Don’t miss a single beat

Congas, base drums and xylophones are just a few of the instruments that can be heard tonight in the Owen Fine Arts Center.

The Meadows Percussion Ensemble presents its spring concert, “An Evening of Percussion,” with special guest The Rhythm Project.

The ensemble is comprised of six students who meet as a class three times a week over the semester with Jon D. Lee, director of Meadows Percussion Ensemble and adjunct professor of percussion.

Ensemble members must audition for their positions, but they don’t have to be percussion majors. Two of the students this semester are non-majors.

Students play numerous percussion instruments from snare drums to symbols.

“[Instruments can be] anything you hit whether its with your hand or a stick,” Lee said.

The award-winning ensemble students have been busy. They released an album in January titled Contact and next month four of the percussionists travel to London with the Meadows Wind Ensemble to perform at a festival.

Kiera Fung, sophomore percussion major, is one of the students going to London in April.

A percussion ensemble member since August 2001, Fung attributes the group’s success to teamwork.

“This experience gives us a chance to work together as a group with a variety of instruments,” Fung said.

“[Professor Lee] is the key to our acheivments,” second-year graduate student Mike Plotkin said. “The level that’s expected from us is incredible and it shows.”

One first-year graduate student, said that undergraduates and graduates alike approach their music with the same goal, to simply do well.

That goal attributes to the adrenaline rush junior ensemble major Theresa Francesconi gets when she practices the first piece of the evening “Ogoun Badaghris.”

“A Haitian war god inspired the challenging, loud and fast piece by Christopher Rouse,” Francesconi said.

The next selection stands in complete contrast to first. “Rain Tree” by Japanese composer Takemitsu is like the calm after the storm. The piece opens with sounds of raindrops falling from bamboo trees.

After a few more pieces by the percussion ensemble, special guest The Rhythm Project will perform. The Dallas-based group of Meadows graduates plays music influenced by Caribbean, Middle Eastern, African and jazz styles.

The last two songs of the evening will be a collaboration of The Rhythm Project and the percussion ensemble.

Lee describes the last piece as somewhere between Calypso music and a Jimmy Buffet tune.

The performance begins at 8 p.m. in Caruth Auditorium and admission is free.