He used these macabre terms recently to describe the University’s annual Percussion Ensemble Halloween Concert. For the last 25 years, this strange blend of music and mayhem has set the mood for the October holiday, and it’s proven to be wildly popular among Clarksville residents.

“It’s a very family-friendly concert, and it’s always a sell-out,” Steinquest said.

At 6 and 8 p.m. this Friday, APSU musicians will once again don costumes and perform a mix of Halloween music in an eerily decorated concert hall inside the Music/Mass Communication Building.

The 2008 Percussion Ensemble Halloween Concert

The evening begins with “This is Halloween,” from the Tim Burton-produced film “The Nightmare Before Christmas.” It’ll feature the APSU voice faculty, including Gail Robinson-Oturu, Sharon Mabry, Doug Rose, Tom King and Korre Foster.

“There is scary classical piano music by Bela Bartok and creepy orchestral music by Hector Berlioz arranged for the ensemble,” Steinquest said. “The voice faculty may be forced into playing a life-or-death game show during the Berlioz!”

If they survive, the show will continue with a strange, robotic piece, titled “Starship Groove,” and “two violently percussive ensembles,” Steinquest said, known as “The Doomsday Machine” and “Ku-Ka-Ilimoku.”

“But ‘Mist,’ a beautifully haunting all-keyboard piece, acts as a counterbalance,” he said.

This year’s performance marks the concert’s 25th anniversary, but Steinquest is still hesitant to give away too many details about the show. He likes to keep attendees guessing from year to year as to what elaborate costume he might be wearing.

“It’s a bigger secret than anything from Dan Brown’s latest novel,” he said. “You’ll just have to come to find out.”

He did, however, let slip that the two big drumming apes from last year, Chris Brooks and Chris Crockarell, might make an encore appearance. He also said the show will close with “Above,” a song by the Blue Man Group, featuring APSU music professor Stanley Yates on electric guitar.

Admission to the Halloween concert is two cans of food, which will be donated to Loaves and Fishes, or $3. For more information, or tickets, contact the music department office at 221-7818.

Images from the 2008 Halloween Concert

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The program will be devoted to music from Spain and South America and will feature music by Spanish baroque guitarist Santiago de Murcia, early 20th century Spanish composers Enrique Granados and Manuel de Falla, Cuban composer Leo Brouwer, Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla and Brazilian composers Heitor Villa-Lobos and Baden Powell de Aquino. Yates will be assisted by APSU percussion professor David Steinquest on melodic, vibraphone and Latin percussion.

APSU Professor of Music Stanley Yates

The music of Baden Powell de Aquino is rarely played due to the fact that very little of it has been published. Yates will perform a number of pieces he has transcribed from the Brazilian guitarist’s recordings.

Yates recently returned from two trips to Romania, where he was filmed for a documentary aired on national television. He also gave two performances broadcast live from the National Radio Hall in Bucharest, and he recently received a Distinguished Artist Award from Bergen College New Jersey.

Wednesday’s concert is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Yates at 931-221-7351 or .

The program features Paul Binkley on guitar playing music from his Christmas CD “Do You Hear What I Hear”. Paul is a former Austin Peay music student, spent five years performing with the Grammy Award winning band Alabama, and is currently president of Grand Vista Music, a Nashville-based recording company.

The concert will also showcase members of the APSU Music Department faculty including: singers Tom King, Sharon Mabry, and Gail Robinson-Oturu; pianists Anne Glass and Jeff Wood; violinist Emily Crane; woodwind players Lisa Vanarsdel and Jeanette Zyko; brass players Francis Massinon, Richard Steffen, and Chris Vivio; guitarist Stanley Yates; and percussionists Richard Frey and David Steinquest. Karen Sorenson and Ted Jones from Languages and Literature will provide narration.

Selections from Paul’s recording will include fresh arrangements of holiday favorites such as “O Holy Night”, “Little Drummer Boy”, “Lo How a Rose E’er Blooming”, “I Wonder as I Wander”, “Ave Maria”, “Carol of the Bells”, “Silent Night”, and “Away in a Manger”. The program also includes James Taylor’s version of “Some Children See Him” and Michael McDonald’s song “Peace”, and instrumental settings of “Bring a Torch Jeannette, Isabella” and “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring”.

Tickets are $5.00 General Admission (APSU students get in free with I.D.) and will be available Monday, December 1, 2008 in the Music Office (MMC 139). For information, contact Norma Jean Smith at 221-7818.

The group performs all kinds of music on all kinds of percussion instruments: classical music such Carmina Burana as used in the movie “Excalibur,” rock music such as “Walk Like an Egyptian,” music from the movie “Casper” and real percussion ensemble music using instruments from drums, timpani, gongs and cymbals to bells, xylophones, marimbas and chimes.

“We even do some body percussion,” said David Steinquest, director of the Halloween Concert and professor of music at APSU. Also, there will be special guests: the University Choir, two new faculty members, Emily Crane on violin and Jeanette Zyko on oboe, two of the composers, and a rock-and-roll electric guitar player, Steinquest said.

The hall will be decorated and all the performers dressed in costume. Special lighting will create a mysterious atmosphere, and the mass communication program will provide live video feed.

Admission is two cans of food, which will be donated to Loaves & Fishes, or $3. Tickets go on sale Monday, Oct. 27 in the department of music office, located in the Music/Mass Communication Building, Room 139.

For more information, call the music department, 221-7818.

The performance, which is part of the 47th Annual Mid-South Jazz Festival, will begin at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, April 3 in the Music/Mass Communication Building Concert Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

The Jazz Combo includes Bo Clayton, trumpet, Andy Robinson, saxophone, Trevor Reddick, bass, Rick Ball, drums and David Steinquest, professor of music at APSU, on vibraphone.

All of the musicians graduated from APSU and helped form the Jazz Combo, along with Steinquest, in the mid-1980s. Currently, Clayton plays trumpet in the Navy, Robinson plays throughout the Nashville area, Reddick has played with Lee Greenwood and Louise Mandrell and Ball has played with the Christian rock band Truth, according to Steinquest.

For more than four decades, The Mid-South Jazz Festival has brought top artists to the region including Gary Burton, Kurt Elling, the T.S. Monk Sextet and Sam Yahel and the Yellow Jackets.

The festival also has provided great exposure to jazz through instructional activities and performances for students, teachers and the community.

For more information about the performance, contact the department of music by telephone at (931) 221-7818.

Under the direction of Andrea Brown, assistant band director at APSU, the APSU Symphonic Band concert will be held Friday, Nov. 30th, at 7:30 p.m. in the concert hall of the Music/Mass Communication Building.

This performance will feature works such as Greensleeves arranged by Alfred Reed, A Fresh Aire Christmas arranged by Calvin Custer, In the Bleak Midwinter by Gustav Holst, Russian Christmas Music by Alfred Reed and Sleigh Ride by Leroy Anderson.

Under the direction of David Steinquest, professor of music, the Jazz Combo concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 5th in the concert theater of the Music/Mass Communication Building.

The Jazz Combo is a small jazz group with an emphasis on improvisation, Steinquest said.

“They play a variety of styles such as swing, jazz shuffles, bossa nova, sambas, ballads and funk. The people who are represented are contemporary jazz artists on a variety of instruments.”

The concert will feature works such as Gina’s Groove by John Clayton, Tai’s Tune by Jesse Davis, Coward of the County by Ron Miles, Waltz for Ruth by Charlie Haden, The Sweeper by Jason Marsalis and Kool by John Scofield. This concert also will feature special guest artist Gordon Lewis, adjunct professor of music, on bass.

For more information about the performances, call 221-7818.