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Pianist May Phang Joins The Percussion Plus Project for August 31 Concert

Pianist May Phang Joins The Percussion Plus Project for August 31 Concert

August 21, 2008

Green Center Dusk.jpgAugust 21, 2008, Greencastle, Ind. - The DePauw University School of Music will open its 124th concert season with a performance by the DePauw-based ensemble, The Percussion Plus Project. Titled "Works for Percussion Plus Piano," the program will begin at 3 p.m. on Sunday, August 31 in Kresge Auditorium of the Judson and Joyce Green Center for the Performing Arts. Admission is free.

The ensemble will be joined by guest artist May Phang, piano (pictured at right), a member of the School of Music faculty. Phang began her piano studies in her native Singapore and has degrees from McGill University and Temple University. A prize winner of several international competitions, Phang is an May Phang 06.jpgactive solo and chamber music performer, and has been featured on both television and radio broadcasts.

The concert will feature contemporary works by Czech composer Tomas Svoboda, Cuban composer Tania León, and the premier of A Kind of Standoff by Puerto Rican composer Armando Bayolo.

DePauw Professor Amy Lynn Barber (seen below left), who founded The Percussion Plus Project in Prague in 1993, describes the upcoming performance as "a great opportunity to feature our remarkable colleague May Phang in three virtuosic pieces of wildly different musical styles. Piano -- often considered a percussion instrument -- and percussion are a wonderful combination, with an extraordinary range of musical colors. Commissions of new works, and working closely with composers have always played a major role in the activities of The Percussion Plus Project, so we are especially pleased that Armando Bayolo will be here to work with us and to conduct his new piece, A Kind of Standoff, which was written for The Percussion Plus Project."

Amy Lynn Barber 2.jpgThe August 31 concert marks the beginning of a busy season of percussion events at DePauw. The Percussion Plus Project will be performing again during the spring semester with guest bass clarinetist Heikki Nikula from the Helsinski Philharmonic. The DePauw Percussion Ensemble will be presenting several performances, the percussion studio will perform their annual "Percussion at Peeler" concert in conjunction with Peeler Art Gallery, and a residency in the spring with guest percussionist B. Michael Williams will culminate in a concert of music for Middle Eastern hand drums and African djembe.

For more information about events, visit the DePauw School of Music online.

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