Giving back: Alumni percussionists have the beat on music scholarships

Music alumni traveled from as far as Mesa, Ariz. and New York City to participate in the Alumni Contemporary Percussion Ensemble and Alumni Hand Drumming Ensemble April 23 and 24. Eighteen alumni volunteered to perform in the fundraising concert that will help build the Music Alumni Scholarship Fund launched in the fall of 2009. The goal is to raise $12,000 by October 2012.

Eighteen alumni who were music majors/percussionists and graduated between 1985 and 2009 performed in an alumni Contemporary Percussion Ensemble. They were joined later by graduates of many different disciplines to form an alumni hand drumming ensemble. Eight of the alumni have graduate degrees.

The alumni had been practicing individually since January and began rehearsing as a group Friday evening. Rehearsals continued all day Saturday with a performance that evening. The UW-Green Bay Alumni Association sponsored a reception that followed the event.

“It was great to have generations of students meeting one another and making music together,” said UW-Green Bay Professor Cheryl Grosso, who directed the concert. “In addition to all of the hard work and equipment moving, the alumni managed to have a lot of fun, make new connections, and enjoy hearing about each others’ lives. It was an enriching experience, musically and personally.”

Read more about the event, click here.

Considering a donation to help the Music Alumni Scholarship Fund? Please contact Director of Donor and Alumni Relations Mark Brunette ’85 at 920-465-2586 or brunettm@uwgb.edu.

Pictures from the event are posted on the Alumni Photo Gallery.

For more pictures… click here.