Third Coast Percussion
Artist Discipline: Music
Artist Bio
Praised by Time Out Chicago for their “chops, polish, and youthful joy in performing,” Third Coast Percussion delivers performances that are both unique and universally engaging to audiences. Presenting a full season of concerts in Chicago and throughout the country, Third Coast Percussion has also maintained its dedication to educational outreach performances. The ensemble has appeared at diverse venues from the Kennedy Center of Washington D.C. to the Cultural Center of Chicago in addition to performances at universities and public schools from coast to coast. Members of Third Coast are active educators in the Chicago area, serving as instructors at Northeastern Illinois University, Trinity International University and area public schools. Individually, members hold degrees in music from Northwestern University, the New England Conservatory of Music, and the Yale School of Music.
Artist Statement
We are classical musicians. We are performers and teachers, both as an ensemble and individually. Independently, we teach hundreds of private students at Middle Schools, High Schools, and Colleges across the Chicagoland area. But as a group, we have the fortunate opportunity to bring a different type of educational experience to young audiences and students.
Through Urban Gateways, we bring a type of education based on involvement. As an ensemble, we believe in the benefits of qualitative knowledge over quantitative knowledge. A student can learn about music from a textbook, but that experience can never have the same impact as that from performance based demonstration ---- That’s where we come in.
We show audiences the beauty of the musical arts. We take classical chamber music and make it both accessible and exciting to young audiences. In doing so, we demonstrate our own art form and open the students’ eyes to a music they might not have otherwise experienced. Yet perhaps an even more powerful byproduct, our performances take students past what they need to learn, and introduce to them ideas about why they need to learn. By showing students something unfamiliar yet engaging, we open their minds to the possibility that any experience outside their daily routine and exposure to popular culture may hold something that they can find interesting, moving, and ultimately valuable.
Educational Philosophy
Students learn through engagement. We motivate audiences by engaging their ears, eyes, and hands. We offer them a type of music they have never heard before, performed on instruments they might never have seen before. More importantly, we give audiences the opportunity for active participation by playing the instruments with us. Education through experience is at the core of Third Coast Percussion educational philosophy.