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Percussionist extraordinaire
Barry Larkin maintains skills playing with the band.
- Name a music genre and chances are Barry Larkin has played it.
Not just in his basement but professionally on a variety of stages and orchestra
pits.
"There just aren't that many opportunities to do this type of thing
professionally," Larkin said. "So you jump at every chance you
get."
Larkin, associate professor of music and the Department of Music's percussion
coordinator, has done just that. He says he has been a rock drummer, a jazz
percussionist and is a regular member of the Des Moines Symphony.
"My teachers always encouraged me to be a very versatile performer,"
he said.
He has tried to maintain that versatility even now some 13 years after he
joined the Iowa State faculty. While the marimba is Larkin's main instrument,
two years ago he purchased a new drum set and has started taking lessons
again from a Des Moines big band performer.
"This is part of my playing I'm not through with yet," he said.
"My goal is to sit in with some performers in Des Moines jazz clubs
this fall."
Like he doesn't have enough to do already.
A member of the Des Moines Symphony since 1993, Larkin has served as that
group’s principal percussionist for the past four years.
"This is absolutely the perfect performing outlet for me," he
said. "It keeps me in performing 'shape.'"
That's good because Larkin is often called upon by touring productions of
Broadway musicals that make their way to the Civic Center in Des Moines.
He has played with "Ragtime," "Titanic," "Hello
Dolly," "42nd Street," and "Grease."
This year he has already been contracted to play when "Joseph and His
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and "The Producers" come to
Iowa.
"You have to learn a Broadway show typically in four hours," he
said. "The show will come into town on Tuesday, you get a few hours
with the conductor in rehearsal and then there you are a few hours later
in the pit with a couple of thousand people in the audience."
With so little rehearsal time, Larkin will research the show before the
performances begin. He has already started to prepare for the weeklong run
of "The Producers" by purchasing a CD recording of the show so
that he can become familiar with the music and the show itself.
Then a couple of weeks prior to opening night, he will receive the show's
sheet music.
But no matter how much preparation he does, it's always interesting that
first performance, according to Larkin.
"There is a certain amount of sight reading involved," he said.
"Usually the best show from a musical standpoint will be Friday or
Saturday evening. We pretty much have it down pat by then."
Around LAS
October 4-17, 2004
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