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Joseph Pereira on being a percussionist

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For the past ten weeks, CNN.com/Career has featured members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and those members have participated in our on-line chats. Today’s feature of Timpanist Joseph Pereira concludes the series.

Joseph Pereira is Assistant Principal Timpanist of the New York Philharmonic. He is an active composer as well as a member of the New York Percussion Quartet. Mr. Periera graduated from Boston University's School for the Arts and is presently pursuing a Master's degree at The Julliard School.

CNN Moderator: Welcome to CNN, Joseph Pereira. As a percussionist, what is the most unusual object you have been asked to play?

Joseph Pereira: The most unusual object that I can think of, since there are so many, is the one I talked about in the interview. I was with a small new music group at the time. They had a door onstage, and I had to make the sound of a key opening a lock and then slamming the door shut during the performance.

Player Profile
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Joseph Pereira, assistant principal timpani / section percussion

Hometown: Stony Brook, Long Island, New York
Age: 26
Age at which he began to play drums: 5
Early music education: Stony Brook, Long Island public schools
Formal music training: Boston University School for the Arts, The Juilliard School
Professional resumé:
• 1996 -- acting principal timpani, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra (for one month)
• 1997 -- joined the New York Percussion Quartet
• 1998 -- joined the New York Philharmonic
Number of years with New York Philharmonic: Three
Favorite pieces to play: Music of Ludwig von Beethoven, Bela Bartok and Igor Stravinsky

CNN Moderator: What do percussion instruments add to a piece of music?

Joseph Pereira: They add mostly color. One example of percussion being color is an orchestra playing a chord, and in unison with that chord there is a timpani playing the bass note in unison with the chord. Or, you could take away that note and make it a short cymbal note. That would totally change the color.

CNN Moderator: One of the people on our message boards said that one of the most satisfying things about music was the communication among the musicians during a free-form jam. Do you agree?

Joseph Pereira: Yes and no. When we play more standard pieces, like a Beethoven symphony, there's definitely a certain kind of communication happening, different from a freeform communication, where you'd have to assume certain roles. In Beethoven, we know what we're going to hear, but there's more subtlety involved, which makes it interesting in a different way.

From the chat room: How much improvisation is associated with playing orchestral percussion?

Joseph Pereira: Strict improvisation, not too often. We can do that only once in a while, maybe in a contemporary piece. That's due mostly to the fact that we’re playing with 100 people and it would be impossible to be improvising, so a lot of it's written out. Where percussionists improvise in a way is our selection of what instruments to use, higher or lower, what type of mallet choice. Again, it all comes back to what color we want to achieve.

MESSAGE BOARD
graphic Are you in a musical career or some other vocation in the arts? If not, have you at some point in your life considered it? How do you see the world of careers in the arts, as a whole, in comparison to other walks of life? Talk with us about it.

CNN Moderator: Could orchestras broaden their appeal to younger audiences by becoming more involved in music curriculum in the public schools?

Joseph Pereira: I know our education department is a great asset to the orchestra, and they are sending teachers flyers for concerts. I don't know exactly how many, but fliers go to a lot of schools in this area, younger school age classrooms, so they are aware of our performances. We have children's concerts where the classes come, and they're well prepared. It's a great learning experience for them.

From the chat room: How do you recommend interesting young people in percussion?

Joseph Pereira: Go to concerts and listen to many different kinds of music. It would be better to actually see it live, as opposed to buying CD recordings, although that's not bad. It's important for younger kids to see live performances because percussion can be very visible also.

CNN Moderator: What do you recommend that orchestra do to attract a younger audience or a more mixed audience?

Joseph Pereira: Something I've been thinking a lot about recently is the selection of music, especially contemporary music, and not only the music itself, but the way it's performed. It has to be a convincing performance, as would a Beethoven symphony, or Mozart symphony, it has to have the same drive, everyone has to be behind it, I think.

From the chat room: Do you enjoy the music of Steve Reich?

Joseph Pereira: Yes, I do. Although I'm not a big fan of minimalism, and I don't like all of his music, I do like his ideas, his whole concepts. And there's a driving force behind a lot of his music.

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See other installments in the series

Week 1:
Flute, Mindy Kaufman
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Week 2:
Cello, Carter Brey
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Week 3:
Trumpet, Phil Smith
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Week 4:
Bassoon, Judy LeClair
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Week 5:
Bass, David Grossman
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Week 6:
Horn, Philip Myers
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Week 7:
English Horn, Tom Stacy
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Week 8:
Violin, Glenn Dicterow
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Week 9:
Trombone, Jim Markey
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Week 10:
Percussion, Joe Pereira
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From the chat room: Joseph, do you still have an appreciation for any of the more modern, non-classical music? If so, what bands in particular do you enjoy?

Joseph Pereira: I do like a lot of world music, and a lot of electronic music, and being in a city like New York, there's so much of this going on.

CNN Moderator: What do you think of orchestras using more technology in their musical presentations?

Joseph Pereira: I think it's a good thing and should be done more. Because technology is such an important part of our world today, and there are plenty of uses of it that we could use with the orchestra to make music. Not that it should be done all the time, but it's something we can use to show the audiences of New York a different perspective, maybe.

CNN Moderator: Have you ever had a disaster happen during a concert - where everything just went wrong?

Joseph Pereira: I've been pretty fortunate, I haven't really had one, except the one I talked about in the interview - the taxi horn in the Copland "American in Paris."

From the chat room: Do you ever worry about loosing your hearing?

Joseph Pereira: Yes, I do. And a lot of musicians in the orchestra actually have, either wear normal earplugs, or have special earplugs made that cut out dangerous frequencies. But being a percussionist, you get used to it, I don't know if that's good or bad, but the future will tell, I guess.

CNN Moderator: Career positions in music, especially with orchestras, are so hard to find. What can young people learn in studying music that they can use in any career?

Joseph Pereira: Definitely a really strong work ethic. I think that's the biggest thing.

From the chat room: Joseph, do you still have an appreciation for any of the more modern, non-classical music? If so, what bands in particular do you enjoy?

Joseph Pereira: I do like a lot of world music, and a lot of electronic music, and being in a city like New York, there's so much of this going on.

CNN Moderator: Thank you for joining us today, Joseph Pereira.

Joseph Pereira: Thank you.

Joseph Pereira joins us from New York City; CNN is providing a typist.



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RELATED STORY:
Percussionist Joe Pereira: 'Just do some sounds'
April 13, 2001

RELATED SITES:
CNN.com/CAREER
The New York Philharmonic

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