DEREKH FROUDE/Arizona Daily Wildcat Lorri Dow, music education graduate student, right, and Suzie Bjork, music performance sophomore, rehearse yesterday for their upcoming Steel Drum performance. This UofA band will be performing 3 p.m. this Sunday at the Fine Arts courtyard.

Nearly every type of percussion instrument will be represented this weekend when five UA groups from all corners of the world of percussion perform an annual spring concert.

The events kick off Friday and everything from traditional African drums to ragtime to techno-like electronic drumming will be featured.

The Percussion Ensemble, the popular Rosewood Marimba Band and the Arizona African Drum Ensemble will perform at Crowder Hall Friday night at 7:30. Admission is free and open to the public.

Then, Sunday afternoon at 3, two of UA's three Steel Drum Bands will perform in the Fine Arts courtyard.

"The groups are doing a lot of interesting things with percussion," said Gary Cook, professor of music and director of the Percussion Ensemble. Cook defines a percussion instrument as anything you strike.

The Percussion Ensemble will perform a variety of works, including pieces by popular percussion composers Steve Reich and Pierre Metral. The group provides a laboratory for student composition and conducting and has often collaborated with dancers and artists.

The Rosewood Marimba Band will drum out ragtime, which will feature tunes by Red Norvo and others. The band will be joined by harpist Megan Methany and will feature solo xylophonist Dan Smithiger, a doctoral student in percussion and the director of the Steel Drum Band. The group will also perform songs from their CD, which will be on sale at the concert.

Friday's concert will highlight the debut of the African Drum Ensemble. The group will play traditional Ewe - social dances from Ghana.

"It's exiting," Cook said, "because the group has never performed before."

Tickets for the outdoors steel-drum performance are $4 for students, $6 for employees and seniors, and $8 for the general public.

"The Steel Drum Bands have generated quite a following," Cook said. "This is really an event."

The bands play traditional music with origins in Trinidad. Because the Steel Drum Bands are not composed entirely of music majors, they provide a meeting ground for a diverse group of students.

"The Steel Drum Bands are comprised of members of different disciplines; it's a diverse ensemble," Smithinger said. "It represents a good cross-section of students across campus. It's a good representation of different students playing music from different cultures."

The groups will demonstrate the versatility of their instruments, playing such quirky and diverse songs as Abba's "Dancing Queen," the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive" and Bach's "Ave Maria," as well as difficult panoramic arrangements.

"Panoramic arrangements are a big challenge," Smithinger said. "The kids have done very well with being able to pull it off."

The concert also provides a venue to teach audiences and performers about the cultures the music comes from.

"It's a unique weekend of music," Cook said. "There's nothing like it around. It includes so many different people and so many different instruments."