April 24, 2004, in New York City, composer/percussionist Andrew Beall performed the world premiere of his Testament: Symphony for Marimba and Orchestra with the Tower Philharmonic. An hour long, four-movement work, this piece marks as the first marimba symphony in history ever to be composed or performed. Since the premiere, he has reduced the opus to a shorter, three-movement Concerto, which had its world premiere with the Aspen Philharmonic in the summer of '06.
A multi-faceted performer and educator, Mr. Beall's career balances between the Symphonic, Broadway, and Marching arenas. As a freelance percussionist, Mr. Beall performs on Broadway in The Lion King and Les Miserables, as well as at Carnegie Hall with the Manhattan Pops Orchestra and the New England Symphonic Ensemble. He has performed in various other productions such as Little Shop of Horrors, Man in the Iron Mask, Starmites, and the world premieres of the off-Broadway musical Ophelia and Scott Eyerly’s opera, The House of Seven Gables. Mr. Beall has appeared as a soloist around the world, including 10 recitals and 5 concerto performances. He has won both the 2001 D.C.I. Solo Marimba Competition and the 2001 P.A.S.I.C. College Individual Marimba Competition, placed 1st in concerto competitions at The Ohio State University and New York University, and 2nd at the 2005 MTNA National Young Artist Performer’s Competition. Mr. Beall spent a year as a cast member and snare drum soloist in the Australian stage spectacular, Rhythm of the Night. He performs regularly with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and American Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the American Brass Quintet, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic Percussion Ensemble, Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Garden State Philharmonic, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Harmonie Symphony Orchestra, Gotham City Orchestra, and served as Principal Timpanist at the Conductor’s Institute at Bard. Currently, he tours as drummer for the New York-based rock quintet, Cordis.
As a composer, Mr. Beall’s works have been performed at the Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory, Mannes College of Music, New York University, Stanford University, North Carolina School of the Arts, The College of New Jersey, Music Academy of the West, and the Aspen Music Festival. As a guest artist, he has presented concerts and workshops across the country, and as a clinician he was featured at the 2005 P.A.S. Ohio Day of Percussion. In the field of marching percussion, he has taught drum and bugle corps such as the Santa Clara Vanguard and Carolina Crown and has written and designed indoor percussion shows for such as Odyssey Percussion Theater, Surround Sound, and Mt. Juliet High School. Mr. Beall received his B.M. from the Manhattan School of Music, his M.A. from New York University, and was a Charles Owen Memorial Fellowship winner at the Aspen Music Festival. His debut studio CD, Deliverance, was released in November ‘06 on BMP Records and features four of his latest percussion chamber pieces. Mr. Beall is the founder/owner of Bachovich Music Publications and is an endorser of Innovative Percussion. For more information, please visit www.andrewbeall.com.
Like Charles Ives, Steven Beall has enjoyed a successful career as a health care insurance executive, along with his real love, musical composition. His compositions feature the classical guitar in solo, duo and chamber music settings.
Mr. Beall is a self-taught musician with no formal musical education. His most memorable live performances were in 1979 when he played guitar in an orchestra with Dave Brubeck on piano in Brubeck’s Christmas choral pageant, La Fiesta de la Posada; and also in 1979 when he played mandolin in a chamber group that performed a George Crumb composition, Ancient Voices of Children. He was also in Flute & Guitar duo and performed many flute and guitar works including Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonatina for Flute & Guitar.
Steven Beall has composed a number of works for guitar, including 24 Fugal Misadventures for 2 Guitars (2003) and Calico Dreams for Marimba and Guitar (2000). A partial world premier of Calico Dreams was given in New York City in May 2005 by Andrew Beall, marimba and Evan Drummond, guitar. They performed the first three movements of this five-movement suite.
Steven Beall edited and published Andrew Beall’s Testament: Symphony for Marimba and Orchestra (2004). This was the culmination of a life-long dream to learn the elements of classical music notation and develop the knowledge to understand how to read and interpret an orchestral score.
