(Posted March 15, 2004)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Recycling and reusing heavy metal junk, Scrap Arts Music is reimagining percussion music as equal parts musical sculpture and entertaining theatrics at Juniata College at 8:15 p.m., Saturday, March 20 in Rosenberger Auditorium in Oller Hall on the Juniata campus.

For tickets and information about the Juniata College Artist Series, please call (814) 641-3605 or visit the Web site www.juniata.edu/arts. General admission tickets for single performances are $20. Single-show tickets for seniors over age 65 and children age 18 and under are $12. Juniata College students are admitted free with a student ID.

Scrap Arts Music is comprised of five musician-performers who create a blend of pop and world music on mobile, highly sculptural instruments crafted from salvaged and recycled junk. Their instruments include drums and marimbas, but also such obscure percussion pieces as a bottlephone, Annoy-o-phone, plankophone, sigh-cordion and Junk-on-a-Stick.

Scrap Music?s stage set is filled with oddball instruments fashioned from oil cans, artillery shells and arranged to suggest an Asian temple. In addition to drumsticks, the group uses pingpong paddles, billy clubs and mallets.

The group has composed music especially for its all-percussion approach, including ?Phonk,? ?Engine of the Future,? ?Magnum Opus for Bowls and Plates, ? ?Artillery Peace? and ?Conundrum.?

The group?s founder and artistic director is Gregory Kozak, who has created several other theatrical percussion shows, including ?The Ant?s Dream? and ?S.w.a.r.m.? Other members of Scrap Arts are: Scott Bishop, a jazz and symphonic drummer who has played in symphonies in British Columbia; Rahim Gaidhar, who has a degree in genetics and has played with world-class percussionists; Sarka Kocicka, who played drums with the all-female group In a Jar; and Malcolm Shoolbraid, who has played in rock groups and theatrical bands.

The group?s CD, ?Phon,? will be available at the performance. The group also has appeared on such recordings as ?Planet Drum, ? ?The Big Bang? and ?Shai No Shai.? The group has appeared on a wide variety of Canadian television programs and has performed on college campuses across the nation. The group also has performed at the Arts Festival of Atlanta, the West Coast Music Awards and as featured half-time performers at the Vancouver (now the Memphis) Grizzlies? NBA home games.

The show has been described as, ?a cross between Flash Gordon and Dr. Seuss,? by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.