Less than a minute after Robert Chappell first heard steelpannist Liam Teague’s “hands like lightning,” he knew what he must do.
“When Liam first came to NIU in January of 1993, everybody obviously recognized him as a major talent. You heard him play for 30 seconds, and you knew what he had going on,” says Chappell, a Distinguished Teaching Professor and head of percussion studies in the NIU School of Music. “You always want to play with someone of that caliber. It’s the goal of any musician.”
Sixteen years later, the duo is in-demand performers and clinicians around the world.
Chappell and Teague have recorded one CD, “For Lack of Better Words,” and a second is in production. They formed a band named Panoramic and tour when possible. They teach together each summer in Wisconsin at Birch Creek Music Performance Center, where Chappell is program director for percussion and steelpan and Teague is artist in residence.
Their travels, especially to statewide percussion festivals around the country where students are in attendance, double as amazing recruitment tools for NIU.
At 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 18, Chappell and Teague will bring their percussion magic to a hometown show in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall. The concert is free, and the auditorium is accessible to all.
The concert on NIU’s campus – the pair’s first in three or four years – will feature classical solos and ensembles for the steelpan as well as world-jazz compositions in calypso, Afro-Cuban and Indian styles.
Highlights include Chappell’s award-winning “Open Window” for steelpan and marimba, which will be expanded to include a traditional wooden drum from Peru and bass, and Teague’s “Cell-O-Vibes” for cello steelpan.
NIU alum Ben Wahlund will return to help play his “True North,” composed for steelpan, piano and three percussionists. Members of Panoramic will perform Teague’s “Dougla” and Chappell’s “Nikkara.”
Rich Holly, acting dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts, will team with Chappell to recreate their hilarious version of “Dueling Xylophones.”
For NIU listeners, Chappell says, it’s not only a chance to hear an international virtuoso of steelpan but to witness his continued mission to elevate the status of the steelpan in the musical world.
Teague, who is head of steelpan studies at NIU and co-director of the famed NIU Steel Band, studied classical violin for years before he turned his attention to the pan.
Appropriately, one of his performances March 18 originally was composed for violin. Teague will employ three pans to cover the range of the violin, Chappell says, and zip between them to flawlessly duplicate the work of a bow on strings.
At other times, Teague easily can knock out Indian ragas or improvise on complicated jazz charts with the incomparable skills of Charlie Parker.
“Our audience will leave with a greater respect for the steelpan if they haven’t already heard what Liam can do with it,” Chappell says. “Liam is the only person in the world who can play steelpan in any style, from classical to raga to jazz to world music.”
The NIU Chemistry Club invites the public to “Chem Blast ’09” at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 19, in Faraday Hall 143.
Chem Club members host an evening of crowd-pleasing chemical demonstrations every semester.
“Our demonstrations in the past have involved small explosions,” says Professor David Ballantine, faculty adviser to the Chem Club. “So, we’ve decided to take on the new title of ‘Chem Blast’ for our spring event.”
Featured experiments will include a simulated grain silo explosion and demonstrations showing how to determine the caloric content of junk food, how to turn copper into gold and how to make a “pH rainbow.”
“Every semester we try to out-do the previous semester, in terms of creating exciting demonstrations,” says Harrison Kuras, a junior chemistry education major. “Whether it be Thermite and contact explosives or chemical slime and expanding foam, there’s a demo here that always turns heads.”
Some of the experiments planned for the evening could involve loud noises and produce some smoke and/or unpleasant smells and might not be appropriate for small children.
To ensure the safety of the audience and the presenters, flash photography will not be permitted. For some experiments, members of the audience might be asked to move away from the demonstration area, again for safety precautions.
Parking will be available in the NIU Parking Deck along the west side of Normal Road.
The Faculty Dimension is examining instruction in the first-year classes, the interaction of faculty and/or staff with students both inside and outside the classroom, and the degree to which such instruction and interaction are encouraged, supported and valued by academic officers, deans, department chairs, colleagues and/or supervisors.
Committee members are in the process of collecting information from individuals, offices and programs across campus that interact with first-year students (course/program descriptions and related materials, publications, brochures, Web site pages and/or anecdotal evidence).
The committee members will:
For additional information about, to participate in or to provide information for the Faculty Dimension, contact co-chairs James Brunson (jbrunson@niu.edu), Dave Changnon (dchangnon@niu.edu) and Carolinda Douglass (cdoug@niu.edu).