Marc Damoulakis, born in Massachusetts, is currently a member of the percussion section of the Cleveland Orchestra. Prior to joining the Cleveland Orchestra in 2006, Mr. Damoulakis performed regularly with the New York Philharmonic for three seasons, also accompanying them on their national and international tours. He has held tenure positions as principal timpanist of the Long Island Philharmonic, assistant principal percussion of the Harrisburg Symphony and percussionist in the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. Marc has also played with the Atlanta Symphony, Houston Symphony, Kirov Orchestra, Canadian Brass, and Florida West Coast Symphony.
As a chamber musician, he performed a joint recital of piano/percussion music with Emanuel Ax at Lincoln Center. He was also a founding member of the Time Table Percussion Quartet based in NYC.
He has taught master classes and clinics nationally, traveling to the Manhattan School of Music, Boston Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, University of Miami, and DePaul University, and remains committed to teaching students in his private studio in Cleveland.
As a student, he participated in the Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival Italy and the Pacific Music Festival. He is an alumnus of the New World Symphony, where he studied with music director Michael Tilson Thomas. Marc received a bachelor’s degree in Music from Manhattan School of Music, studying with Chris Lamb, Duncan Patton, and James Preiss.
New York percussionist Charles Descarfino has performed with numerous and diverse professional organizations including: The American Symphony Orchestra, The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, The American Composer’s Orchestra, The New York City Ballet Orchestra, The EOS Orchestra, Speculum Musicae, The Composers Conference, Mario Davidovsky director, The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, The Brooklyn Philharmonic, The Louie Bellson Big Band and is featured with composer / pianist Mick Rossi on his latest release “One Block from Planet Earth” on Omnitone records as well as two prior releases “They Have a Word for Everything” on Knitting Factory Records with Dave Douglas and Inside the Sphere on Cadence Jazz Records with Kermit Driscoll. He has also performed with artists including Roberta Flack, Bette Midler, Freddy Cole, Kenny Rankin, Ben Vereen, and Jewel among others.
His most recent position was serving as percussionist and assistant conductor for the Broadway run of Sweet Charity, and has been percussionist for numerous Broadway shows including, Thoroughly Modern Millie, City of Angels, The Who’s Tommy, Titanic, Suessical and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
He has recorded on the Nonesuch, New World, Columbia, Sony, Decca, Opus One, Cadence, Knitting Factory, Omnitone, BMG and other labels and for jingles and major film releases including Disney’s Pocahontas, Mulan and the upcoming 2005 release of Mel Brooks “The Producers”.
His compositions for percussion have been performed at colleges around the U.S including William Paterson University, Rowan College of NJ, Peabody Conservatory,
The Aspen Music Festival, Cal State Hayward and many others.
Javier Diaz, a native of Cuba, is a percussionist with the American Symphony
Orchestra and with several chamber music groups and Latin Jazz Bands in the
New York Area. He has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, New Jersey
Symphony, New York Perspectives Ensemble, Zankel Hall New Music Band,
Hilliard Ensemble, Broadway's productions of Man of La Mancha, Thoroughly
Modern Millie, Brooklyn and The Lion King. He is currently a percussionist
with the Tarzan Broadway production. His studio credits include: ECM's
Tituli by Stephen Hartke with the Hilliard Ensemble and the award winning
short film Tango Flush. As an Afro-Cuban percussion specialist Mr. Diaz has
appeared with: Lazaro Galarraga's Afro-Cuban All Stars, percussionist Angel
Luis Figueroa, Candido Camero, Pedro Martinez, Los Acustilocos, The
Panamerican Jazz Band, The Ethnix, Anette Aguilar’s Latin Jazz Group, Marta
Topferova, Edgar Castaneda and the New York World Music Institute. He has
taught Afro-Cuban percussion seminars at the Peabody Institute, University
of Southern California, University of California Los Angeles, Percussion
Artists Workshops Los Angeles/New York, Los Angeles School District and the
Juilliard School. Mr. Diaz currently teaches the Afro-Cuban percussion
survey at the Juilliard School. As a composer, Mr. Diaz has been
commissioned by the Aspen Music Festival and USC. Mr. Diaz holds a BM from
the University of Southern California and a MM from The Juilliard School.
