Georgia Dentel
Photo courtesy of Grinnell College Archives Fifty is the new 20, if the opening of this year’s public events series is any indication. The series is celebrating its 50th year of bringing "superb performers and performances to Grinnell," and the newly formed trio of Béla Fleck, Zahir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer kicked off the season with seemingly limitless energy, enthusiasm, and talent.

Grinnell has dedicated this 50th season to Georgia Dentel, who in 1960 started the college’s performing arts program, and even while looking back, the series welcomed the new group which is enjoying its first year together in concerts of original music.

And enjoy they do, serving up banter with their banjo, bass, and tabla compositions. Fleck on banjo and Meyer on bass chided one another before selections but quickly blended their strings into strong harmony. Just before the completion of the first act, Hussain announced “Out of the Blue,” or as he said, “aka Monkey Girl,” a lengthy tabla solo that had the audience straining to see how he could possibly make digits and palms compose such rapid, sustained rhythm.

The group was interviewed by Iowa Public Radio prior to the Herrick Chapel concert. Tad Boehmer ’12, who heard Fleck perform last summer at a bluegrass festival in Colorado, called the group’s music “hypnotic . . . . you wake up and they've switched up a reverie,” he said. “It’s wonderful.” Jonah Ellman ’12 hadn't heard the trio, didn't know what to expect, but termed what he’d heard “amazing.”

Boehmer and Ellman have fellow students to thank, in part, for bringing this performance to campus. Three students—Mairead O’Grady ’10, Jason Schechter ’10 and Claire Reeder ’11—serve on the Public Events committee and have “equal say in which performers are pursued each year,” according to committee chair Kevin Engel, science librarian. “The Committee relies on their in-depth knowledge about individual performers, genres, and styles.”

Next up on the Public Events calendar is a Nov. 5 performance by the St. Lawrence String Quartet; ballet in February; and solo percussionist Evelyn Glennie in April.

Sound like a liberal-arts offering? That’s the point, says Engel. “Public Events plays an important part in that the concerts, theatrical performances, dance performances, etc. are just like taking classes in different academic divisions and like the many other short- and long-term academic opportunities on campus that help provide the breadth of experience that is so important to a liberal arts education.”