Originally published May 12, 2016
By Esmeralda Treviño
University Communications
A tropical spin on tunes from the opera “Carmen,” as well as a Caribbean-inspired cover of the “Cantina Song” from the film “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope” ricocheted throughout the Fox Fine Arts Center Recital Hall at Professor Larry White’s final concert.
White looked jovial as he conducted The University of Texas at El Paso’s Percussion and Pandemonium Steel Drum Ensembles at their spring concert in April 2016. After 36 years, or “72 semesters,” as he put it, the percussion director has decided to retire.
His career began at the age of 24, when he worked as an assistant professor at Baylor University for three years. He moved to Virginia Tech for a year, as well as the University of London, England, before accepting a position at UTEP in 1980.
The professor of music and director of percussion studies is also timpanist and principal percussionist with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and El Paso Opera. He has an undergraduate music degree from East Carolina University and a graduate degree in music from Baylor University.
At UTEP, White conducted all percussion activities, including percussion ensemble, marimba ensemble, and Pandemonium and Pantastics steel drum ensembles, applied instruction (32 percussion majors) and the UTEP Drum Line.
Each of these ensembles have performed in festivals and competitions throughout the United States and internationally. The steel drum ensembles have standing invitations to perform in Trinidad, Moscow, London and Beijing.
Steel drums were introduced to the UTEP music department in August 1996 by White and now retired Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Professor Lawrence Murr, Ph.D. UTEP was the nation’s only institution of higher education that collaborated steel drum performance with research at the time.
Since his arrival at UTEP, White had wanted to bring steel drums to the campus. He used a $9,000 grant from UTEP’s University Research Institute to purchase four types of drums – lead (soprano), double seconds (alto), cello (tenor) and bass. The drums are fashioned out of steel pans and play a range of three to 32 notes.
“Larry White has become a great friend and colleague; a very unlikely collaboration over 20 years,” Murr said. “The interaction and collaboration of my engineering students with a diversity of music and other students was really neat.”
Working with Murr allowed for an understanding of the engineering of the steel drum and how this insight could be used to improve the instrument. Manufacturers today use the research from this art-science cooperation to create better instruments.
White has performed as a soloist with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, El Paso Pro-Musica, the Bruce Nehring Consort, the Royal College of Music in London, and on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”
“I’ve had a lot of people try and talk me out of this (retirement), but I figure after 39 years in the biz, I’m ready to hang the full time aspect of it up,” said White, who officially retires at the end of the spring semester. “I’ll still keep my hands in music, just not the full-time day to day. What I’ll miss is the one-to-one interaction I have with the students that is unique to the arts.”
White has had an impact on students who have learned from his musical expertise. Anthony Yrigoyen, a junior music major, remembers being a freshman in White’s class. He recalls White reminding students that music is meant to entertain and move people. When students would become frustrated with a difficult piece of music, White would remind them that it is never a matter of life and death.
“Professor White’s love for music is shown every day,” Yrigoyen said. “He is constantly finding ways to keep rehearsals enjoyable and productive by slipping in a joke or two before the next rep. It keeps us on our toes and genuinely lifts our day just to be there making music with him.”
White plans to continue playing in the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and opera, and will also continue teaching at the El Paso Conservatory of Music next year.