Michael received his Bachelor’s in Music Education with performance and composition emphasis from the University of Arkansas in 2004 and is currently pursuing a Masters in Percussion Performance at the University of Texas at Austin serving as the Longhorn Band Drumline instructor. In 2004, Mr. Eagle was the Percussion Director for the Edcouch-Elsa School District (XV-AAAA) in Edcouch, TX where his group and individual soloists were undefeated in Winter Drumline competitions. As a percussion specialist, Michael is active in performance, private student and public school teaching, contest adjudication, writing, consulting, and as a clinician. Michael’s drumline experiences include marching for Magic of Orlando in 2000 and for Phantom Regiment in 2001 and 2002. As a snare soloist, Michael finished in the top 10 at DCM, DCI, and PASIC competitions while winning the rudiment caption at PASIC in 2001 and 2002. In 2004, Michael was a co-founder and battery caption head for River Valley Regiment Winter Drumline out of Van Buren, AR. Eagle also served on the Memphis Sound Drum Corps staff as the tenor drum and drumline visual technician.
While at the U of A, Michael studied under Chalon Ragsdale, W. Dale Warren, and Robert Mueller. He performed with the Razorback Marching band, Men’s Basketball Hogwild band, Volleyball band, Percussion ensemble Momentum, Wind Symphony, as well as Steel Pandamonium steel drum band. In 2000, he was a part of the Wind Symphony group that performed at the illustrious Carnegie Hall in New York. Mr. Eagle orchestrated two original productions: Words Unspoken and Uneven Souls. Both shows are of original concepts fusing many different facets of art including dance, poetry, and popular percussive works that were presented as his student recitals.
Michael is a member of the North Texas Caledonian Pipes & Drums from Dallas, TX. Mr. Eagle has been studying Scottish drumming since 2000 and has had instruction from such top players as Jim Kilpatrick, John Fisher, Eric Ward, Reid Maxwell, Jon Greene, and Tom Robinson. Eagle is currently a Grade II drummer and is the 3-time EUSPBA Southwest Branch Grade II Snare Champion. The Caledonians perform exclusively in the Dallas area, competes throughout North America, and plans to enter the Scottish World Championships in Scotland in 2008.
In the summer of 2003, Eagle participated in the 24th annual Leigh Howard Stevens marimba seminar in Asbury Park, N.J where he studied marimba performance with world-renowned marimbists She-E Wu and Leigh Howard Stevens. Currently, Keyboard Percussion Publications (KP3) is working to publish Eagle’s book of selected movements from different Beethoven piano sonatas transposed for the marimba. He is also working with other distributors to publish several of his percussion ensembles and solos including Innovative Percussion and Bachovich.
Michael is a sponsored educator/artist for Innovative Percussion, Tree Works Percussion, and Sticktape.com. He is currently an active performer with Austin local Kalia Earsly in the rock/fusion group The Lonely Heart Kid, well- known Celtic Rock group Scottish Mayhem, and the Procatinators percussion theater group.
Lauded by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as "a Heifetz of the marimba,"
multi-percussionist Joseph Gramley grew up in Oregon and was named a
Presidential Scholar in the Arts as a high-school senior in 1988. He did
his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan and also attended the
Interlochen Arts Academy, the Tanglewood Institute and Salzburg Mozarteum.
Gramley gave his concerto debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in
1992 after winning their National Soloist Competition. Gramley gave his
recital debut at Carnegie Hall¹s Weill Recital Hall in 1994. After graduate
studies at the Juilliard School in New York, he performed with the Ethos
Percussion Group throughout the U. S. and Europe.
