The concert, free and open to the public, will begin with the percussion ensemble, directed by Tony Oliver, assistant director of instrumental activities and percussion studies. The program will focus mainly on short pieces featuring drums and drumming, with instruments including snare drums, bass drums, drum sets, bucket drums and brake drums. The ensemble will perform "Peach Fuzz," a drum quintet by Peter O’Gorman; "Bucketheads," a bucket-drum quintet by Jane Boxall; "Four on the Floor," a (mostly) drum quartet by Jeffrey Peyton; "Rock Duo," a drum set duet by Murray Houliff; and "Three Poems for Narrator and Five Brake Drums" by Stuart Saunders Smith.

The percussion ensemble will also perform two short melodic pieces. The first, a J.S. Bach piece, "2-Part Invention in D minor," will be played on marimba by music majors Andrew Watson, a sophomore from Hoffman Estates, and senior Corey Disbennett of Knoxville. The percussionists will complete their portion of the concert with a keyboard arrangement, "Lasciatemi Morire," an early 17th-century madrigal by Claudio Monteverdi arranged for percussion keyboard instruments by Richard Gipson and performed by the entire ensemble.

The Monmouth Winds, under the baton of Stephen Richter, director of instrumental activities, will take the stage next and will feature junior trumpet soloist Andrew Shelly of Galesburg performing "Elegy" by Lou Harris. The concert will also include compositions by Thomas Doss, Alfred Reed, Robert Sheldon and others.

Richter says the fall concert is a preview of a portion of the music to be performed during the group’s spring 2009 tour, which will include venues in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin during the week of March 8-13. Among the itinerary will be special performances at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, The Charles Allis Museum of Art in Milwaukee and The Cindy Pritzker Auditorium in The Harold Washington Public Library in Chicago.