“Leaving no percussion instrument untouched” is the motto of the Ethos Percussion Group, and they certainly live up to their slogan. The New York-based quartet played an impressive show at Kenan Auditorium Saturday night.

The group is composed of percussionists Eric Phinney and Trey Files, global music specialist Yousif Sheronick and founder Michael Sgouros. They blend their professional talents with a remarkable sense of effortlessness. Trained around the world with a long list of degrees and accomplishments, Ethos never lets the complex arrangements go over the audience’s head.

Professional percussion ensembles are a relatively new genre of performance groups, and the large catalogs of music available to string quartets or orchestras are not available to percussion groups. All six of Ethos’s selections were written in the last two years, several especially for them.

Ethos did an excellent job of exploring a number of cultural styles in their program. From the Brazilian rhythms of the opener, “Marimba Suite,” to the sparse, Zen-like sounds of “Kong,” Ethos drew on a wide range of instrumentation to put together their unique sound. The closing theme piece, “Used Car Salesman,” combined instruments such as gongs, tambourines, vibraphones, bongos and two car horns. Punctuating the composition was spoken dialogue relating to used car salesmen.

Interaction between the audience and the players took away from the rigid formality typical of concerts on campus. Ethos introduced each song with a background of the piece and showed the audience different ways to clap African rhythms.

UNCW has done a fantastic job of promoting diverse cultural events on campus. The Arts in Action Performing Arts Series (who sponsored the concert) hosts everything from a dance theatre to a jazz singer to an Indian Sarod musician. Judging by the two performances this past month from The Ethos Percussion Group and The Bangarra Dance Theater, this season looks to be promising.