One MSU percussion group takes their creativity beyond just making the music.
Finishing his master’s degree of ethnomusicology, MSU student Alex Smith is one of the composers within the percussion studio that has done his own experimentation with music by launching a project of hand-crafted, sustainable instruments.
While the percussion ensemble is not a fixed group on campus, all of the students that study within the percussion program at MSU gather to collaborate on assigned pieces of music for various performances and events throughout the year.
Based on the instructions from the composers and the sounds that each group is trying to achieve, music performance graduate student Kelsey Tamayo said the percussionists often have the freedom to create their own unique sound by utilizing the mallets and equipment of their choice. In many instances, Tamayo said the ensembles have essentially found their own instruments by implementing unusual objects such as garbage cans or metal pipes to convey the music.
Smith said he hopes crafting percussion equipment that is made from environmentally considerate materials is an essential part of what he offers to the percussion community. He believes that everyone should understand the production process, including the pre-exisiting life that was used to make the instrument and the consequences it has on the environment.
Smith currently performs on these sustainable instruments at various events with five other students who call themselves the Los Banditos. Their equipment includes two marimbas made from glass instead of wood, two small mallet instruments made from copper pipe and a North American wood respectively, as well as a cajon box drum and a “Michigandered” marimba made from Michigan sassafras.
“It’s more than just this thing in my living room or in our percussion studio. It’s an object with agency. If it has so much power, I feel like it is our obligation as a percussion community to know about that instrument,” he said.
Aside from being able to collaborate on his project with other percussionists, Smith said instructors Jon Weber and professor Gwendolyn Dease offer a diverse curriculum for students.
“I think they have created an outstanding program that essentially prepares the students here to go out into the percussion community with the ability to be successful,” Smith said. “It has done things for me not only from a community and family level, but from an artistic and professional level as well.”
While experimenting with new sounds and rhythms is a constant process for any musician, Tamayo said percussionists are recognized for approaching their music with limitless creativity and originality.
“A lot of composers like writing new music for percussionists mostly because we are game to do anything,” she said.
As a teaching assistant and a third-year member in the MSU Percussion Ensemble, Tamayo said the group is able to perform pieces with diverse elements and sounds as a result of combining the skills that each member has acquired through previous ensemble experiences.
“We can have as much of a compositional process as the composer,” she said.