An invitation from Yo-Yo Ma in 2000 led Gramley to join Mr. Ma's Silk
Road Project. He has toured with Mr. Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble
throughout North America, Europe and Asia, performing in the world's finest
concert halls. Along the way, Gramley has studied percussion styles and
instruments from around the globe, collaborating with
internationally-renowned musicans from India, Iran, China, Japan, Korea and
Central Asia.
Gramley's performances as a soloist have garnered critical acclaim and
enthusiasm from emerging composers, percussion aficionados and first-time
concert-goers alike. He is committed to bringing fresh and inventive
compositions to a broad public, and each year he commissions and premieres a
number of new works. His first solo recording, American Deconstruction,
appeared in 2000, followed-up by his solo recording Global Percussion in
2005. In 2007, Gramley will release a duo CD of Organ and Percussion works
with English organ sensation Clive Driskill-Smith.
Gramley is director of the Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar is on the
faculty of Queens College in New York and Idyllwild Arts Festival in
California. He performs exclusively on Sabian and Black Swamp Percussion
instruments.
JOsephgramley.comOrganizedRhythm.com
Richard Grimes is establishing himself as a pioneer in the field contemporary/crossover performance. By merging the primitive craft of global percussion with the dynamic possibilities of contemporary chamber music, Over the span of his relatively young career, Grimes has worked alongside a growing roster of talent, including cimbalom virtuoso Viktoria Herencsar and Zimbabwean mbirist Cosmas Magaya in venues ranging from intimate performance spaces to Carnegie Hall. In Fall 2003, Richard was a featured performer at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Louisville, KY. During the 2006 summer months Richard will complete a book outlining the history and performance practice of the Hungarian concert cimbalom. In addition to his compositional and solo performance efforts, Richard is a founding member of the contemporary quintet Cordis.
Born in 1932, Normal Grossman studied Composition with Edmond de Luca in Philadelphia and Constant Vauclain at the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Grossman directed the music school at the Emanuel Midtown YMHA and was head of the”Music Studio” at Bronx Community College. As a free lance trumpet player, he has performed with concert and jazz groups in New York and Philadelphia.
Virtuoso timpanist Jonathan Haas has raised the status of the timpani to
that of a solo instrument throughout his unique career that has spanned more
than twenty years. From classical concertos to jazz and rock & roll, from
symphonic masterpieces to the most experimental compositions of living
composers, Haas has championed, commissioned, unearthed and celebrated music
for his instrument, becoming, as Ovation magazine hailed him, "The Paganini
of the timpani."
His concerts on the world's most prestigious musical stages and his
ground-breaking recordings have delighted critics and listeners on both
sides of the ocean. The New York Times wrote, "Wherever one finds a
percussion instrument waiting to be rubbed, shook, struck or strummed,
[Haas] is probably nearby, ready to fulfill his duties with consummate
expertise... he is a masterful young percussionist."
Haas has garnered widespread praise and attention for his performances of
Philip Glass' Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra, a piece
conceived by Haas and completed because of his quest to spotlight the
timpani. The Concerto Fantasy features not only two timpanists, but also 14
timpani, all placed downstage in front of the orchestra. In 2000, Haas
performed the world premiere of the piece with the American Symphony, and he
has subsequently performed it at Carnegie Hall and in Phoenix, New Jersey,
Baltimore, Pasadena, Long Beach (California), St. Louis and Mexico City.
Haas also performed the European premiere with the BBC Symphony in London,
the world premiere of a chamber orchestra version with the Iris Chamber
Orchestra in Memphis, the Czechoslovakian premiere with the Prague Symphony
Orchestra at the International Music Prague Spring Festival, the Norwegian
premiere with the Bergen Philharmonic, and he will perform the Australian
premiere with the Sydney Symphony and the Turkish premiere with the Istanbul
Philharmonic.
