By BECKY EVANS
Spirited folk tunes will entertain the audience as The Folk Music Ensemble performs its annual concert tonight at 7:30 in the Madsen Recital Hall.
The ensemble plays a little of everything. The audience will hear jazz, Celtic, blues, blue grass, American and international folk tunes and a little rock and roll, said Joe Brinton, a senior from Draper, and member of the group.
A variety of unusual instruments will be used during the performance including the mandolin, hammer dulcimer, harmonica, accordion and a Celtic drum, the bodhran, said Mark Geslison, director of the group.
The Folk Music Ensemble originated in 1982 to accompany BYU's International Folk Dance Ensemble on its international tours. Last summer, several members of the Folk Music Ensemble traveled to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Russia, Brinton said.
The group also performs independently of the dance group, traveling frequently to elementary schools. During the ensemble's visits to schools, the group performs and then educates the children about the history of the music played and the historic importance of the ensemble's unique instruments.
Some members of the group traveled to Holland last summer, representing the United States in the Olympics of Folk Music and Dance.
It was a great honor to be chosen to represent the United States in this festival, Geslison said. There was one group from 63 different countries, with over 13,000 performers in all, he said.
The second section of the performance will showcase veteran performers Andi Pitcher, Matt Harding, Jeff Groberg and Kristen Washburn. This group will focus on American music, which is a composite of many different cultures, said Kristen Washburn, an English education major from Sacramento, Calif.
During the performance we will explore many of the different influences on American music, Washburn said. They will perform original pieces including 'Rain,' composed by Pitcher, which is an impressionist piece with Celtic overtones, Washburn said.
'This piece is really like poetry,' Pitcher said. 'Kristen (Washburn) and I can read each others nonverbal cues well enough that each time the piece is performed it is different.'
'We morph the music,' Pitcher said. 'We take traditional Irish tunes and change them to having a blues or eastern feel.'
'Being in folk ensemble was the first time I was able to feel creative about music,' Pitcher said. 'We don't just read the music and play it. We think musically and then conceptually to create traditional music played with our own style.'