Music Review: IU Percussion ensemble
Department head leads his own rousing send-off

Anthony Cirone came to the IU Jacobs School of Music in 2001 to stir things up as chairman of the percussion department. He did and now leaves for retirement and new adventures on the West Coast, from whence he came with a distinguished professional and academic record.

On Monday evening, Cirone led the IU Percussion ensemble for a final time. The concert bore testimony to what he has accomplished. Some two dozen young percussionists appeared on the stage of Auer Hall, in continually shifting ensembles of four to nine to tackle frighteningly challenging material and, in each case, winning out.

The program held six compositions, one a world premiere and another two that were being performed for the first time in new arrangements by Cirone, who also conducted his bands of players with his usual firm sense of command.

Five of the works had connections, strangely, with the University of Michigan. Each composer studied and/or taught there. That includes Paul Yeon Lee, who earned a Michigan doctorate and contributed the debut piece, “Nocturne,” for a percussion orchestra of nine players, most of them engaged creatively with keyboard instruments, a collection of xylophones, vibraphones and marimbas. Lee put together an aural adventure that stressed atmospheres rather than just noise.

One Cirone arrangement, heard for the first time, focused on a six-part work by another U of M musical doctor, Gabriela Lena Frank. Her “Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout,” was also strong on mood and rhythmic character, striving to capture musical traditions of Peru and the Andes. Frank originally wrote the composition for string quartet. Nine percussionists, thanks to Cirone, did right well in causing listeners to travel south.

What Cirone did for Frank, he also did for Edward Elgar, transcribing the inspiring “Nimrod” section from the “Enigma Variations” for a keyboard percussion ensemble. The sounds produced were both luxurious and subtle, an appropriate combination for this wonderful music.

Completing the program were Christopher Rouse’s “Bonham,” written for loads of drums that produced an overload of decibels; an intricately interesting item called “Midnight Sun,” for percussion quartet written by Ming-Hsiu Yen, and a two-minute (just enough) blast of percussive sounds called, rightly, “Sound Off!” by Leslie Bassett. To complete those Michigan connections: Rouse once taught there, Yen is currently studying there, and Bassett holds one of the university’s distinguished emeritus professorships in music. Needless to say, Elgar, Sir Edward, had nothing to do with the place.

More to the point for this reviewer: the level of playing on Monday was extremely high. Cirone should feel satisfaction as he leaves IU.

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The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music would like
to thank the Herald Times for permission to republish this review.