Haas' successful efforts to expand the timpani repertoire have led him to
commission and premiere more than 25 works by composers in addition to
Philip Glass such as Stephen Albert, Marius Constant, Irwin Bazelon, Eric
Ewazen, Thomas Hamilton, Robert Hall Lewis, Jean Piche, Karlheinz
Stockhausen, Andrew Thomas, and many others.
Haas also attracted plaudits when he built the world's largest timpani,
which is nearly 6' wide, nearly 4' tall, and 70 inches in diameter, almost
twice the size of the world's second-largest timpani (a 48-incher used by
Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra). Haas discovered the kettle in an
Aspen cow pasture. It had originally been used to manufacture Swiss cheese
at the turn of the century and, remarkably, matched the exact size
specifications of a timpani. Haas debuted a prototype of this
unprecedented, incredible instrument at the Aspen Music Festival in August
2003, and it made its official premiere at the Percussive Arts Society's
annual convention in Louisville, KY, in November 2003.
Additionally, Haas recently invented a process to improve the performance of
crash cymbals that has been developed into a new instrument called "The
Master Series Anti-Lock Cymbal" produced by Zildjian, the largest
manufacturer of cymbals in the world.
Haas' recordings include the trail-blazing 18th Century Concertos for
Timpani and Orchestra and Johnny H. and the Prisoners of Swing, both on
Sunset Records. The latter was named for his jazz group and features
innovative renderings of jazz compositions featuring "hot timpani" in front
of a full jazz ensemble. His rediscovery of Duke Ellington's brilliant
composition for jazz timpani, "Tympaturbably Blue," is included on this
recording, as are other jazz standards played on a set of ten kettledrums.
Demonstrating a remarkable versatility as a musician, Haas has performed and
recorded with Emerson, Lake and Palmer, played on the Grammy Award-winning
recording Zappa's Universe, recorded with Aerosmith, Michael Bolton, Black
Sabbath, and explored heavy metal with his rock group Clozshave.
The rarest of modern virtuosi, Haas embarked on his career as a solo
timpanist by performing the only solo timpani recital ever presented at
Carnegie Recital Hall in 1980. As an orchestral soloist, he made his debut
with the New York Chamber Orchestra under Maxim Shostakovich and his
European solo debut with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta. He made his French
debut performing Andrez Panufnick's Concerto for Percussion, Timpani and
Orchestra with the Orchestra de la Garde Republicaine. He was the soloist
in the Druschetsky Concerto for Eight Timpani, Oboe and Orchestra with the
Aspen Chamber Orchestra. He has also performed as a solo timpanist for the
Distinguished Artists Recital Series at New York's 92nd Street 'Y' and as a
guest artist with the Lincoln Center Chamber Society, the Chamber Music at
the 'Y' Series, and the Newport Chamber Music Festival. He has championed
new music by presenting adventuresome programming such as The Music of Frank
Zappa, showcasing the music of Edgar Varese and Frank Zappa, under the
auspices of Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series.
Haas is the principal timpanist of the EOS Orchestra and the Aspen Chamber
Orchestra and principal percussionist of the American Symphony Orchestra, as
well as a member of the American Composers Orchestra. He performs with the
Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, New York Pops, and New Jersey Symphony and
has performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, the Stuttgart
Chamber Orchestra, the New York Chamber Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and virtually every other New York-area
performing arts organization.
A graduate of Washington University in St. Louis, Haas received his Master's
Degree from the Juilliard School as a student of Saul Goodman. An inspiring
teacher, he has been the director of the Peabody Conservatory Percussion
Studio for twenty years and a faculty artist of the Aspen Music School, and
he conducts the percussion ensembles at both schools. He has presented
master classes throughout the United States and internationally at the Toho
Gauken, Hanoi Conservatory, Paris Conservatory, and the Graz Percussion
School. Sharing his enthusiasm for music with young people, he has
presented over two hundred concert-demonstrations with his "Drumfire"
program, under the auspices of the Lincoln Center Institute, the New York
Chamber Symphony's Sidney Wolff Children's Concert Series, and the Aspen
Festival Young Person's Concert Series.
