The Meadows Percussion Ensemble will present its spring concert, “An Evening of Percussion,” tonight in Caruth Auditorium. The concert will feature eight works performed by undergraduate and graduate percussion majors from the Meadows School of the Arts. Of the eight works, one, “Clay and Skins,” will be played on instruments made by a ceramics class in Meadows.

This is the first public collaboration between ceramic majors and the percussion ensemble.

Jamal Mohamed, who instructed the making of the drums and teaches the hand drumming segment of the percussion ensemble, says the two art forms collaborated about two years ago when he and Peter Beasecker’s class worked on “udu drums,” clay Nigerian drums, although the drums were only performed on in the classroom.

Jon Lee, director of the Meadows Percussion Ensemble, recalls another collaboration about a decade ago when the percussion students improvised a performance on a sculpture.

“I still remember the looks on the faces of the art students who never thought about how their visual creations might sound,” Lee says.

According to Lee, the drums are made out of earthenware clay that the students mixed themselves.

Beasecker, professor of the ceramics class, and Mohamed worked together with the students to create the drums.

Because the ceramics class that was part of the project is for beginning majors, the instructors were originally skeptical about the process, but are happy with the outcome.

“We are very pleased with the sound and look of the drums,” says Lee. “Peter, Jamal and I are interested in doing this again, hopefully with a more advanced ceramics class to create even more spectacular drums.”

For Lee and Mohamed, combining different art forms is essential to making the most out of art.

“No art lives in a vacuum,” says Lee. “This collaboration with art is very exciting because there is so much potential for future projects. Creations that look and sound beautiful – very cool.”

While Lee will be directing the ensemble tonight, he stresses that the partnership was initiated and carried out by Mohamed and Beasecker.

The performance will be held tonight at 8 in Caruth Auditorium. Admission is free.