BROOKINGS – The opportunity to perform at a national conference or with a Grammy Award-winning group does not happen often.

However, for South Dakota State University Associate Professor Aaron Ragsdale and senior-to-be Carson Vanduch, the opportunity to do both within a few days will take place later this week and next.

Ragsdale and Vanduch will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to participate in “Inuksuit” with approximately 80 others and Third Coast Percussion, which won a 2017 Grammy for the best chamber music/small ensemble recording. After performing the two-hour piece by John Luther Adams on Friday, the two will participate in the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, which starts Sunday. Vanduch will perform “White Knuckle Stroll” while Ragsdale will join Mike Roe ’12 on Roe’s “Greenpoint,” a marimba duet they will debut at the conference. Ragsdale will also present at the conference.



“They sent us the music for ‘Inuksuit.’ Carson has his part, and I have a part I’ll perform,” Ragsdale said. “We’re working on our parts, which are from different groups, to get an understanding of what will happen. When we get to Fayetteville, we have six or eight hours of rehearsals over two days to put it together with the approximately 80 other participants.



“It’s not a piece that gets done too often because it involves marshaling a whole lot of forces, but it has developed a following,” Ragsdale continued.

“I think it’s the third performance that I’m aware of over the last three or four years. I’ve wanted to do it every time I’ve seen it announced. It tends to draw people. For example, we’re going to drive 10 hours. It has a particular following, people who have done it and want to do it again or want to be involved in it for the first time. I remember reading about the performance done in Central Park, where I had a friend who played her part in a boat, to best use the space. We’re going to be playing in the botanical gardens in northwest Arkansas. While it’ll be nice to hang out with those four individuals of Third Coast, this opportunity is also about being part of that piece, that community of people.”

But then there’s no rest after “Inuksuit.” Vanduch’s solo will be Monday. He bought the sheet music for “White Knuckle Stroll” as a freshman with plans to have it conclude his senior recital.

“It’s two minutes of a lot of notes. It’s fast and choppy and technically difficult at some parts,” he said. “It’s been a little bit of a process to get my hands to be able to do it, to play it and then there’s the whole thought of I’m playing it at a conference of pedagogs in my discipline. It’s a little bit nerve-racking but at the same time it’ll be a really cool experience to get some feedback or get my name out for grad schools, to be in that scene, a littler earlier than I had anticipated.”

Ragsdale joked that Vanduch will be playing “at a high-pressure national conference” and added “if the title is any indication, it tells you everything you need to know. Hold on tight, and we’ll see you at the end.”

“It’s an incredible opportunity that I didn’t know would be available when I came here,” Vanduch said. “I came here because I knew I’d be studying with Dr. Ragsdale. I had no idea that I’d be getting close to the end of my college career and have the opportunity to perform with a Grammy Award-winning ensemble, have the opportunity to make those connections, meet these people and get my name in the hat of the percussion world.”

Continuing to make a name for himself in the percussion world is Ragsdale, who is looking forward to his performance with Roe.

“This is a really special case because I'm not only performing with Mike, who was a freshman my first fall at State, but I commissioned him to write the piece. Mike has begun to develop a bit of a reputation as a composer for percussion,” Ragsdale said.

“Mike has a pretty unique compositional voice. He has a real knack for blending a complex rhythmic vocabulary with an audience-friendly, accessible, harmonic and melodic language,” he said. "‘Greenpoint’ falls right in line with this template. While it has elements of minimalism and some complicated manipulation of rhythmic motives, it still comes off like rock ‘n’ roll, and I can't wait to roll it out for audiences.”

When the pair returns from Arkansas, practices start for The Pride of Dakotas Marching Band’s upcoming trip to Washington, D.C.

“These are not opportunities I’d have if I had not become a music major,” Vanduch said. “It’s really cool. I like it.”