Sep. 12, 2011

Visiting percussionists, Allen Otte, of the Percussion Group Cincinnati, and percussionist Bonnie Whiting Smith, will present a concert, "Speaking Of and After Cage" at Shawnee State University. The duo will use percussion and voice featuring original music and the unique work of John Cage, Corey Darget and Frederic Rzewski.

During this performance, traditional percussion instruments, found objects, and piano will come together with voice to create a fascinating and unique soundscapes.

Allen Otte came to the University of Cincinnati in 1977 with The Blackearth Percussion Group which he co-founded in 1972 and in 1979 he founded Percussion Group Cincinnati. Otte teaches percussion instruments, eurhythmics, composition, various literature seminars, and coaches and conducts traditional and contemporary chamber music. Otte is a regular summer faculty member at Oberlin where he has also taught a course in traditional and creative music for Javanese gamelan. He has concertized, recorded and taught throughout North America, Europe, and in Asia, including solo concerts and guest presentations in Shanghai, Saarbrucken, Aukland and at Tanglewood.

Bonnie Whiting Smith explores the flexible boundaries between music and other disciplines, focusing specifically on music for speaking percussionist. A committed performer and educator, she spent three years with Tales and Scales http://www.talesandscales.org, a quartet combining new music, dance, and theater for family audiences, with more than 400 performances in 25 states and appearing with the Dallas, Oregon, Indianapolis, Buffalo and Louisville orchestras.

Smith serves as principal percussionist of the La Jolla Symphony. She has worked internationally with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra in Switzerland under the direction of Pierre Boulez, at the Banff Centre in Canada, with the Associacion Nacional de Conciertos in a month-long teaching and performance residency in Panama, and also performed in New Zealand and Italy.

This unique presentation is free and open to the public, and will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 21 in the Vern Riffe Center for the Arts' Howland Recital Hall, third floor. Support for this concert is provided through the Edmund J. Kricker Fund of the Shawnee State University Development Foundation.