Pappas' Two Passions Collide at Michigan
11/20/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- There was an instant when August Pappas' two loves converged while doing a training run past Elbel Field. The Michigan Marching Band abruptly began practicing Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture," turning a quiet setting with nothing more than a few chirping birds into a bold, symphonic crescendo waiting to happen.
"We were doing a tough workout called 'The Michigan,'" said Pappas, a member of the Wolverines men's cross country team that will compete in Saturday's NCAA meet in Terre Haute, Ind. "We were running one of the tougher segments. You come up around the Big House and come around toward the track past the field where the marching band practices.
"So, there were nine of us trying to finish this workout that is really a grind. We're all kind of suffering a bit, and all of a sudden a 180-person band is playing Tchaikovsky, and it was just the coolest experience. The band was completely silent, and all of a sudden as we pulled even with them, there was this wall of sound from the '1812 Overture.'"
It was as if Pappas and his teammates had suddenly been given a musical score to accompany their challenge -- like a movie soundtrack breaking out before their eyes and ears.
"For a second," said Pappas, "it took us out of the discomfort we happened to be in. When you are in a workout and you are suffering, it's hard to think about anything else. And all of a sudden this beautiful music, dramatic and climactic, takes you away from that. And you realize that the workout is just another workout, and it's no problem to finish it."
Pappas performs in the University Symphony Orchestra and is a performance music/percussion major in the School of Music. But it was a marching band that he heard as a youngster growing up in Chelsea, just west of Ann Arbor, that hooked him on the drums and what he hopes will be a career in music.
His fellow runners are surprised that he doesn't run with headphones, but Pappas said that as much as he loves music he needs some time away from it.
"After two hours of intense practice it's just nice to go outside and run and not think about anything for a while," Pappas said. "At the same time, being a musician has led to an understanding of a lot of things that are important to running -- like rhythm, coordination and tempo. You need to be aware of what your body is doing, and trying to replicate that over and over again is similar to being in the practice room on north campus and trying to perform something correctly over and over again.
"People used to ask me why I never listen to music while I run with headphones. And it has to do with when you race it is totally silent, and all you can do is hear yourself breathing and the breathing of the people around you."
The inhaling and exhaling from lungs becomes a distance runner's syncopation.
"You have to be able to feed off that silence without needing an outside source of energy or inspiration," Pappas said. "And it's good to have a little peace and quiet when you run."
He became involved in distance running in the seventh grade after his parents refused to let him play football.
"And as soon as I did that," Pappas said, "it was game over. I fell in love with it because my coach (at Chelsea High) is one of my favorite people I have ever known."
Pappas liked that his coach, Eric Swager, "made distance running the most fun and highly competitive and intense experience I had ever had."
Pappas was an all-state pick in each of his four seasons in cross country and a state champion in track and field.
The running-music combo attracted Pappas to Michigan.
"I said, 'I want to run, and I want to drum,'" he said. "And Michigan was definitely the best combination of those two things of the schools that I auditioned at."
Pappas is a two-time All-Big Ten academic pick in both cross country and track and field. He recently finished 28th in the 8,000-meter run (24:19.2) at the Big Ten Championships, helping Michigan finish second, and last season was an All-Great Lakes Region cross country selection.
"The best part of college for me has been traveling with my teammates," said Pappas. "Traveling for a couple days together to a different part of the country, where we race together and spend time together is the best."
He said pursuing new challenges in music has been just as rewarding. He credits professor Joseph Gramley, whom Pappas called "a real master at the top of his game," with his initial development. And professor Jonathan Ovalle has been a "guru" to Pappas while opening up the musical world he would like to call home by expanding his range of instruments and music types.
"We work on all different styles of drum kit playing in rock, pop, hip hop, gospel and jazz," said Pappas. "And orchestral music, too, things you might find in a professional audition. And that's a lot of different instruments -- snare drums, xylophones, glockenspiel, bass drum, cymbals, triangle, tambourine...hand drumming, congas, frame drums."
Pappas sees himself settling some day in a place like New Orleans "which has such a rich musical tradition with so many styles of music converging there" or perhaps Austin, Texas.
"I want a chance to establish myself as a freelance musician," Pappas said. "I want to be a musician who doesn't necessarily specialize in one thing: performing, teaching, composing, arranging. There have always been too many cool types to music to choose one."
Pappas said his favorite music changes "every couple of months" and "right now my favorite genre is funk."
He said, "Just being able to sit down and play with a funk track is the best. I just have a blast doing that."
Who's his favorite drummer?
"I wouldn't say it's a drummer necessarily," Pappas said, "but there's an artist who encapsulates the ultimate musician for me. And that's a singer-songwriter, Tom Waits."
Waits, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, has the versatility Pappas ascribes to while also playing folk, jazz and blues. The gravelly voiced singer's songs are best known by the covers done by Rod Stewart ("Downtown Train"), Bruce Springsteen ("Jersey Girl") and the Eagles ("Ol' 55").
"He writes some really interesting percussion music for his songs," Pappas said. "He uses unconventional things - pots and pans, pipes. He has truly mastered what it means to write a great song. He's an incredible lyricist who knows how to capture a feeling and put it to music."
Pappas' creativity stems from his family. His mother, Candace, paints in oils and acrylics at a home studio; and his father, John, is a graphic designer, pen and ink artist and "a vinyl record collector with literally thousands of records." His older sister, Sophia, is an artist-illustrator living in Los Angeles.
He said the sounds his father loved triggered his interest in music, and his formal education began when his mother signed him up for piano lessons. But he became bored after a few years, looking at the piano sessions like another class on his schedule. Then he heard the Eastern Michigan University marching band and got excited. He wanted to learn to play the drums as a result and took lessons. He got so good at it that he played with the competitive Redline Percussion group in Canton, Mich., while also playing in the Chelsea High marching band.
"To get accepted here was a huge privilege," said Pappas. "I wanted to get into the top orchestra at Michigan, and in my second year I got that with the University Symphony Orchestra, which is easily the best group of musicians I have ever played with."
Pappas is competing against the best distance runners in the nation this Saturday (Nov. 22) at the NCAA Championships and will continue to play percussion while surrounded by supreme talent. He's getting the most out of both worlds at Michigan.
Players Mentioned
