Senior Nick Fox has been playing percussion since fourth grade and said he “was immediately drawn to percussion.” This week he will perform two recitals featuring percussion and other instruments.

Fox has performed in four other concerts during his time at UW-Whitewater. He said he wanted to perform as much as possible to build experience for applying to graduate schools.

Fox said since this is his last year here, he really wanted to perform music he enjoys and not something that is required of him.

The first recital features Fox on percussion. Most of the pieces are solos, but there is one piece featuring a sextet. Students in the group of six musicians include juniors Joe Caruso on saxophone, Jenica Georgeson on upright bass, Adam Triebold on piano, Johnny Kermot on violin and senior Emily Baumgart on clarinet.

“I found people I enjoy playing with,” Fox said. “We got together and started working on it over the summer.”

His second performance will include performances by a student trio and quartet.

One of those students is senior Alex Bassi.

Bassi said it took 10 years of percussion study to prepare him for this recital. He plays more than 10 instruments during the performance including a sea shell, tambourine, glass bowls, cricket collars, cymbals and a bass drum.

Bassi said this performance won’t be like any other recital students or community members have attended in the past.

“There’s a lot of moving around and stuff,” Bassi said. “You get to hear lots of different sounds … You wouldn’t think to use candy jars as instruments or a sea shell.”

Fox is a performance major and is hopes to attend graduate school at Cincinnati Conservatory or Northern Illinois next year.

Fox said one of the best ways UW-Whitewater prepared him for the future is all the performance opportunities students recieve.

“I think this [UW-Whitewater] actually prepared me pretty well,” Fox said. “There are a lot of good professors who you can be close-knit with and get a mentor or someone to guide you and give ideas for good programs and pieces. It’s really helped me having a good relationship with professors.”

Fox said students will enjoy his performances because both are exciting.

“It definitely won’t be a boring recital,” Fox said. “It will be engaging to the audience. I think people will really enjoy it.”

Fox’s first recital is tonight at 7:30 in the Light Recital Hall. The second performance is tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in the Light Recital Hall. Admission is free both nights.