UNCP Wind Ensemble Selected to Perform at 2008 NCMEA Conference

The UNCP Wind Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Timothy Altman, was selected this summer to perform in concert at the 2008 North Carolina Music Educators Conference. NCMEA is a three day conference that6 brings together music educators from throughout North Carolina for clinic sessions and performances. Teachers in North Carolina receive in-service credit for attending. This is the second time in four years that the UNCP ensemble has been selected to perform. Joining Dr. Altman and the wind ensemble at the conference will be the choirs of UNCP and guest conductor Samuel Hazo. Hazo is in demand throughout the country as both a guest conductor and composer. The UNCP Wind Ensemble will perform several of Hazo's works under his baton including one work that is not yet published! Congratulations to Dr. Altman and the students of the Wind Ensemble!

UNCP Drumline Camp Featured in Fayetteville Observer

Drummers work on improving skills at UNCP camp

By Chick Jacobs
Staff writer

PEMBROKE — Put five dozen drummers in one room, give them a few hours to learn a new score, then have them all play together.

The result could be described as something between chaos and sitting in a metal storage shed while 100 popcorn machines explode around you.

Yet, amid the unrelenting hailstorm of sound, if you listen, is music.

Forget the school books, the supplies, the new sneakers and locker assignments: for a half-dozen drum lines across Eastern North Carolina, school began this past weekend at UNC-Pembroke.

“It’s the perfect time for camp,” said Tracy Wiggins, the director of percussion at UNCP. “Next week, most of these kids will be starting on their fall programs at their schools. This will knock the rust off for them.”

It’ll also let others know that drumming is more than grabbing a pair of sticks and flailing away.

For many school bands, especially smaller ones on shoestring budgets, percussion is a noisy afterthought. There’s simply not enough time or personnel to do more than make sure the drums are keeping time and marching in line.

So UNCP’s Summer Drum Daze is offered at no cost to any high school drummers in the state. It’s sponsored by several percussion companies to teach proper rudiments for drummers.

The camp is part public service, part vested interest for Wiggins and the school. By improving the quality of drummers in the state, he said, “we’re improving the skills of student who might end up right here.

“So the better they become, the better off we are.”

Skill work begins as soon as the drums are unpacked. Wiggins, who came to Pembroke from Oklahoma to organize the school’s first marching band, has always had a fondness for drums — and playing properly.

His instruction to the kids who have come from as far as Garner and Princeville: play smart.

“Every drum line’s got someone who wants to be the macho guy,” said Jonathon Moore. He’s the student drum leader for UNCP’s 20-piece “Spirit of the Carolinas” drum line. He also helps instruct percussion at Jack Britt High School.

“The macho guy tries to show off by pounding the drum, rather than letting the drum do the work. Then you’ve got the smart guy, the guy who uses his head and doesn’t get worn out.

“You be the smart guy.”

Some take his advice to heart — and hand. Others require a little more convincing. As the camp runs through a progression of practices, the macho drummers are nursing sore hands.

“There’s this little muscle in your hand,” Moore said. “Or there is, if you’re practicing and playing properly. It’ll do the work if you let it.”

Outside, beneath a spread of crape myrtles, Robert Brennan’s lesson to a cluster of quad drummers is part music, part geometry, part physics. Find the shortest distance between two drums, he says, to minimize motion and increase speed.

“If you’re playing correctly, you won’t hear yourself,” Wiggins added. “The goal in percussion is to hear others. If you hear yourself playing, you aren’t lined up with everyone else.”

Like brush strokes in art class, good drumming is found in the details: how a stick is held, proper alignment and accent, even how you move your feet.

“Some people try to keep their feet still,” Wiggins said. “Can you imagine drummers with still feet? We’re a marching drum line, and it’s better to train your feet to move while your hands are moving.

“It’s about impossible to teach later.”

By the end of the daylong camp, it seems most of the students got the message. Rather than a full-blown hailstorm, the auditorium echoes with the clean, crisp sound of proper percussion.

“At the end, there’s something wonderful when everyone plays it right,” Wiggins said. “The kids know it. You can see it on their faces.

“They’ll take what they’ve learned today and use it back at their drum lines at school. They’ll play better, smarter and sound a lot better.”

And this fall, if all goes well, the music will be easier for everyone to hear.

UNCP Becomes a Conn-Selmer School

In the Spring of 2008 UNCP joined the Conn-Selmer School program. A Conn-Selmer School Partnership seeks to recognize a high level of academic and musical excellence at qualified educational institutions, while sustaining the long-term growth of music education and performance. Affiliation with this program will increase the institution's national/international profile as a music school, resulting in recruitment of the most promising students. This commitment to excellence can also assist in securing financial support from organizations and individuals wishing to align themselves with excellence. As well, A Conn-Selmer School designation reinforces our school's long-term position as a leader in music and music education.

Becoming A Conn-Selmer School will provide our institution with a complete instrumental program that will inspire our students, along with maximum savings and long-term budgetary control. At the same time, our school will have established a strong partnership that will serve the needs of student preparing for their musical careers.

Already as part of this partnership UNCP has acquired new marching percussion and methods class instruments (which will be replaced every 2 years!); new King marching brass instruments; and several instruments for concert band usage. In addition, as Conn-Selmer is a division of Steinway, we have recently received a new Steinway grand piano for Moore Hall.

UNCP Summer Drum Daze

Saturday July 26th the UNCP Music Department will host its second ever "Summer Drum Daze". This camp, co-sponsored by Sabian, Ludwig, Evans, XL and Innovative Percussion, brings together area high school drumlines for an intensive, one-day camp to prepare for the upcoming marching season. It includes a performance by the "Spirit of the Carolinas" drumline as well as special sessions for directors.

Updated: Friday, August 29, 2008

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