Seniors shine at Purely Rhythmic

Coppell+High+School+freshman+Prateek+Koppikar+gets+ready+to+play+Undisclosed+by+Chad+Heiny

Ayoung Jo

Coppell High School freshman Prateek Koppikar gets ready to play “Undisclosed” by Chad Heiny

Eric Cashimere, Staff Writer

The Coppell High School percussion section is most notably heard at the football games playing cadences and marching around the field with their drums attached to their shoulders.

 

But after football season, where do they go?

 

The percussionists in the spring actually are driven to produce a concert. This is concert is also known as Purely Rhythmic, which was held on Thursday night in the CHS auditorium.

 

Filled with instrumentals with odd time signature changes, Purely Rhythmic is a popular event for anyone wanting to hear a completely new musical experience.

 

All of the percussionists practice early morning and after school to make this concert more breathtaking than the year before.

 

“It’s not a surprise to see these kids performing at this level because they are extremely talented and they work hard,” CHS percussion director Zach Scheer said. “When you combine those two things, the result is a concert like the one you saw tonight which was really spectacular.”

 

The ambience in the auditorium was like nothing before. Parents and students were packing the place half an hour before the concert kicked off.

 

When the epic 10 minute “Prelude to Paradise’” began, everyone in the auditorium knew this concert was going to be like no other. Filled with crescendos, time signature changes and sections where every player hit their instrument as hard as they possibly could, the song may have also been a prelude for what was to come.

 

The next song entitled “Metric Lips” was a marimba four piece with one of the parts played by Coppell senior Alex Copple.

 

“Overall it was a really great performance, to end my senior with this great group of kids meant a whole lot,.” Copple said.

 

After the CMS West Honor Ensemble played the tune “Ritual of the Tribe”, three drums were set up on the corner on the stage with a mammoth bass drum in the middle for the song “Trio Per Uno”, only needed three drummers to play this song.

 

John Bishop, Coppell junior and member of the TMEA All-State Band (the highest award a high school percussionist can receive) was one of the players in “Trio Per Uno”.

 

“It’s pretty amazing to see this concert progress, I started at the beginners level and now I’m playing on a lot of these really difficult songs and to see this concert grow in popularity is really cool,” Bishop said.

 

The last two tunes, “Jose Before John 5” and “Shofukan” were instant crowd pleasers to end the show.

 

“Jose Before John 5” had four players bringing out everything from whistles, kazoos and even a guitar to bring out this songs full effect.

 

“Shofukan” is a song written by Denton progressive rock band ‘Snarky Puppy’ and every player and especially the seniors were calling on the crowd to get up of their seats and clap along to the tune, and clap they did.

 

The noise was deafening and the music was right with the joy that the people were feeling at the end of the show.