DeKALB | Two ensembles from the NIU School of Music will present concerts this week featuring a very special pair of guest artists.

Valerie Naranjo, percussionist with the “Saturday Night Live” Band, and her multi-instrumentalist husband, Barry Olsen, will perform with the NIU Latin Jazz Ensemble and the NIU Percussion Ensemble in concerts today and Tuesday.

Students will perform with and learn from some of today’s most versatile musicians.

“As a kid, I always wanted to be in the “SNL” band, so to meet someone who’s gone through that and gotten that gig is really exciting for me,” said Nick
Mizock, guitarist in the Latin Jazz Ensemble.

Naranjo may be most famous for her 12 seasons with “Saturday Night Live,” but Greg Beyer, Latin Jazz Ensemble director and Percussion Ensemble co-director, has been most impressed by her field work in Africa. She is a world-renowned expert on the gyil, a xylophone from Ghana that is a predecessor of the modern marimba.

“The western percussion world is much richer for her work,” Beyer said.

Naranjo will showcase her gyil prowess in a piece titled “Guun,” written by her former teacher, Ghanan gyil master Kakraba Lobi. She will also play the marimba with the Percussion Ensemble and the Latin Jazz Ensemble.
Olsen will play trombone, piano and percussion throughout the two concerts, and the Latin Jazz Ensemble will play one of his original compositions, “Your Inside Out.”

Naranjo and Olsen will present educational clinics to NIU music students, featuring duo performances and presentations on the gyil and African musical concepts.

Today’s Latin Jazz Ensemble concert, “All Around the World,” will open with the members of the group marching through the concert hall, playing a samba rhythm on various hand-held Brazilian instruments. The rest of the concert will feature music from Brazil, Cuba, Venezuela and Mozambique.

The Percussion Ensemble concert will feature a large dose of international music, including music by Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain and a piece by contemporary Brazilian composer José Agosto Mannis, scored for three drummers and eight percussionists playing anvils.

“Both concerts have a variety of material that should have a little something for everyone,” Beyer said.


The Latin Jazz Ensemble concert is at 8 p.m. today in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall in the Music Building.
The Percussion Ensemble concert will be at 8 p.m. Tuesday in the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall.

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