Percussion Alums Make Music in New York
Two recent percussion graduates of the OSU School of Music, Amy Garapic and Matt Evans, participated in a type of music therapy program “Rhythm on Rikers” as a part of this summer’s Make Music New York, a citywide festival celebrating the summer solstice. Eight inmates at the Rikers Island jail participated in a 10-week program of weekly lessons in music theory and drumming, featuring the joyful percussion music of West Africa. The program culminated in two concerts presented by the eight participants for their fellow prisoners, along with their instructors, Garapic, Evans and Malavika Godbole, in the gym of the Eric M. Taylor Center at Rikers.
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim of the New York Times comments, “…the drum maker Remo donated a collection of African percussion instruments including djembes, djun djuns, a shekere and a gankogui bell. It was on this double iron bell that Mr. Evans tapped out the rhythm of the first song, "Funga Alafia." Seated in a semicircle, the performers took turns pounding out solos, which the rest of the group then picked up. Attempts to draw the audience into the call-and-response chanting initially produced only a few embarrassed grins. But the performers beamed and shouted encouragement to one another during a bembe, a complex West African rhythm that is also common in Afro-Cuban music, and a fully improvised number that culminated in a polyrhythmic whirlwind. During an infectiously cheerful kpanlogo, which featured a number of impressive solos, at least a dozen inmates in the audience joined in clapping, rocking and stomping their feet.”
View photos and more at New York Times article, "One Day, A Thousand Concerts, to Celebrate Summer:"
