Heartbeat Percussion’s Annual Pulse Concert

By Abigail Frisoli

Staff Reporter

The lights go down and someone comes onstage. Call and response clapping is done with the audience, with different patterns which were easy to follow or difficult to emulate, making the audience laugh and showing how difficult it is to master some of the patterns that those in Heartbeat Percussion have worked so hard on.

Heartbeat Percussion held their annual Pulse concert on April 21. They had 10 acts in their program and nine performers, which one would never be able to guess by the sound emitting from the Edgerton stage.

This is only Heartbeat’s third year of existence.

“We were looking for a fun ensemble for our percussionists to play in that was something different. We modeled Heartbeat after the Broadway show ‘Stomp,’ and very quickly it turned into a popular and requested ensemble on campus,” said Keith Johnston, Director of Bands at Sacred Heart.

The concert was rehearsed but also had a vibe of spontaneity to it. The lights, at one point in the concert, flickered to the beat of the performance. The performers had the same rhythm and beat to follow, however, they were able to have fun with it and really bring their own feel to what it is that they were doing.

The performers were all able to wear their own outfits, which allowed them to show their own creativity, and they were able to look around at each other and exchange easy banter, which seemed to get the audience even more engaged.

Johnston’s favorite part about Heartbeat is, “That they play on anything and everything.” Students could be seen throughout the concert drumming on metal and plastic trash bins, orange buckets, and ladders. They also used other ways to make noise, such as stomping on the ground and bouncing and drumming against basketballs.

Heartbeat does not only put on large performances in the Edgerton. They can also be seen during campus events such as Admission days and certain athletic events and have even been featured by the Westchester Knicks.

All of their different acts had fun, creative names that matched the creativity of their performances themselves. For instance, the basketballs were brought out for the section called “Double Dribble.” The third act was called “The Break-stuff Club,” a take on “The Breakfast Club,” and there were many bucket puns made, such as “Buck-It” and “Can Jam.”

“I loved the concert. Heartbeat Percussion is so different from everything else done in the band program and it was like a breath of fresh air. My favorite number was the last number with the trash cans,” said sophomore Kiera Lehr.

This section, called “Galvanized Grooves,” was a culmination of all the different trash cans used at once to create an electric beat. The concert came to a close with this piece and finished when the members silently walked off the stage, bringing a contrast with the loud noise which stopped out of nowhere, catching the audience’s attention.

About the author

Leave a Reply