Fowler Center series to feature 
Ethos Percussion Group, Feb. 8

Jan. 26, 2005--The Fowler Center at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro will host Ethos Percussion Group at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 8, as the sixth performance of the season.

Ethos Percussion Group, a four-member ensemble, is dedicated to the advancement of percussive arts in performance and education. The ensemble is known for their use of a wide variety of instruments and musical styles.

The concert will feature “Missa Luba,” a mass in Congolese style for a mixed chorus with a tenor soloist and percussion. “Missa Luba” will also feature the ASU choirs.

Ethos released a self-titled recording in 1996 that received glowing reviews. The recording included the works of John Cage, David Hollinden and Paul Smadbeck. Percussive Notes magazine wrote in an editorial, “Ethos Percussion Group has produced a compact disc filled with challenging, yet understandable percussive music. Listeners of all persuasions would find this recording musically satisfying.”

Their second recording, “The Persistence of Past Chemistries,” was released in October 1999, followed by their third recording, “Sol Tunnels,” released in 2002.

Ethos has performed across the United States, with major engagements at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the U.S. Military Academy and the American Museum of Natural History. In 1999, the ensemble inaugurated a new annual series dedicated to percussion chamber music at New York’s Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall.  

Ethos Percussion Group strives to educate children about percussive music. The ensemble offers an educational program, “Bing! Bang! Boom!,” in New York under the auspices of Young Audiences/New York and Arts Connection. Ethos is a recipient of a Chamber Music America Ensemble Residency Grant dedicated to an educational residency at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan.

Individually, the members of Ethos have performed or recorded with the American Symphony, the Philharmonia Virtuosi, the New World Symphony, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, New Music Consort and the Gertrude Stein Repertory Theater. They have also performed with the orchestras of many Broadway productions including “Phantom of the Opera,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Sunset Boulevard.”

Individual tickets to the performance are $25 and $20 for adults, $18 and $14 for seniors and students. Tickets are available to ASU students for the special price of $9 and $6.

For more information on seating options or to purchase tickets, call 870-972-2781 or visit http://tickets.astate.edu.

Other Fowler Center performances this year are: Rockapella on March 22, and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra on April 26.

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