Robert Chappell, whose career has encompassed an inclusive range of musical styles and genres in performance, education and composition will join Oakland University’s African Drum and Xylophone Ensemble (Akwaaba), World Percussion Ensemble (Ngoma) and Steel Band (Pan-Jumbies) to present the annual winter World Music Concert and Children’s Concert on Friday, April 13 in Varner Recital Hall.
"Our April World Music Concert is the culminating event of the academic year for our many world music courses at Oakland University,” said Mark Stone, associate professor of world music and percussion at OU.
The World Music Concert begins at 8 p.m. and will include several of Chappell’s original compositions, noted for integrating seemingly unrelated genres into a musical totality.
“Professor Chappell is a trailblazer in the field of World Percussion and I am overjoyed to have him visit OU this semester as our featured guest artist,” Stone said.
Chappell is a distinguished teaching professor and professor emeritus at Northern Illinois University.
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| Robert Chappell |
According to the university’s website, Chappell joined the NIU School of Music faculty in 1983 as head of percussion studies. His formal education includes degrees from Ohio State University and the University of North Texas where he toured and recorded with the renowned One O'Clock Lab Band.
Among his orchestral teachers are Cloyd Duff and Joe Adato of the Cleveland Orchestra, Kal Cherry of the Dallas Symphony, and Gerald Unger of the Pittsburgh Symphony. In 2003, he was named an NIU Presidential Teaching Professor.
Chappell's interest in world percussion has resulted in studies in African drumming with Kwaku Dadey and Indian tabla drumming with Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri. In 1990 he received an Indo-American Research Fellowship to continue study with Ustad Alla Rakha in Bombay, India. During the winter of 2004, Chappell spent two months in Trinidad and Tobago, W. Indies researching the unique tassa drumming tradition of TnT.
In addition, Chappell has composed works for contemporary percussion, jazz groups, and cross-cultural ensembles, and has been published by Marimba Productions, Pan Press and Panyard Publications. His piece Wood-N-Steel for steelband and African amadinda xylophone, was performed by the NIU Steelband at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, the Seoul Drum Festival 2002 in Korea, The Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and with the Chicago Symphonietta, the Buffalo Philharmonic, and the Rockford Symphony.
"I first met Robert Chappell in the summer of 1989 at Birch Creek Percussion Camp in Wisconsin,” Stone said. “I had just finished my freshman year of college and while at Birch Creek Robert introduced me to a wide range of percussion traditions for the very first time, including music of India and Trinidad.”
Tickets to the World Music Concert are $8 all seats and are available at the Varner Box Office, by phone at (800) 585-3737 or at startickets.com with no service fee.
In addition to the World Music Concert, Oakland University will also be hosting a Children’s Concert at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 13 in Varner Recital Hall.
In this fun-filled education performance, students will learn about a wide range of percussion traditions; from xylophones of East Africa to tassa drums of the Caribbean.
"We have been presenting yearly world music programs for area youth for the past 20 years at OU,” Stone said. “This is one of our most important outreach events. Just as Professor Chappell introduced me to the wider world of music many years ago, it is my goal to share these beautiful traditions with the children of our community."
Tickets are $6 all seats, and children 2 and under are free.
For more information, visit oakland.edu/MTD.