Local music lovers who enjoyed last fall’s performance by percussion soloist Matthew Coley will have their pleasures quadrupled Sunday, Oct. 15 at 2 p.m. when the Heartland Marimba Quartet (HMQ), which includes Coley, plays in the Perry Performing Arts Center at 1200 18th St. in Perry.
Listeners can expect a varied program of new modern works composed for the HMQ, ranging from “contemporary/groovy pieces, to ragtime and classical transcriptions, such as Billy Joel’s ‘Root Beer Rag’ and Gottschalk’s famous ‘Grande Tarantelle,'” according to an HMQ statement.
They will also premier Coley’s “Rivers of Rage” on this tour, a political commentary piece written specially for the quartet, which is composed of Waterloo-native Coley, Michael J. Jones of Austin, Texas, Joe Millea of Tempe, Ariz., and Andrew Veit of Wheaton, Ill.
Perry is one of four Iowa stops on the 2017 HMQ tour. Other stops on the Iowa leg of the tour include Waterloo, Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, followed by Minnesota performances in Mankato, St. Cloud, St. Paul and Burnsville.
HMQ is “a fierce advocate in music education and community engagement,” according to the quartet’s statement. Their tour activities feature several educational partnerings with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra and the Eastern Iowa Arts Academy of Cedar Rapids, including free concerts for children in Cedar Falls and at three elementary school assemblies in the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area.
Perry Fine Arts concerts are free and open to the public. Donations are accepted. The Perry Performing Arts Center is handicapped accessible.
