FREDERICKTOWN — It was billed as the 2010 edition of the Fredericktown Percussion Ensemble, but it was the first one since 2002. The ensemble was founded by longtime Fredericktown band director Stan Miller in 1987, and ran through 2002, when Miller retired. Although it has been eight years since the ensemble got together, it was not forgotten.
“It was something we all thought about for a long time,” said ensemble alumni Jimi Thayer, one of several on hand for the event. “We’d been in touch over the years and thought this was the time to do it.”
Other ensemble alumni on hand were Jeremiah Friend, T.J. Gaddis and Miller. Fredericktown band director Ron Graham, although not technically an alumni of the ensemble, sat in on several numbers and directed several others, as did Thayer.
“The last few years we had been doing ensemble competitions for OEMA, Ohio Music Educators Association,” Graham said. “So a lot of these students had performed at the junior high level or early in their high school career. Now that they are older, we felt we had enough material, had enough music so we could put a lot of it together and put the ensemble back together. And we also have a handful of alumni from 1994, ’95 and ’96.”
Members of the revived ensemble include Jarrod Dowalter, Tyler Thompson, Drake Mulkey, Matt Shoewalter, Kourtney Wainscott, Hope Huvler, Wyatt Maclean, Rachel Shaffer, Courtney Sisk, Drew Currier and Kohl Perkins.
Some of the highlights of the evening — and it was really hard to separate any particular number from the others, they were all so good — were “Metalwork” by seventh-grade ensemble members Brandon Schiraldi, Logan Singrey, Matthew Giffen, Hannah Hawkins, Zach Tumbleson and Carolyn Webster.
It was hard to tell the seventh-grade musicians from the older and more experienced students. A snare drum solo by Tyler Thompson, a four mallet solo by Courtney Sisk and a haunting four mallet solo of Beethoven’s “Fur Elise” by Thompson were just a few of the outstanding performances given by this talented group of students.
