After performing in Scotland over the summer, a music instructor at the University of Rhode Island returned to continue sharing his passion of music and experiences through teaching. Kyle Forsthoff was eager to spread his talent and make human connection through music.
Music has always been present in Forsthoff’s life due to his father’s love for music. He started out by playing piano, but when it came to middle school and he had to choose a music elective, he choose band. Forsthoff grew up listening to his father playing drums, which encouraged him to start playing percussion. All throughout his school career, Forsthoff took part in his school band and marching band. Now as a professor of percussion, he still takes parts in bands such as the Middlesex County Volunteers Fife and Drum Corps and Fellswater.
His band, Fellswater allows him to tap into Scottish and Irish music, which is also another interest of his. His band consists of a largely traditional eight piece ensemble that plays musical arrangements from all over the Celtic area.
“A lot of our repertoire is Scottish and Irish music. We integrate music from all these areas into coherent sets of dance tunes,” Forsthoff said. “We also have two singers in the band so we do a selection of songs; something straightforward enough from Bob Dylan to other songs from the more traditional ballad repertoire.”
With MVC and Fellswater, Forsthoff was given the opportunity to travel to Scotland and perform at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. This was a great way for Forsthoff to experience Scottish culture and at the same time, spread his passion of percussion.
“Every night, it’s a 100 minute show of which MCV was a little six minute part, so it’s kind of like putting together a tiny little marching band show,” Forsthoff said. “We had a six minute show that was part of a bigger show.”
Forsthoff enjoyed being able to share his talent during these important performances in a different country. Even though his groups performed for just a little during these very lengthy concerts, Forsthoff was still able to connect with his band members and share that special connection with their audience. This experience overall allowed him to make friends with people from all over the world and gain new connections.
“Every night it’s for 9,000 people and every night is sold so I think the total we ended up performing for is something like 220,000 people over a course of a month,” Forstoff said. “My primary role was with Middlesex County. I was a drummer in that and then a number of people in MCV and me also have an eight person Celtic band and we were performing in the Tattoo as part of a larger dance production.”
With this new experience from the performances, Forsthoff now shares it with his students through performing with them and teaching. Sharing his passion with students through teaching, is exactly why he always aspired to be a teacher. Forsthoff aims to connect with his students in a different way than they are used to. He will go the extra mile to ensure that he is giving his students the proper attention because connecting with them is his main priority.
“I’ve always been drawn to the idea of sharing and the best way to share is through teaching,” Forsthoff said, “There’s a very different experience between me being on stage and you experiencing me performing the music, versus you and I interacting on the music together.”
Both performing and teaching allow Forsthoff to share his talent and passion for percussion. He hopes to continue travelling with his bands in order to gain more experience and share it with his students. Not only does he want to continue sharing his knowledge, but he wants to encourage students to step out of their comfort zone and create their own experience. One way Forsthoff is encouraging this is, on Dec. 2, the URI Percussion Ensemble will present “Homegrown.” This features URI faculty and student compositions. Forsthoff could not be happier to give his students this opportunity to experience a new type of human connection.