Fall 2023 Fine Arts News

Reaching New Heights The School of Music successfully returns to the national stage

PHOTO: BRIAN A. WEST

PHOTO: NBRACKENPHOTOGRAPHY

The TCU Percussion ensemble performs for PASIC in the Van Cliburn Concert Hall at TCU.

TCU’s percussion and choral ensembles took center stage at last year’s Percussion Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Indianapolis, Indiana, and at Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA) in San Antonio, Texas, respectively. These prestigious performance opportunities marked the award-winning School of Music’s return to the national stage after the pandemic. Both ensembles spent the fall semester rehearsing for their respective concerts, preparing to perform in front of an audience of peers, industry professionals and leading artists from around the world. The journey to the main stage required each ensemble to enter a blind audition and submit a collection of unmarked performance recordings with no identifying characteristics. The entries were reviewed by expert committees that selected finalists

based on performance skills and level of musical excellence. Before reapplying for the blind competition, selected groups must wait three years for PASIC and two years for TMEA. Performing at PASIC “Performance at PASIC is the pinnacle accomplishment for any university percussion ensemble,” said Brian A. West, DMA, division chair and professor of percussion at TCU. As a winner of the International Percussion Ensemble Competition, the TCU Percussion Studio performed a showcase concert at PASIC, the world’s largest percussion conference, last November. The four day convention featured educational clinics, competitions, master classes and performances from leading artists in the field. Only three university ensembles are afforded the opportunity each year, with the

TCU Percussion Studio being an invited and featured performer six times over the past 20 years. “Our students get to perform, network and broaden their horizons by being exposed to different types of musicians and music,” said West. West was the first full-time percussion professor when he arrived on TCU’s campus in 2001. He was charged with building the percussion program’s presence on campus and in the international music community. He successfully led the first percussion ensemble to PASIC in 2005. “We are very fortunate to have won multiple times,” West said. “Our students are making memories and experiences that will last a lifetime.” The percussion studio has maintained a superior class of musicians from around the country and internationally. Many

12 FINE ARTS NEWS FALL 2023