH
Cory Grant, Victor, NY
Matthew Hayes, Coshocton, OH
Shayna Jarvis, Salem, OH
Roger Lewis, Youngstown, OH
Nathan Negro, Wooster, OH
Damon Poole, Mayfield Heights, OH
Nicholas Sainato, Boardman, OH
Kevin Scales, Riverdale, GA
Troy Schaltenbrand, Allison Park, PA
Bryan Teeters, Knox, PA
John Guido Vitullo, Austintown, 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.
Normandy Beach – 1944
David Gillingham (b. 1947)
On June 6, 1944, at dawn, British and American forces landed on the beaches of Normandy in an elaborate amphibious operation. A total of 425,000 American, British, and German men lost their lives in the ensuing conflict. Normandy Beach - 1944 was composed in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of this important, yet tragic day that changed the course of World War II. The work is cast in three sections. The first is dark and mysterious characterizing the preparation and eve of D-Day. The bowed marimbas allude to distant bugle calls. Gathering momentum, the second section depicts the tragic conflict on D-Day including references to the "Star Spangled Banner" and "America, the Beautiful." All motion ceases and the final section or epilogue suggests the tragic aftermath.
Normandy Beach was commissioned by James Coviak and the North Farmington Hills High School Percussion Ensemble and was premiered at the 1994 Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. Notes by David Gillingham
Music for Five Pieces of Wood (1972)
Steve Reich (b. 1936)
Un Misterio (1993)
traditional Guatemalan
arr. William Cahn
Jesusita En Chihuahua (1995)
traditional Guatemalan
arr. Steve Chavez
Mexican and Guatemalan Marimba Selections
Since the late 19th the marimba has served as icon and instrument in Mexico’s southernmost state Chiapas, as well as it southern neighbor Guatemala. The marimba is heard in many different contexts such as fiestas, restaurants, civic and even religious functions. In fact, it is difficult to walk down any street without hearing the sound of las maderas que cantan (the wood that sings). During the early twentieth century Chiapan marimba ensembles began to tour the United States and Europe. Their repertoire was quite eclectic and remains so to this day. As there are no symphonic or string/wind chamber groups in Chiapas, the marimba serves the dual function of performing (and thereby sustaining) traditional music of the region and nation, as well as performing arrangements of the repertoire that a symphony orchestra or concert pianist might perform elsewhere. Above all, the marimba unites the people of Chiapas and Guatemala. Notes by Glenn Schaft.
Selections from Forms Of Things Unknown (2011)
Dave Morgan
Airy Nothing
Ritual
Better Angels
The Flow
Kundalini
Amulet
Unknown Unknowns
“Forms Of Things Unknown” reflects my contemplation of the artistic possibilities inherent within various dichotomies, including pitched and “non-pitched” percussion, strict notation and improvisation, metal and wood, sticks and hands, harmony/melody and rhythm, loud and soft, tradition and innovation, cerebral and visceral, and space and time. A wide variety of music and artists are reflected and referenced in the piece, including ritual music of Northern Brazil, the Congo, and Egypt; global percussionists including Glen Velez and Nana Vasconcelos; jazz vibraphone artists such as Dave Samuels, David Friedman, Gary Burton, and Mike Manieri; the Minimalism of Terry Riley and Steve Reich; and seminal percussion works by Western composers including Iannis Xenakis, John Cage, and Toru Takemitsu. Notes by Dave Morgan
“Forms” was commissioned in 2011 by the Youngstown Percussion Collective, a YSU student organization advised by Glenn Schaft, was recorded in 2012, and subsequently released on I-Tunes.com and CD Baby.com. CD’s are also for sale in the lobby during tonight’s concert. Notes by G. Schaft
Raptures Of Undream (1998)
Bruce Hamilton (b. 1966)
Generally, the music I compose reflects my wide-ranging musical interests. My aesthetic involves a balance: a mixture of musical ideas, concern for pure sound and energy, and aspects of theater and humor. Naturally, being a percussionist has had a major impact on my approach to rhythm and gesture. Often, my pieces integrate my experience with rock, funk, jazz, and Latin music into a modernist framework. Raptures of Undream was written for the Indiana University Percussion Ensemble. The piece is scored for six players, armed each with a floor tom tom and a cymbal. The work is divided into four sections delineated by tempo. Rhythmic/melodic motives are presented and developed through a series of divergent textures and rhythmic guises. A prominent theme is the contrast between contrapuntal sections and unison passages. Essential to the piece is the sense of “groove” which serves as the underpinning to the sometimes wild (and rapturous) rhythmic excursions. Notes by Bruce Hamilton
Percussionist and composer Bruce Hamilton was born in 1966 in Philadelphia and grew up in New Jersey and currently lives in Bellingham, Washington. He received a BM in percussion performance and Performer’s Certificate from Indiana University and completed a doctorate in composition there. Hamilton performances focus primarily on recently composed music and he is an active music educator. Notes by Glenn Schaft.
Special thanks to Avedis Zildijian, Remo, ProMark. Dynasty, and Black Swamp Percussion for their product and artist support.
