After a rendition of “Water Spirits Redux” by Nathan Daughtrey, North Smithfield High School’s percussion ensemble, under the direction of Kevin Plouffe, was announced the winner of this year’s Percussion Ensemble Festival, an event that has been bringing together local musicians for over 20 years.
Percussionists of all ages gathered together on Saturday for the event. The Rhode Island Percussive Arts Society and director of the University of Rhode Island’s Percussion Ensemble, Kyle Forstoff, hosted the event. Forstoff said that the event has its roots deep in URI’s percussive history. Founded by former percussion professor Ronald Stabile, the event has been important in the creation and furtherment of local percussion programs for young performers.
Stabile started the event to bring together the local public schools who already had percussion ensembles to showcase their hard work and dedication. Stabile ran the event until his passing in 2012. Shortly after that, Forstoff took on the responsibility of running the event and has been doing it ever since.
“It’s really, really important for these groups to come together and see each other during the year,” Forstoff said. “The larger idea is that I hope this continues to inspire other schools to start percussion ensembles.”
This year, seven ensembles participated in the annual event. The groups spanned in ages from middle school to high school, and even had a community ensemble perform.
Riverside Middle School was the youngest of all of the ensembles, and they opened the show up with two pieces. The Mallet Maniacs were also in attendance, a community percussion ensemble with members ranging from sixth to 12th grade. Other ensembles consisted of Woonsocket High School, Killingly High School, King Philip Regional High School, North Smithfield High School and Milford High School.
While the event was open to all ages, different levels got different benefits from the event. The younger kids were able to watch the older performers and see what music is like at a higher level, Forstoff said.
The groups also varied in size, with some being as small as four percussionists, and some over 20.
The groups were judged by community percussionists who volunteer to score the different ensembles. Every year, the panel of judges rotates between local professionals, Forstoff said. This year, the judges included the director of bands at Exeter-West Greenwich High School and the vice president of the Rhode Island Percussive Arts Society Gregg Charest, local percussionist Aaron Abrahamson Cote and guest clinician Evan Lattimore.
In between the performances and the announcement of the winner, Lattimore gave a clinic about the percussion tool kit essentials that all percussionists should get.
His quality snare drum, which he got in college in the 1980s, was still holding up, and the only sign of wear and tear on it was on the case, he said. He also spoke about the importance of quality mallets and sticks, claiming that the ones used by students will not hold up.
“You have to start to add to your collection,” Lattimore said. “You end up with rooms full of instruments and mallets and sticks and you don’t know what to do with them all.”
After his discussion about proper instrument quality and care, Lattimore then began to teach the audience how to play and appreciate both the triangle and tambourine.
“I’ve got about eight triangles up here,” Lattimore said. “Anyone who wants to volunteer can come up here and play.”
He began teaching the volunteers some rhythms on the triangle, and then did the same for the tambourine. With about 20 volunteers up to the stage, Lattimore created an ensemble with only two instruments.
The event came to a close with the announcement of next year’s festival taking place on March 3, 2025.