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The University of Iowa
PanAmerican Steel Band is barnstorming Iowa for two weeks, beginning
May 16, in a tour including school visits or public performances in
Lake Mills, Forest City, Coralville, Davenport, Solon, Oxford, Letts,
Stanwood, Lowden and Iowa City. |
UI School of Music faculty member Dan Moore will lead a
10-member ensemble performing music from Cuba, China, and Trinidad and
Tobago.
The music from China is the product of a visit to the UI by Jiao Shan Lin,
professor of percussion at the China Conservatory of Music and the People's
University for Nationalities in Beijing, who taught traditional and
contemporary Chinese music to students in the ensemble.
Starting as a single volunteer group in 1994, the UI steel band has grown to
the point that the percussion area of the UI School of Music now maintains
two complete steel bands.
The steel pans, or steel drums as they are variously known, are actually
55-gallon oil barrels that have been carefully crafted into tuned musical
instruments. Originating on the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, these
tuned drums have a remarkable timbre that is immediately recognizable as the
"Caribbean sound. "They characteristically play the infectious Calypso, Soca
and Reggae music of the West Indies, as well as Afro-Cuban, American pop and
other styles -- even including arrangements of classical music.
An internationally known percussionist, composer and teacher, Moore has
experience from concert to marching percussion, and from jazz to classical
styles. Performing all aspects of percussion, including keyboard percussion,
drum set, ethnic and multi-percussion, he is considered a "total
percussionist."
As a soloist, Moore has developed a unique new style of marimba performance,
using a MIDI set-up that allows him to create layers of electronically
triggered and natural acoustic sounds. For the past 12 years he has toured
as a member of the Britain/Moore Duo, whose CD "Cricket City" has been
described by Pan-lime Magazine as "a brilliant collage of pan-marimba
pieces."
In 1998 Moore received a grant from the UI Central Investment Fund for
Research Excellence to produce a CD of his arrangements of the Percussion
Pops music of legendary percussionist Dick Schory, a pioneer of the
contemporary percussion ensemble. "Percussion Pops 2000 presents Jungle
Fever: The Music of Dick Schory" was recorded by the UI Recording Studios
and released in 1999.
Moore joined the UI music faculty in 1996. Only the second full-time
professor of percussion at the UI, he succeeded Thomas L. Davis, who taught
percussion at the UI for more than 35 years. He is a performing artist for
the Yamaha Corporation of America, Sabian Ltd. and Innovative Percussion. He
has written for Jazz Player, Sticks and Mallets and Percussive Notes
magazines.
2005 UI PanAm Steel Band Tour
May 16 -- Lake Mills School
May 17 -- Forest City schools
May 18 -- Wickham Elementary, Coralville
May 19 -- Adams Elementary, Davenport; Lakeview Elementary Solon
May 20 -- St. Paul the Apostle High School, Davenport
May 23 -- Kent Park Summer Concert Series, Oxford
May 24 -- Louisa-Muscatine School, Letts
May 25 -- North Cedar School District, Stanwood and Lowden
May 26 -- Shimek Elementary, Iowa City
The tour is coordinated by the UI Arts Share program, which provides
artistic resources from the Iowa Center for the Arts to schools and
community organizations.
The School of Music is part of the Division of Performing Arts in the UI
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
For UI arts information and calendar updates, visit
http://www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa. To receive UI
arts news by e-mail,
ur-acr@uiowa.edu .
MEDIA CONTACT: Winston Barclay, 319-384-0073,
winston-barclay@uiowa.edu
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