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 The 13 person percussion ensemble lead by Tad Carpenter, director of percussion and assistant band director at PCC, performed in an hour long program in The Forum on Nov. 18.

The pieces performed ranged from traditional, like Carmen, to more current works and were played on a variety of instruments.  Not only were there many interesting instruments on display but each student showed his or her talents on multiple instruments.

“I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to,” said Jeremy Gallardo, music. “I knew [which instruments] would be played tonight but their talent was way better than I thought it would be.”

After each piece, Carpenter, who is a former vice president of the California chapter of Percussive Arts Society, gave a short synopsis of each upcoming song.

Biology major Jin Chong found these summaries helpful.

“I thought it was really good,” said Chong. “I’m taking a music appreciation class and I thought it was interesting. The explanations the director gave made each song make more sense.”

These synopsizes were very helpful for the untrained listener because they summarized the story each song was trying to tell.

For example, before the ensemble played my favorite song of the evening, “Technology” by Jim Casela, Carpenter explained that the instruments were having a conversation with one another. He told the audience to listen to how each percussionist played individually, which guided the listener to discover that only one percussionist played on each beat.

The crisp, individual beats gave the song a futuristic feel that was much different from any other song performed that night.

Another favorite of the evening was when the ensemble played selections from “Carmen.” It was nice to hear a familiar song especially when it was played so well. This airy, whimsical piece was performed by four of the percussionists who played on xylophones and marimbas.

The performance was very surprising. It completely exceeded my expectations.

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