By Matt Koper/ne news editor
The percussion ensemble on NE Campus welcomes students from all different musical backgrounds.
Led by music instructor Warren Dewey, the ensemble features plenty of instruments including marimbas, snare drums, maracas and xylophones among others.
Dewey said he is trying to remove the competitive spirit of high school band.
“In our group here, most students that have been in high school performing groups have experienced this level of competition,” he said. “So with that comes an
Photo by: Bogdan Sierra Miranda/The Collegian
attitude of either you’re good or you’re not good enough to be in the group. So I really try to dispel that philosophy.”
Dewey said he wants all the students in the group to feel important.
“I try to make sure everyone knows they’re there to contribute,” he said. “And at no time will they be made to feel insecure. They’re there to learn. And for that purpose, everybody in the group helps the other.”
NE student David Keaton, who plays multiple instruments including the timpani drum, said he has taken on a leadership role in the ensemble by teaching some who are new to the group.
“I’m almost like a secondary teacher because he’s [Dewey] managing a whole class,” he said. “If I can squeeze in some clarifications so he doesn’t have to stop doing that to the whole class, I can kind of sneak in some more individual instructions.”
Keaton said when he leaves next year, he wants the group to be improved.
“My goal, I would say, is probably to have improved the quality of the whole group in a minor teaching capacity,” he said.
Other students in the group like Lizzy Couch, who plays the marimba and other instruments, said she is excited to take part.
“We’re pretty much getting accustomed to how everyone plays and the levels where everyone’s at,” she said. “We’re all coming from different schools, and we’re all at different places in our music. So we are getting adjusted to that. Everyone seems really nice and friendly and eager to be good at the ensemble.”
Preparations for the International Festival in April have already begun, Dewey said.
“We play ethnic music,” he said. “And we want to be able to prepare for the upcoming International Student Festival. So we try to pick music that’s uplifting. Generally, we do that through finding Afro-Cuban styles of music, things that are just very danceable and uplifting and spirited.”
Students like David Pineider, who plays the drum set and snare, is new to the group but said he’s fitting right in.
“It’s a good group of people,” he said. “They’re out for other people, and they’re out to help other people and basically for everyone else to learn. Everyone is always trying to help the next person out.”
Pineider said by the end of the ensemble, he’d have “more overall knowledge” and “a group of friends.”
The percussion ensemble group will perform 7-8 p.m. March 30 in the NFAB theater on NE Campus.
