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Percussionist and inventor Ron George to perform, conduct residency at St. Olaf

By Nancy J. Ashmore
April 5, 2002

NORTHFIELD, MINN. - Students at St. Olaf College know a lot about music, thanks to the college's world-renowned music department and touring ensembles. But when percussionist and composer Ron George premieres "A Gull's Body" at 7 p.m. on Friday, April 12, in Urness Recital Hall, audience members not only will hear a composition never before performed - they'll also hear it played on an instrument that few, if any, have ever seen.

George, who will give workshops and master classes during a weeklong residency at the college, is an international performing and recording artist. He is also the proud inventor of seven new percussion instruments. "A Gull's Body" showcases one of these, the tambellan, which will be played by seven percussionists, who will be joined by soprano and bass voices and two flutes.

The tambellan is a modular percussion instrument that consists of a large array of tubular keyboards (including base tubes up to 12 feet in length), disc gongs, tam tams, bell plates, bells of various sizes, bamboo keyboards, tunable tube drums and an assortment of Western percssion instruments. "It looks like the entire percussion section of an orchestra," says Peter Hamlin, associate professor of music at St. Olaf.

Inspired by the gamelan, an Indonesian instrument, the tambellan has a microtonal tuning system that can change in shape, timbre and tuning to meet the needs of a particular composition or performance situation.

The St. Olaf concert, which is free and open to the public, will be devoted entirely to George's music. In addition to "A Gull's Body," works performed will include "The Floating Bubble," "Sounds From a Distant Past" and "Improv on a Broken Nose."

George will conduct workshops with students of various ages in Northfield Public Schools during his visit to St. Olaf. And on Friday, April 26, at 8 p.m., he will perform "Improv on a Broken Nose" and "A Gull's Body" at Metro State University.

George has been a member of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and is the cofounder of the Milwaukee Contemporary Chamber Music Ensemble. He holds masters degrees in music from Indiana University and the University of California-San Diego and has been on the faculty of the California Institute of the Arts, the Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts and the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts.

George has also received numerous performance and composition awards. "A Gull's Body" was commissioned through the American Composers Forum.by David Means, professor of music at Metro State University and director of the Nobles Experimental Intermedia Group. The work is based on the writings of Los Angeles poet Judy Liggett and employs a non-Western tonal scale developed by the composer.

"This is a unique opportunity to hear a totally invented instrument, which fills 13 crates when it is disassembled," says Hamlin, a composer himself who teaches music theory and composition at St. Olaf. "It's a unique sound that has its own scale. It will be like entering a world with sounds that the audience has never experienced before."

George's visit to St. Olaf is made possible, in part, with funding from Meet the Composer Inc., which, in turn, is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, ASCAP and the Virgil Thomson Foundation.

St. Olaf College, a national leader among liberal arts institutions, fosters the development of mind, body and spirit. It is a residential college located in Northfield, Minn., and affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The college provides personalized instruction and diverse learning environments, with more than two-thirds of its students participating in international studies. For more information, see www.stolaf.edu

Contact David Gonnerman at 507-786-3315 or gonnermd@stolaf.edu.