NIU’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center invites members of the campus community to participate in the awards and contests that recognize leadership and achievement related to the LGBT community.
The awards include the Ally Awards, LGBT Essay Contest, Eychaner Award for Outstanding Contributions on behalf of the LGBT Community and recognition of graduating LGBT students.
Information and nomination or submission forms are available online. Deadlines range from Wednesday, March 18, to Tuesday, March 31. Award recipients will be recognized at the annual end of year Award Dinner during LGBT Awareness Month in April.
For more information, contact the LGBT Resource Center at lgbt@niu.edu or (815) 753-5428.
The Macalester African Music Ensemble will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday, March 19, in the NIU Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.
Directed by Sowah Mensah, ethnomusicologist, composer and a master drummer from Ghana, the Macalester African Music Ensemble performs traditional African music primarily from Ghana, but also from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Guinea, Gambia, Kenya and Tanzania.
Founded in 1987, members of the group sing and perform with a variety of African instruments including xylophones, marimbas, flutes, horns and an assortment of drums and gourds. They have been invited to give performances in major cities including New Orleans, Chicago, Seattle, Milwaukee, Madison, Santa Barbara, Ann Arbor, Iowa City, St. Louis and more.
This free performance at NIU is sponsored by the NIU Center for Black Studies, the Division of International Programs and the Department of Anthropology. For more information, contact Jui-Ching Wang at jcwang@niu.edu or (815) 753-7979.
The concert is open to the public and the building is accessible to all.
NIU’s School of Music is training a young singers’ chorus for the spring Opera Workshop production of “Hansel and Gretel.”
Singers from DeKalb, Sycamore, Malta, Somonauk and Rockford have been rehearsing together each Wednesday night to prepare for the March performances at NIU. Bringing together young talent for the university production was the idea of directors Lucia Matos, James Tucker and Mary Lynn Doherty, all NIU School of Music faculty members.
Composed by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1893, “Hansel and Gretel” promises to be a wonderful collaboration involving the NIU Philharmonic, NIU voice students and the children’s chorus.
The opera, a perennial favorite for family audiences, features exquisite music to retell the well-known folk tale by the Brothers Grimm, complete with a magical forest and the Gingerbread Witch.
Performances with full orchestra are scheduled for 7 p.m. Friday, March 27, and 3 p.m. Sunday, March 29, in Boutell Memorial Concert Hall. The opera will be conducted by Matos and staged by Tucker, faculty co-directors of the NIU Opera Workshop.
Tickets are available for purchase in advance by calling (815) 753-1551 or can be purchased at the door at both performances. Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for non-NIU students ages 12 and older and $5 for children age 11 and younger. General seating is available for both performances.
Learn to make beautiful eggs, which can be given as gifts, kept as family heirlooms or treasured as springtime decorations.
The NIU Community School of the Arts is offering a two-day workshop to create Pysanky Easter Eggs. The class meets from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, March 28, and Sunday, March 29, in the Visual Arts Building. The workshop is for anyone ages 15 through adult.
Egg decorating is a skill that has been handed down through many generations, usually from mother to daughter. Pysanky are Ukrainian/Polish Easter eggs, decorated using beeswax and dyes applied in layers.
Students learn to decorate eggs using two different styles of Pysanky: the Polish drop/pull folk style and the Ukrainian method, which uses the delrin kista tool. Both use hot wax applied to the egg surface and color dye baths. The fee includes the cost of materials.
Instructor Billie Giese is an associate professor of drawing in the NIU School of Art.
For registration forms or information about this and other programs of the NIU Community School of the Arts, visit www.niu.edu/extprograms or call (815) 753-1450.
Richard Carwardine, Rhodes Professor of American History at St. Catherine College and incoming president of Corpus Christi College at Oxford University, will speak Monday, April 6, at NIU.
Carwardine is the author of “Abraham Lincoln: A Life of Purpose and Power” and the winner of the 2004 Lincoln Prize. In 2008, he was elected to the Order of Lincoln by the State of Illinois.
His lecture begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Lincoln Room of the Holmes Student Center.
The event is hosted by the University Honors Program. It is sponsored by a grant from the
Abraham Lincoln Illinois Bicentennial Commission and endorsed by the Illinois Library System Director’s Organization.
For more information, visit http://www.lincolnread2009.org.