Third Coast Percussion performed three songs for students and participated in a panel discussion Thursday night at Wheeling Park High School as they prepared for a performance with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. tonight.

During the concert, retiring WPHS strings instructor Benjamin Podolski will be presented with the WSO’s inaugural “Music Educator Award” – an honor given “in recognition of an educator that exemplifies extraordinary dedication to music education so that students are inspired and empowered through music performance.”

Students from both WPHS and John Marshall High School attended Thursday night’s panel discussion. Asking questions and adding comments were WSO Music Director John Devlin and WPHS band director Jason Birch.

Third Coast Percussion members Rob Dillon, Peter Martin, David Skidmore and Sean Connor discussed how they discovered percussion as friends in middle school, then went on to pursue music education degrees at Northwestern University near Chicago where they are based.

They quickly learned that being musicians was the same as operating a small business. 

“There were a few percussion groups out there, but they were pretty rare,” Skidmore explained. 

He explained they started out organizing their own shows, picking their own music, practicing and performing.

“Through those first few shows, we learned everything that goes into being a professional musician,” Skidmore continued. “It starts with loving music and playing it very well – if you can.

“Then it goes deeper into running a small business, which we are. This is our full-time job.”

While each of the four members has their own responsibilities, the ensemble now has four employees to help them with their travel arrangements. They play concerts 125 days a year, and when they are not on the road, they work together from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day either practicing or tending to other issues involving their music, Skidmore said.

Dillon brought up a second challenge for the ensemble, which is finding songs written for percussion ensembles.

“One of the things we knew we wanted to do from the beginning was commission new music for percussion quartets,” he said. “We want to get more people to write more music for our group, but we didn’t know how to do that.”

They started by looking for writing talent “within their own universe” in the Chicago area, Dillon said.

Skidmore asked the students present how many were music performers, and how many composed music. Many of them raised their hands.

“Music comes from brilliant people,” Skidmore said. “We encourage everyone who is a performer to try it.”

Devlin added his own thoughts on how business needs often affect the creation of music.

“I’m a full-time professional musician, and music director of your symphony orchestra. I would say about 4% of my time is spent on music,” he explained. “I am dealing with finances, politics, managing people … working with the social media people … there are so many different aspects to what we do.”

The first question asked by students of the ensemble is how they travel with their instruments. 

They don’t transport the large instruments like drums and xylophones. They arrange for those instruments to be at the site where they will play.

Smaller items – like tom toms they acquired in Taiwan – fit in a suitcase.

The students also asked them what they do when they are not playing music.

Skidmore likes to bake and watch television baking shows, while Dillon is learning Japanese. Martin said he likes to run new neighborhoods each day while in Chicago, and Connor said he likes meeting new people.

Devlin admitted to being a fan of video games, and added he is learning Spanish so “I can understand what my mother- and father-in-law are saying.”

Third Coast Percussion won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their album “Third Coast Percussion.”

« Previous post: Fanfare Magazine: “Between Breaths”

Next post: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bells, quiet moments help Milwaukee Symphony show off sonic beauty of its hall »