RPO Marimba Band performs at RIT Sept. 20

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The RPO Marimba Band will perform Sept. 20 in Ingle Auditorium at RIT.

The 19th season of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Performing Artists Concert Series starts off with the RPO Marimba Band, a group that features “melodic percussion instruments,” also known as the percussion instruments capable of producing more than one note or sound. The concert takes place at 8 p.m. Sept. 20 in RIT’s Ingle Auditorium, Student Alumni Union.

The RPO Marimba Band, formed in 1979, is primarily comprised of members of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra’s percussion section. The band performs ragtime xylophone pieces, south-of-the-border tunes and novelty music from the first third of the 20th century, many of which were composed by George Hamilton Green Jr. Due to the primitive nature of early recording devices and techniques, the xylophone was one of the most recorded instruments of the time period.

The show features percussionists Jillian Pritchard, Kristen Shriner McGuire, Charles Ross, Howard Potter and founding member Brian Stotz. (Founding member John McNeill is unable to appear and is being replaced by John Beck.) The band performs on a xylophone, two marimbas, steel drum, drum set and various percussion instruments.

The 2013-2014 concert series will also feature pianists, vocalists and a history of blues later in the academic year.

Tickets—$5 for students, $15 for faculty/staff/alumni and $20 for the general public—are available at the Gordon Field House box office or at the door on concert night, if available. For Visa or MasterCard phone orders, call 585-475-4121. For online purchases, go to the RIT University Arenas website (there will be an added processing fee).