The Impulse Percussion Group and Suprima Chamber Orchestra performed “Matadors y Maracas” on Monday, a performance that featured music from French composers and the world premiere of a song inspired by the Joropo tradition of music from Venezuela.

In this five-piece performance, the IPG and SCO brought percussion and strings in their adaptation of “Carmen,” a suite from Rodion Shchedrin’s adaption of “Carmen,” from Bizet’s opera.

“I’m always looking for a program that has varied interest for all listeners, and I think that ‘Carmen’ is a great piece to perform,” said Gerald Scholl, associate professor of percussion.  

Scholl said this piece may be the most common opera of all literature of operas, and he performed it in Israel many years ago.

“El Silencio,” “Carmen” and “Après Masque” have never been performed here, Scholl said. They are brand new to Wichita.

Scholl said coming to an IPG concert is like going to a performance where all the best sellers can be heard at one time.

“What’s motivating to me as a director is bringing music that’s fantastic to an audience that’s never heard it before,” Scholl said. “We bring one of a kind performances.”

Junior Claire Gravesen, a performer with the IPG, said she was excited to be collaborating with the SCO, a student group that was established by the St. Petersburg String Quartet, the Grammy-nominated quartet-in-residence at Wichita State.

“These students are phenomenal musicians and pay as much attention as we do to the nitty-gritty details,” Gravesen said. “This results in a phenomenal presentation and performance of music, as we saw on their concert last Thursday.”

The second half of the concert was solely percussion, and Gravesen said the pieces were extremely difficult. She said what she found particularly exciting was the world premiere of Ed Harrison’s piece, “El Silencio,” for the solo maracas and percussion ensemble.

“Ed Harrison has been working with IPG the last several days, and it has only energized me more for this upcoming performance,” Gravesen said. “He’s a passionate and dedicated individual, and it shows in everything he does. It’s been a great experience working with him.”

Gravesen also said she thinks IPG has always made it a priority to present a wide range of music that exposes the myriad of culture and history that percussion in particular has to offer.

The concert performed Monday brought the reworked version of Bizet, with solo maracas and a percussion orchestra.

Senior Lucas Whippo, another group member of IPG, said he wanted the audience to come in with an open mind and just hear everything and take it in.    

“I want the audience to get that ‘wow’ factor, which they will in a couple different pieces,” Whippo said.

Whippo said he wanted the audience to get a deeper context when they attended the concert and to understand that percussion has become the cutting edge of composition.

Freshman business student Hamida Akhter Ikra attended the concert. She takes the World Music class with Scholl and said she enjoyed the culture that was brought to the performance.

“I thought the concert was really nice,” Ikra said. “I take a class with Professor Scholl, and I really enjoy his class.”

Scholl said the uniqueness of his group and having an audience that appreciates the music is the beauty of it all.