Percussion Ensemble
- Tuesday, April 26, 2011
- Old Cabell Hall
- 8:00 p.m.
- Free
As one of the defining voices of the Chapman Stick, Greg Howard has performed over 2000 concerts at venues around North America, Europe and Japan, including the Montreal Jazz Festival, The Interlochen Center for the Arts, and Lincoln Center's Summer Festival. As a soloist and band leader, Howard has released nine CDs on this unique American stringed instrument, of both composed and free improvisational music. He has collaborated with jazz and rock musicians like John D'earth, Robert Jospé, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, and founded the "groove poetry" trio Code Magenta with vocalist Dawn Thompson and saxophonist Leroi Moore.
The Stick, and its Free Hands playing method, were invented by California guitarist Emmett Chapman in 1969. Chapman discovered that amplified strings could be fretted or tapped, with both hands' finger lined up with the frets, making true counterpoint possible on a stringed instrument for the first time, as each hand could play its own chords and melodic lines independently and with equal facility. The Stick comes from the guitar and bass, but its playing method shares roots with keyboards and drums as well, placing all of these musical voices in the hands of one musician. As a composer and improviser, Howard uses the unprocessed sound of the instrument and explores the extensive electronic effects pallet available to electric guitarists.
In addition to his artistic role, Howard has also co-developed the StaffTab fretboard notation system which combines standard Grand Staff notation with guitar tablature. He has also published two method books for the instrument, The Stick Book, Volume 1 and The Greg Howard Songbook., and is a member of the University of Virginia's Performance Faculty.
Members of the UVa Percussion Ensemble: Joshua Bressler, Elliott Burris, Zachary Canter, Laura Chesser, Sarah Clememts, Bena Dam, CJ Harlow, Kevin Johnson, Hyojin Kim, Michael Koenig, Chanmee Lee, Sedale McCall, and Rodell Tolliver.
This concert will feature works by Cameron Britt, Mark Ford, David Gillingham, Greg Howard, Jonathan Kellis, and student arrangements.
The UVa Percussion Ensemble is a chamber ensemble that performs literature from classical transcriptions to contemporary music. The ensemble draws upon a large family of pitched and non-pitched percussion instruments. The number of players and equipments varies greatly from piece to piece.