Karel Husa at UCA

Last week the composer Karel Husa stopped by UCA for a three day residency. The percussion quartet played Three Dance Sketches on a chamber music concert. It is a powerful piece, and quite difficult. We were lucky enough to have a chance to rehearse the piece with Husa. He is an amazing man, and working with him really helped to bring the piece to life for all of us. Below are a few pics of the rehearsals.

Mark Ford at UCA

Last week we had Mark Ford in as a guest clinician at UCA. He worked with the percussion quartet and presented a clinic/performance for me and my students. He also performed his new piece (which I think is called Kingdom Lore Fanfare). He did a wonderful job coaching the quartet and my students got a lot out of his clinic. A few pics are below.

Idaho Day of Percussion

The weekend after the ECU Day of Percussion, I once again hit the road. This time it was the Idaho Day of Percussion. James Harrison, the president of Idaho PAS, did an incredible job of hosting the event. The attendance was just short of 200 people and the clinicians were all great. Special thanks to my friend Thom Hasenpflug who came in from Idaho State University to play Vertical River with me. Here's a pic of everyone. I may have more pics soon. Thanks to David Garibaldi for forwarding this one to me.



left to right: Blake Tyson - Marimba and Percussion, David Garibaldi - Drum Set, James Harrison - Host and Drum Set, Ben Pursley - Djembe, Michael Huestis - Marching percussion, Thom Hasenpflug - Special Guest Vibraphonist!

ECU Day of Percussion

The weekend after the UCA Percussion Festival, I headed out to Oklahoma for the East Central University Day of Percussion. A good time was had by all. I especially enjoyed Gregg Bissonette's Stewart Copeland Medley. There may be more pics of the events soon, but for now, here's a shot of the clinicians that day.



















left to right...the Bravura Percussion Trio, Gregg Bissonette, me, John Kizilarmut, and Ben Finley (the host).

UCA Percussion Festival - Day 4

After a long absence from post I am happy to present photos from Day 4 of the UCA Percussion Festival. It was all about John Parks and his incredible orchestral skills

First he talked about the tambourine



































Then he diagrammed the different sound possibilities of cymbal crashes















and crashed some cymbals















...and then showed us how to catch a fly ball to center field with a pair of Zildjian 18" Orchestral cymbals



More soon....