With the first hints of winter and Indiana’s crisp chill settling in, a familiar feeling of excitement hangs in the air as some students prepare to take on another show. The leaves have fallen, the football fields are quiet and the buzz of a marching band season is behind them. Though, for the percussionists at our school, the change in seasons signals a new rhythm – Winter Percussion season is about to start. Percussion Director Javier Ramirez explains what Winter Percussion is.
“Winter percussion is essentially marching band, but inside and without the color guard and the horns,” Ramirez said. “Everything that you see on the football field, we take it onto the basketball floor, and then we just take away the horns and the color guard. It’s just percussion.”
This season, percussionists are taking a more straightforward approach to storytelling, rather than their typically concept-based approach. Audiences are meant to connect with the storytelling right off the bat.
“The show is definitely more direct. Instead of making you think about what the show is, we just tell you what the show is from the moment we step on the floor,” Ramirez said. “We just tell you over and over again what the show is just in different ways.”
This show’s theme is unique, aiming to immerse the audience in the rugged, old world of the Wild West. Through music, props, and choreography, the performers aim to transport viewers to a time of dusty trails, lively saloons, and untamed adventure.
“Throughout the show, we will introduce the [Western] world that we live in. We’ll take you into the saloon where we will do some pretty crazy stuff. We’ll play percussion related things on some mugs and then we’ll play on bar tops,” Ramirez said. “We’ll do spoons and washboards. Quite literally everything that you would imagine that you would see in a saloon, we will try to depict that.”
While the saloon sets the tone for the show, it will literally end with a bang, keeping it in line with the Wild West theme. This is yet another aspect that differs from past shows that Winter Percussion has done.
“The goal is to have a duel at the very end of the show,” Ramirez said. “I won’t announce that there’s a winner, but the guests will just have to [watch the show], to see if there’s a winner or not.”