As active an entrepreneur as he is an artist, Haas heads Sunset Records,
Kettles and Company, and Gemini Music Productions (www.geminimusic.com),
which contracts musicians for Lincoln Center, New York Pops, and many other
organizations. He also works closely with percussion industry manufacturers
Pearl/Adams, Promark and Zildjian, among others.
TOM HAMILTON has been composing and performing for over 40 years, and his work with electronic music originated in the late-60s era of analog synthesis. Hamilton often explores the interaction of many simultaneous layers of activity, prompting the use of “present-time listening” on the part of both performer and listener.
Hamilton is a 2005 Fellow of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, participating in a residency at the foundation’s center in Umbria. His CD London Fix received an honorary mention in the 2004 Prix Ars Electronica. His performing and recording colleagues have included Peter Zummo, Bruce Gremo, Karlheinz Essl, Bruce Arnold, Rich O’Donnell, Jonathan Haas, Jacqueline Martelle, Steve Nelson-Raney, Hal Rammel, Thomas Buckner, Richard Lerman, and Lisle Ellis. He has been a collaborator with visual artists, including Fred Worden (filmmaker), Van McElwee and Morey Gers (video artists), and the late Ernst Haas (photographer).
An active participant in New York’s new music scene, Hamilton was the co-director of the 2004 Sounds Like Now festival, and he has co-produced the Cooler in the Shade/Warmer by the Stove new music series since 1993. Since 1990, Hamilton has been a member of composer Robert Ashley's touring opera ensemble, performing sound processing and mixing in both recordings and concerts.
Duncan Patton is a Principal Timpanist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and Co-Chair of the Percussion Department at the Manhattan School of Music. Prior to joining the Met, he was Principal Timpanist of the Honolulu Symphony. He has also performed with the Graham Ashton Brass Ensemble, the Met Chamber Ensemble, the Empire Brass, the New Renaissance Chamber Players, the Percussionists of the Met, and in a duo with the marimbist Mayumi Sekizawa. He has presented masterclasses in the US, Mexico and Japan, including at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. A composer of works primarily for percussion, his music has been performed in New York, throughout the U.S., Mexico City and Tokyo. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music.
Joseph Pereira has been the Assistant Principal Timpanist/Section Percussionist of the New York Philharmonic since January 1998. He received his master’s degree in percussion from The Juilliard School and a double bachelor’s degree in performance and composition/theory from Boston University. He currently teaches timpani and percussion at the Juilliard School.
Mr. Pereira conducted the premiere of his Quintet for Winds in 2005 as part of the New York Philharmonic Ensembles series at Merkin Concert Hall. The New York Times said, “it is a restless yet lucidly textured work with an astringent harmonic language.” He has been commissioned by other members of the Philharmonic as well, and he recently finished his first orchestra piece “Mask”, and a quartet for the horn section of the New York Philharmonic. His music has been performed at Darmstadt, Merkin Concert Hall, 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully Hall, The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Harvard, and Princeton University. His Conversation for Solo Flute, was selected by Linda Witherell (original solo flutist with Pierre Boulez’s IRCAM) in an international “Call for Scores” through the American Music Center.
Mr. Pereira has performed with the New York Percussion Quartet, New York New Music Ensemble, Alea III, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Robert Shaw Festival Singers, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra as principal timpanist. He can also be heard on Telarc, Teldec, and Deutsche Grammophon recordings. He is an alumnus of both the Tanglewood and Pacific (Sapporo, Japan) music festivals.
