Percussion Group Cincinnati will appear at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church on Saturday, April 22, for a 1 p.m. workshop and 7:30 p.m. concert presented by the Jamestown Concert Association. Submitted photo

The fifth concert of the Jamestown Concert Association’s 2016-17 season will be presented in conjunction with a series of Earth Day-themed events.

The association’s presentation of Percussion Group Cincinnati at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 22, will coincide with the GreenUp Jamestown Initiative’s push for community awareness and activism in regard to Earth Day. According to Sally Ulrich, Jamestown Concert Association, this cooperative effort is the first of what is hoped to be an annual integration of the arts with the environment.

“The Percussion Group Cincinnati concert will be the culminating event to all the Earth Day activities that have been going on in the community these past few weeks,” Ulrich said. “We were approached by (GreenUp Jamestown Initiative co-chair) Jim Colby about holding this concert on Earth Day, which is a Saturday, although we normally hold concerts on Friday evenings. Jim had heard the group before and knew that they perform on a lot of interesting instruments, some of them made from natural elements, and thought it might be good to feature them in an Earth Day concert. We’re looking forward to having them in Jamestown.”

Percussion Group Cincinnati has toured concert halls across America, Europe and Asia. Their performances include a mix of world beat, indigenous and traditional instruments that are sure to heighten musicians’ interests. The group performs musical landscapes of sound on a variety of instruments including marimbas, drums, gongs, piano, earthen pots, and more. The trio are faculty and an ensemble-in-residence at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. The members include Allen Otte, James Culley and Russell Burge.

Presale tickets are $15 for general admission and $12 for seniors, and can be purchased from the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, Trinity Guitars, Chautauqua Music, Wright’s Music Shed, and Germaine and Pappalardo. At the door, tickets will be $20 for general admission and $15 for seniors. Children 18 and under will be admitted for free if accompanied by a paying adult.

The concert is sponsored by Jamestown’s Rental Properties, the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation, the Ralph C. Sheldon Foundation and the United Arts Appeal of Chautauqua County. It is also being funded in part by the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Regrant Program, with support from Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the NYS Legislature, and administered by the Cattaraugus County Arts Council.

For more information on the Saturday, April 22, concert call 487-1522 or visit jamestownconcertassociation.org/.

EARTH DAY ACTIVITIES

Also occurring at St. Luke’s on Saturday, April 22, prior to the Percussion Group Cincinnati performance, will be a 1 p.m. workshop with the group and a 6 p.m. Earth Day Celebration.

The Earth Day celebration will commence with a brief opening ceremony presented by the Rev. Luke Fodor of St. Luke’s, be followed by an optional 10 minutes of meditation for Earth Healing. When the ceremony is completed, or guests finish their reflections, they can move on to the main sanctuary where the ArtHappening reception begins at 6:15 p.m. Bill Ward will perform.

The festivities will include an art show titled “E. O. Wilson’s Biophilia Hypothesis: Loving Bats and Birds and Leaves,” on view in the St. Luke’s Winged Ox Art Gallery. Sandra Rothenberg and Marilyn Martin are the featured artists. The nature photography celebrates familiar, unfamiliar, and extraordinary wonders of nature.