The U of A Percussion Ensemble will present a concert at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 11, in the Jim and Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center. The concert is free, and the public is invited. The Percussion Ensemble is composed of undergraduate and graduate students performing a wide range of music on percussion instruments.

The concert will feature the world premiere of University Professor Chalon Ragsdale's percussion ensemble arrangement of Robert Davidson's "The Art of Agony: Percy Grainger (his voice as music)." "The Art of Agony" is a segment of Davidson's work Stalin's Piano.

A collection of "voice portraits" of artists and politicians in juxtaposition, Stalin's Piano is derived from the intonation of each speaker, closely followed and framed by Davidson's music, which distills prosodic features into an idiolectic style for each person and primes audience perception of the musical aspects of spoken prosody. Each speaker is heard in a recording and accompanied live by music.

Stalin's Piano is a compelling musical exploration of a century of history, art and politics. Composer Robert Davidson collaborated with celebrated pianist Sonya Lifschitz in the original performances of Stalin's Piano, weaving virtuosic music together with video and audio recordings of eminent artists and political figures in this striking multimedia composition. Davidson is professor of music and head of the Composition Department at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

Other works performed will include compositions by George Gershwin, Michael Colgrass, Philip Glass, Ivan Trevino and a world premiere quartet for mallet instruments by U of A graduate student Yoshio Yamashita.