MOUNT VERNON — Ethos Percussion Group, featuring a Cedar Rapids native and University of Iowa graduate, brings an eclectic battery of instruments from around the globe to Cornell College for a concert Monday, Jan. 27.
The performance is at 8 p.m. in King Chapel. General admission is $8 at the door. This is the third concert in Cornell’s Music Mondays series.
New York-based Ethos includes multi-instrumental percussionist Yousif Sheronick, a former member of the Emerald Knights Drum & Bugle Corps in Cedar Rapids. He graduated from Jefferson High School in 1985 and earned degrees from the University of Iowa and Yale University. He is on the faculty at Concordia Conservatory in Bronxville, N.Y. His parents live in Cedar Rapids.
Sheronick has performed internationally as a soloist, chamber musician and collaborative artist with world-renowned groups and artists such as Grammy-winning frame drummer Glen Velez and Handance, Philip Glass, Foday Musa Suso, Simon Shaheen and Qantara, The Flow, New York City Ballet and Music from China. Distinguished collaborators have included Yo-Yo Ma, Branford Marsalis, Samir Chatterjee, Marcel Khalife, Sonny Fortune, Pacifica String Quartet, David Krakauer, John La Barbera, Steve Gorn and Alessandra Belloni.
Sheronick and fellow Ethos members Trey Files, Eric Phinney and Michael Sgouros have been hailed by the New York Times for their “expert togetherness, sensitivity and zest.” They perform a variety of musical styles — including Guatemalan marimba music, African rhythms and contemporary masterworks by John Cage and Lou Harrison. In April 2000, National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” covered the world premiere of the Ethos performance of Cedar Rapids native Michael Daugherty’s “Used Car Salesman,” commissioned by Ethos for Hancher Auditorium and the University of Iowa.
Ethos’ program for Cornell is to include La Barbera’s “Marim ba ba’ Suite,” Velez’ “Ancient Cities Suite,” Carlos Stasi’s “33 Samra Zabobra” and Peter Garland’s “Apple Blossom.”
The final Music Mondays concert this season is the Deanna Bogart Band on March 3.