Percussion with a purpose: Students across campus engage with “The Innocents”

The cracking of stones, tearing of paper and reverberations of rebar filled Boyd Recital Hall on October 1 as the percussion duo Allen Otte and John Lane presented their evening-length work, “The Innocents.” 

Originally conceived in response to an exhibition of photography of the same name by artist Taryn Simon, “The Innocents” incorporates found objects, African mbiras/kalimbas, electronics, song and spoken word to evoke awareness and understanding around the issue of wrongful imprisonment in America. 

Some tableaux in “The Innocents” are simple and direct, while others are intentionally uncomfortable, particularly a piece that incorporates text from an interrogation that led to a false confession.

“It’s the one piece in the program we know is too long,” Otte said. “The idea is we’re going to make this piece go on longer than it should, so that everybody sitting there gets uncomfortable, because that’s what an interrogation feels like.” 

“Percussionists as storytellers”

A professor emeritus of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Otte has a long history of collaborative music-making. In 1972, he cofounded America’s first professional percussion ensemble, the Blackearth Percussion Group, and in 1979, Percussion Group Cincinnati, which was inducted into the International Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2017. Lane is a frequent performer and director of percussion studies at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. 

Per their program note, the two artists embrace a sensibility of “percussionists as storytellers” and art as advocacy.

“Our idea is to shine a light on this subject as if through a prism in hopes that various aspects surrounding it may briefly come into focus for each of us…” they write. “Wrongful incarceration is but one issue: we offer this presentation as an example of how to do this cultural work for any issue, and how powerful the arts can be in this role.”

Otte and Lane brought the work to campus at the invitation of Rowan’s head of percussion, Fabio Oliveira, DCM.

“This is a poignant example of how to create work as a musician and artist that is deeply personal and relevant to the time in which an artist lives,” Oliveira said. “It exemplifies to our students how one might use their artistic and musical craft as advocacy.” 

Allen Otte and John Lane present an excerpt from “The Innocents” for a Studio Class in Wilson Hall. 

Art as advocacy

In their time on campus, the performance duo conducted a series of masterclasses on composition, the collaborative process and percussion performance for Rowan music majors. They also presented and led a discussion with sociology professor Michelle Estes’ Social Problems course.

“[The artists’ visit] was a good pairing of two different colleges/disciplines for one common subject matter,” Estes said. “I teach about wrongful convictions from a very research-oriented perspective and it was extremely interesting that the artists were able to bring the research on wrongful convictions into an artistic perspective through their performance… [It] was a great way to introduce the topic.”

Students asked about the process behind the pair’s collaboration, which draws on the poetry of incarcerated individuals, interrogation transcripts and other publications. Otte and Lane told students they begin by sharing source materials, work independently to interpret them, then bring what they’ve made back to the other for the “yes, and” or “yes, but” part of the process.

“You have to trust the other person and depend on them to tell you what’s working and what’s not,” Lane said. “Sometimes you might be too close to it. That’s why I really like collaborating because you get to see things from the other person’s point of view.” 

Bearing Witness

While the work draws on decades of experience as performers and collaborators, Lane said the goal is to give audiences a way to connect with experiences they haven’t lived.

“What art provides is a moment to bear witness to someone else’s experience,” Lane said. “Through our art, hopefully, we provide an audience a moment to reflect… It’s always been a way to witness to each other.”

Learn more about “The Innocents” and watch excerpts on the project’s website.

More chances to see percussion on campus:

The Rowan Percussion Ensemble performs its Fall Concert on Nov. 23, with spring concerts Feb. 22 and April 19. The Faculty Concert is March 2. Purchase tickets at http://go.rowan.edu/tickets.

Rowan students enjoy free admission to all College of the Arts performances available through our Box Office.