The Houston Chronicle wrote, “PABLO RIEPPI sparked a lot of buzz at intermission with his ability…he was rock solid no matter what position he had to contort into to play.” A native of Uruguay, Pablo is a highly sought-after musician in New York City, where he performs a wide range of music with some of the world’s leading artists. Pablo can be seen performing with The New York Philharmonic, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and The American Symphony Orchestra. Pablo performs with many other classical, new music, pop and world music groups including Gotham Symphony Orchestra (principal), Speculum Musicae, The Gotham Chamber Opera, The New York New Music Ensemble, DaCapo Chamber Players, Ensemble 21, and the Perspectives Ensemble (principal). He is a member of the Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble, the internationally acclaimed multimedia collective VisionIntoArt (percussionist, music director & composer), The New York Percussion Quartet, Columbia Sinfonietta, Dagmar and Weimarband, and performs around the world in renowned concert halls with numerous ensembles.
Pablo has performed or collaborated with some of the world’s greatest maestros such as Pierre Boulez, Sir Colin Davis, David Robertson, Loren Maazel, Riccardo Muti and Kurt Mazur, as well as with such world, jazz, rock and R&B luminaries as Joe Zawinul, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Paquito D’Rivera, Roger Daltrey, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Mike Keneally and Dhafer Youssef.
As a soloist, Pablo has premiered several percussion works at The Riverside Church of New York‘s “Chapel Chamber Music Series”.
Pablo has performed in the Broadway orchestras of Beauty and the Beast, The King and I, The Sound of Music, Swan Lake, Oklahoma, Nine, Dance of the Vampires, Thoroughly Modern Milly, The Frogs, Pacific Overatures, Little Women, Lestat and Fosse. He is currently the percussionist in Legally Blonde The Musical on Broadway. Pablo has recorded numerous film scores (including The Brave One, The Good Shepherd, Cassanova and You’ve Got Mail among others), television ads and new compositions with several ensembles.
As a composer he has written music for the soundtrack of Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story, which won numerous prizes at several film festivals. His percussion and electronics piece “Rage and Peace” was performed by the New York University Percussion Ensemble. Three of his arrangements were performed by VisionIntoArt on a recent tour of Italy.
Pablo is professor of music at Columbia University and Hofstra University, where he teaches privately and is director of the percussion ensemble. He is a teaching artist for The Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York and The American Composers Orchestra. He has a Masters Degree and Professional Studies Certificate from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelors degree from George Mason University.
His new book Snare Drum Technique: Essential Basics for Daily Practice is now available through Bachovich Music Publications. Pablo proudly endorses Sabian Cymbals.
A native of Japan, Mayumi Sekizawa is a marimbist who has performed as a soloist across the United States, France, Germany, Austria, China, Belgium and Japan. She has won many national and international solo competitions, including the first prize at the 1994 Classical Music Competition (Japan), Manhattan School of Music Concerto Competition in 1998(USA), the first prize Grace Woodson Memorial Award of the Houston Symphony National Young Artist Competition in 2000 (USA), the third prize of the International Marimba Competition in 2001(Belgium) and IBLA Grand Prize Marimba Special Mention Award in 2003 (Italy).
In 1994, Ms. Sekizawa was invited to perform for the Imperial Family in Japan. She made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 2000, which earned critical acclaim. In 2004, she performed at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in New York. She has appeared in concerts of many music festivals, including Centre Acanthes 2000/Ircam (France) and International Festival for New Music in Darmstadt 2002(Germany). She was invited to International Marimba Festival in Belgium 2004 where she gave her solo recital. Ms. Sekizawa released her first CD “My Favorite Thing” from Aurora Classical in 2005.
Ms. Sekizawa received both her bachelor and master’s degrees in marimba from the Musashino College of Music, Japan. She also holds a master’s degree and professional studies certificate in percussion from the Manhattan School of Music.
Mayumi Sekizawa Official Website:www.mayumisekizawa.com
Percussionist Joseph Tompkins has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the New York City Opera, the New Jersey Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. On Broadway he has played in productions of The King and I, Swan Lake, Oklahoma!, The Lion King, The Producers, Spamalot, The Light in the Piazza and Tarzan. Tompkins has a performed on film soundtracks for The Manchurian Candidate, The Last Holiday, Failure to Launch, and Casanova. Currently he is a member of the percussion trio Timetable, a group committed to commissioning and performing new works for percussion. He is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School.
