By Josephine Sollitto / The Jambar
Youngstown Percussion Collective is a student organization at Youngstown State University that creates a collaborative ensemble to enhance students’ percussion skills. Glenn Schaft, professor of music and director of drumset and percussion studies, serves as the adviser for YPC.
Cole Lewis, sophomore music production major and YPC president, said the club is open to all students who have an interest in percussive instruments.
“Anyone can join. You just have to have a passion for percussion or a desire to be involved in it,” Lewis said.
Caden Buck, junior music production major and YPC secretary, said YPC has many performances planned this year on campus.
“The first [event] coming up is Oct. 28. That will be at the [Butler Institute of American Art] Museum. That’ll be at noon that day. Then, we also have Nov. 18 in Spotlight Theater inside of Bliss Hall. That will be our second concert, and … on March 24, we have another performance at the Butler Art Museum at noon,” Buck said.
Lewis said YPC will attend the Percussive Art Society International Convention this November in Indianapolis as a learning opportunity for its members.
“We see a lot of unique performances [and] a lot of traditional performances too, from all types of percussion instruments, from drum set stuff with keyboard instruments like marimbas, hand drums, body percussion, even more experimental digital stuff,” Lewis said.
Jay Rusu, sophomore music education major and YPC treasurer, said the YPC’s goal this year is to collaborate with Student Government Association to make the PASIC trip more affordable.
“One of the major goals is we take a trip to the [PASIC] every single year,” Rusu said. “Over the past few years, we’ve been funding this almost entirely out of the students’ pockets. So this year, we’re really trying to work with SGA and get it approved as a school trip.”
YPC is set to host an invitational to provide local high school students an opportunity to learn about the collective. Lewis said this invitational is an effective way to give YPC members teaching experience.
“We do a big percussion invitational second semester where we invite a bunch of high schools from the area to come and play for us … [and] with us. We play for them a little bit … [and] they get to have some performance experience. They get to learn, and we get to show them what the organization is about,” Lewis said.
Buck said YPC has not finalized a meeting schedule but the meetings will likely be biweekly.
“We don’t, at this time, have a specific range for when we meet, but we would like to start having meetings biweekly to get a better sense of consistency with that,” Buck said.
Students interested in the YPC, can contact Lewis by email at cplewis01@student.ysu.edu.
