Western Oregon University Percussion Studio

06/06/2025

Join us this Sunday evening for the closing performance of the Music Department’s Concert Week:

WOU Wolfpack Percussion Ensemble
NIGHT OF PERCUSSION

A concert of solo and chamber percussion works featuring pieces by: Ivan Trevino, Emmanuel Sejourne, Andy Akiho, as well as WOU student composers.

FREE for WOU Students!

Sunday, June 8th
7:00 PM
Rice Auditorium
Monmouth, OR

tickets: https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/wou-arts/6790/event/1426379

$14 General Admission
$10 Veterans & Seniors
$10 WOU Faculty & Staff
$8 Non-WOU Students
FREE for WOU Students

We hope to see you there!

12/05/2024

This weekend!
We’re eager and excited to get to welcome The Confluence for a 3-day residency including a Friday night feature on the WOU Jazz Orchestra concert, a Saturday morning workshop with our studio, and culminating with a Sunday night collaborative performance on the WOU Wolfpack Percussion Ensemble concert.

Come join us!

Event Details:

The Universal Music Design Team presents the Jazz Prism Project, a free concert series that makes Jazz accessible and inclusive to the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) community using “ALL THE SENSES”. This project melds Jazz and Deaf musicians, creating a new musical genre: .

Using multi-sensory technologies this project overcomes barriers by immersing participants in a new way of experiencing sound. We provide up to 20 haptic vests that allow the audience to feel sound, along with our AI driven audio reactive visuals.

This project is funded by the South Arts Jazz Road grant.

The Confluence:
(Thundercat, Linda Perry) - Electric Marimba, Electronics
[Deaf/Blind] (Esperanza Spalding, Evelyn Glennie) - Guitar and Electronics
[Deaf] (UMD Principal Lead) - Synthesizer and Electronics
Dillon Simeone [Deaf] (DJ Deaf Wish) - Percussion and Sonic Interfaces
(The Temptations, Bon Iver) - Saxophone and Electronics
- [Autistic] (Pat Metheny, txted) - Electronic Percussion

Tour Schedule:

12/8-Sunday; 7pm-9pm
Western Oregon University
Performance: The Confluence w/
Rice Auditorium

For accommodations please contact:
[email protected]

:
A Jazz concert made DHH accessible via haptics
:
Deaf musicians performing with haptics provided to audience

Our partners: Confluence Recording Company, , , , , Outernorthwest Records, ,

Our sponsors: , Columbia Regional Inclusive Services, , ,

06/29/2024

Wolfpack Percussion Ensemble Spring Highlights:
I. Vernal Equinox
II. Post-Performance Euphoria
III. “DESTROY BOOK - use all means necessary”
IV. Múdrà vu
V. Northwest Percussion Fest !
VI. “The best kind of art is abstract enough that you can come to your own conclusion.”
VII. “I Don’t Understand”
VIII. Playing class w/ and Allen Otte
IX. Not Enough Sleep
X. 44444
XI. Post-Performance Euphoria (Reprise)
XII. Pensemble
XIII. Summer Solstice

05/09/2024

We are honored and extremely excited to be hosting John Lane and Allen Otte of The Innocents this week at WOU as a part of their Oregon tour!
The Innocents will be performing tonight at , followed by a two-day residency here at tomorrow and Friday.

All events, including workshops, masterclasses, and the culminating Friday night concert are FREE to ALL!

WOU EVENTS:
Thursday, May 9th
3:30-5:00 PM Workshop, Room 108, Smith Hall
Friday, May 10th
1:00-2:30 PM Masterclass, Room 108, Smith Hall
7:30 PM CONCERT, Smith Recital Hall

Info about the artists:

The Innocents is social justice advocacy through performance art. The work is an effort to delve deeply into the current issues surrounding the subject of wrongful imprisonment and exoneration, as well as a commitment to connect with the communities in which it is performed.

“Art provides a platform for advocacy, affords us an opportunity to raise our voices in the name of something other than ourselves in an eloquent and hopefully memorable way.
In the current socio-political landscape where we are confronted with the most egregious examples of the opposite, our offering wishes to prove the power of empathic engagement with issues that ultimately touch all of our lives.”
- The Innocents

We hope you can join us!

03/31/2024

Wolfpack Percussion Studio and Carlos Camacho Winter Concert

We had a blast getting to watch and play with Carlos Camacho during his Guest Artist Residency this Winter Term! Thank you to Carlos Camacho, to Reilly Gault for jumping in on guira and caja, and to everyone who came out to support us!

We’re also extremely excited to get to perform some of these same works by Latin American composers at the upcoming Northwest Percussion Festival, hosted by . We’ll see y’all there!

PC: Hannah Kuper

Western Oregon University
Western Oregon University Music Department

01/21/2024

Come be a part of the Western Oregon University Percussion Studio!

Perks:
-$65,000 of available annual scholarships and tuition remissions
-Large percussion inventory, new instruments, a newly renovated recital hall, and a gorgeous new performing arts auditorium
-One of Oregon’s best Music Education programs
-Keyless entry system buildings and practice rooms
-MIDI Keyboard Lab and Recording Production Facilities
-Extensive opportunities to perform, as well as the option to take percussion, drum-set, and/or hand-drumming/global music lessons
-Both Majors and Minors can study directly with the Director of Percussion
-Monmouth voted No. 3 on the list of Top 20 Safest Cities in Oregon!
-A 20 minute drive into the city, or an hour drive from the beautiful Pacific Coast!

Western Oregon University
Western Oregon University Music Department

12/15/2023

Wolfpack Percussion Studio Fall Concert

Thank you to everyone who came out to support us!
We’ll see you next year!

PC: Noah Adams



providing the 💜 planks

12/02/2023

Join us tomorrow night (Sunday, December 3rd) at 7:30 PM in Rice Auditorium for our Fall Concert!

We’ll be featuring works by Louis Andriessen, Alan Sentman, Mark Applebaum, and Steve Reich.

A free Wolfpack Percussion gift (aka a box full of destroyed book) to the first person who guesses the piece pictured!

07/09/2023

This past Spring term, we had the privilege and pleasure of performing the world premiere of Austin Franklin's percussion quartet, The Theory of Motion. One of the coolest things about the work (in addition to getting to build a contrabass set of wind chimes) was Austin's modern take on Jean-Claude Risset's rhythmic Shepard-scale technique.

The WOU Percussion Ensemble also had the good fortune of getting to work with Austin during his composer residency at WOU in June. A giant thank you to Austin for entrusting us with his piece and for coaching the quartet during the premiere week!

Check out the recording of the world premiere in the link below!

The Theory of Motion is an illusory experience and experiment in rhythm that combines elements from jazz, progressive rock, and several post-tonal techniques...

06/27/2023

The WOU Wolfpack Percussion Ensemble wrapped up the Spring Term (and the 2022-23 year) with a bang this Spring Concert with performances of Carlos Chavez’s Toccata, Catching Shadows by Ivan Trevino, and the world premiere of Austin Franklin’s percussion quartet, The Theory of Motion.

For some members, this was their final concert, so this performance ended up being a bittersweet one. Thank you to all the awesome members of the ensemble as well as Austin, who flew out from Louisiana to coach the percussion quartet in preparation for the premiere!

Extra extra thank you to Andrew Thompson for tuning the pipes used to build a contrabass set of wind chimes for The Theory of Motion (pictured).