Tune in Saturday 6:30pm for Concert Hall presented by Annabel Wheeler. This Saturday ArtSound’s will feature Nothing but Rhythm from the 2006 Canberra International Chamber Music Festival.

Percussionists Nick Parnell and Leigh Harold present a program of percussion music which impresses with its musicality and tunefulness is refreshing. We are accustomed to associating percussion with qualities of explosiveness and rhythmic force, and indeed these are the qualities for which percussion has mostly been utilised in western music, the splash of cymbals and the thwack of the bass drum adding grunt to orchestral textures.

You will hear works by a range of composers. This is a colourful and exciting array of music.

Nick Parnell is a leader of the new generation of performers, breaking traditional classical music boundaries by performing works by Bach and Chopin on percussion. He is particularly well known for using the vibraphone as a solo classical instrument. Winner of the 2001 International Melbourne Percussion Competition, his explosive energy and precision on instruments including marimba, vibraphone, drums, gongs and cymbals, have fascinated and enchanted audiences throughout Australia, Asia and the UK.

Nick has performed with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Australian String Quartet, Adelaide Art Orchestra, English National Ballet, Russian Ballet Company, contemporary music groups Lights and The Stellar Collective, and world music group The Hormingo Ensemble.