Marco Schirripa, assistant professor of percussion, will perform in concert at 7 p.m. Thursday in the UTRGV Performing Arts Complex in Edinburg and virtually on the Patron of the Arts website. Admission is free. Photo Courtesy Patron of the Arts
Percussion concert to feature assistant professor’s composition
Marco Schirripa, an assistant professor in the College of Fine Arts, will perform percussion pieces by a variety of composers at 7 p.m. Thursday in the UTRGV Performing Arts Complex in Edinburg and virtually on the Patron of the Arts website.
The free performance features works by Schirripa and two other composers, while also featuring audio and visual playback that will accompany the live performance.
His original work is a composition modeled around the concept of a role-playing video game with visual arrangements that depict scenes from an imaginary video game to complement the percussion arrangement.
“[These original compositions] are arranged in such an order that would reflect the order of these scenes in the imaginary video game they accompany,” Schirripa said. “‘Music for a Video Game’ is difficult for the performer, but accessible for the listener, which I hope makes it the ideal way to end my concert!”
It will be Schirripa’s first live performance since December 2019, and he said this is an exciting moment he has been waiting for.
“This performance at UTRGV will be my first solo performance since Dec. 5, 2019, and I’m so excited to return to [the] stage in front of an audience again,” Schirripa said. “I’m sure there will be some nerves, since it has been a while, but I mostly cannot wait.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, performances were halted and presented virtually and in the confines of a home setting. Many performers struggled with the lack of concerts available to perform in, and Schirripa was no exception.
“It was incredibly painful to instantly shift from spending every day tirelessly preparing for my next performance, to having no performances to look forward to at any point in the foreseeable future,” Schirripa said.
His performances, for the most part during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, were prerecorded and uploaded to his YouTube channel.
“When it became clear I wouldn’t be in front of an audience for a while, I shifted my focus to producing performance videos for [my] YouTube channel,” Schirripa said. “While a majority of the content is simply recordings of concert performances, I started focusing on learning music specifically to perform for the camera, and edit to make a more entertaining product.”
Although Schirripa comes from a family of performers, he said that he did not always know that he wanted to dedicate his career to performing and playing music.
His dad was a stand-up comic and radio broadcaster, his mom a ballet dancer, and his brother a fellow percussionist who pushed him to learn percussion as well.
“I was able to be involved with musical communities outside of just my high school, and those experiences pushed me to seek out new music, find new composers and bands I really enjoyed, and become deeply immersed in more and more music,” Schirripa said. “I went to music school, continued to learn more and more, and next thing you know, I have spent 14-plus years practicing percussion and devoting most of my days to studying music!”
Schirripa will present his concert again Sept. 16 in the UTRGV Multipurpose Hall on the Brownsville campus.
After the Patron of the Arts performances, Schirripa will go on a six-week tour with the Heartland Marimba Quartet, where he will perform and be included in master classes across 10 states.
He has been accepted to give a solo recital and research presentation at the National Association of Collegiate Wind and Percussion Instructors National Conference, which will take place in Dallas this year.