Aaron Trant, percussion deemed by 21st Century Music
as a “fire-breathing”
percussionist, is both an active performer and
composer. Cited for his
“melodic, if unpitched, voice” (Spendidzine), he has
also received great
acclaim for his original score and solo percussion
performance of the Christ
Marker film, La Jetée. His eclectic knowledge of
classical, jazz, rock,
contemporary and improvised music has made him an
asset to many
ensembles throughout the United States. Aaron is the
cofounder, performer
and composer for the After Quartet, one of the few
groups dedicated to the
art of live musical accompaniment of silent film. He
is also the assistant
director and percussionist for the Boston based group
Firebird Ensemble, a
new music chamber group. Aaron is an original member
of Primary Duo, for
piano and percussion (Boston); Endy Emby for trumpet
and percussion, the
Adam James Wilson Quintet (NYC); High Street
Percussion (Miami,
Florida); and the frequently touring group Cordis. He
also performs regularly
with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Fromm
Players (Harvard;
Cambridge, MA) and with the new music group Alarm Will
Sound. Aaron
has been seen in a variety of concert venues including
Carnegie Hall, Jordan
Hall and Mexico’s Palacio de Bellas Artes. Now
residing in Boston, Aaron
can be heard on the Boiled Jar, Cauchemar, Nepenthe
and Stone Quarry
labels.
Douglas Wallace lives in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and performs regularly as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral percussionist. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has worked with many ensembles including Theater Chamber Players, Eclipse Chamber Orchestra, The Battery Four Percussion Group, Washington Symphonic Brass and Percussion, and The Oblivion Ensemble. With these groups and others, he has performed as a guest artist and clinician at The Kennedy Center, The Cosmos Club, The Phillips Collection, The Freer Gallery, The National Gallery of Art, Constitution Hall, and The National Theater in Washington, D.C., The Academy of Music and The Morris Arboretum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, The Juilliard School in New York City, The Pyramid Arts Center in Rochester, New York, The Fame Music Festival in Princeton, New Jersey, The Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts in Huntington, New York, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California, the University of Maryland Summer Percussion Workshop in College Park, Maryland, and The Tanglewood Music Festival in Lenox, Massachusetts. Mr. Wallace's orchestral background includes performances with The National Symphony Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, The Washington National Opera, The Harrisburg Symphony, The Delaware Symphony, The Richmond Symphony, The Rochester Philharmonic, and the Alexandria Symphony. With these orchestras and others he has worked with world renowned conductors Lorin Maazel, Seiji Ozawa, James Levine, Leonard Slatkin, Kurt Mazur, Pierre Boulez, Placido Domingo, Jeffrey Tate, and Valery Gergiev.
In addition to his performing career, Mr. Wallace has a very extensive teaching background. He currently runs the percussion programs at Madison High School, Thoreau Middle School, and Kilmer Middle School in Vienna, Virginia, McLean High School and Longfellow Middle School in McLean, Virginia, and the American Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in Fairfax County, Virginia. His work with these organizations includes teaching methods classes, writing and arranging marching band and percussion ensemble music, coaching orchestral and band literature and conducting percussion ensemble. Mr. Wallace’s private students have been accepted to many music conservatories and colleges including The Juilliard School, The Curtis Institute of Music, The Cleveland Institute of Music, The New England Conservatory, The Peabody Conservatory, The Eastman School of Music, The Oberlin Conservatory, The University of Miami, and DePaul University. His teaching techniques are highlighted in his new method book, Percussion With Class, released in August of 2005 by the FJH Music Publishing Company, and his compositions and arrangements have been performed at The Juilliard School, The Eastman School of Music, New York University, George Mason University, The Music Academy of the West, The Aspen Music Festival, Temple University, and at The Bands of America National Percussion Festival.
Mr. Wallace has a Bachelor's Degree and Performer's Certificate from The Eastman School of Music where he studied with John Beck, and a Master's Degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Greg Zuber.
