Joseph Gramley, director
Featuring the Bowling Green State University Percussion Ensemble directed by SMTD alumnus Dan Piccolo.

In these concerts, the works performed by the U-M Percussion Ensemble have a special excitement, having been created by composers who searched for a compositional identity both within their native countries and outside of them. In doing so, they forged a “hybridity of identity.” Most notable of these is Lou Harrison, a true “American Musical Maverick,” who would have turned 100 this year. Featuring a large cross-section of Harrison's works, the Percussion Ensemble will also focus on both “canonic” and “newer” composers, almost all of whom have looked beyond their own homelands toward rhythms and techniques from foreign lands, including the other Americas, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, which they then married to their own ‘new’ traditions. There is a strong element of ‘tradition and innovation’ throughout the works.