The annual CHS percussion concert will take place next Thursday at 7 p.m. Featuring percussion students from all the various band classes, the concert will showcase a variety of musical and percussion instruments.

This will be the second year that sophomore Duncan Hardy will perform in the concert. While he played mainly the marimba last year, he will also be playing other instruments this year, such as the xylophone and crotales.

Hardy said, “(The concert last year) went fine. There were some things that weren’t as good as expected because it was our first year doing it. Setting up was really tough. We weren’t sure what we were doing, but it was fun.”

The concert will feature many interesting pieces, including “Afta-stuba!,” played by a marimba trio on one marimba, “Ballet for Bouncing Balls,” a percussive piece with basketballs, and an arrangement of music from “The Legend of Zelda.” Hardy said the song that he is looking forward to the most is “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” simply because many people play the same part in a loud and exciting atmosphere.

CHS percussion director Jeff Queen organized the concert both this year and last year.

“We tried my first year, and it just logistically didn’t work out. Implementing students to practice on their own and things like that, it just didn’t really happen as well as I would have liked,” Queen said. “Last year it went great. Everybody practiced, everybody learned what they needed to learn, and it worked out really well.”

Queen made several changes in preparation for this year’s concert. The concert is being conducted in February, as opposed to last year’s that occurred in May. Additionally, he communicated plans and passed out music earlier to students this year. They received their music two to three weeks into school and have been rehearsing together during their band classes ever since.

Queen said, “Any time you’re shoving a new event into everybody’s already busy schedule, it’s always a challenge, and it really came off really well (this year).”

According to Queen, the purpose of the concert is not only to showcase percussion students, but also to give them more of a challenge outside of band class.

He said, “Percussion ensemble gives the students a chance to dig into some different material. Hopefully, it’ll be a bit more fun and be a little bit more of a challenge than maybe some of the band music would.”

Queen said he hopes people attending the concert will appreciate the percussive elements of the music and will also enjoy the product of the students’ practice.

“It’s just a fun way to hear music in a different light,” Queen said. “It’s very visual, and I think a lot of people understand that. I think that’s the cool part about percussion. It’s pretty upbeat music for the most part, so there’s a lot of excitement, a lot of energy going on, so hopefully people get a little bit excited and uplifted by listening to the music.”

Hardy said he also hopes people will have a great time at the concert and understand percussion more by the end.

Hardy said, “Maybe they will learn something about percussion that they didn’t know before.”