NEWS AND EVENTS
Recent and Upcoming Events
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all teaching is currently being done on-line. This includes the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts,
Cal State Fullerton School of Music, Pasadena City College and my at-home private instruction.
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Interview with Rustic Percussion Founder Ryan Langford--Instagram TV, July 10
Student Achievements. Congratulations!
CSPA Intermediate Percussion Ensemble--Colburn Connected performance of the ensemble's original composition Fanfare for the Common Objects
CSUF School of Music Friday Percussion Ensemble--fun performance of GH Green's "Cross Corners" put together by the students during the early months of the pandemic. Bravo to you all for your music making and dedication to craft! Go Titans!!
Kristian de Leon (CSUF Alum)--will be attending NYU Steinhardt School Fall 2020
Chris Gaw Gonzalo (Colburn)--member Pacific Symphony Youth Ensembles 2020/2021
Anna Kuser (CSPA Alum)--will be attending Berklee College of Music Spring 2021
Holden Pang (CSPA)--Colburn Connected performance of Mitchell Peters Elementary SD Study #33...had some fun with it!
Viraj Sonawala (Colburn)--member Pacific Symphony Youth Ensembles 2020/2021
Past Projects
Opening Night with Pacific Symphony--First episode in a collaboration with the PSO and KCET/PBS SoCal Southland Sessions. A nice performance of Dvorak's Carnival Overture.
New West Symphony Battle of the Sections--A fun virtual project from June 2020. This is a short snippet of Team Percussion's performance; with Scott Higgins and pianist Conrad Tao. I'm the timpanist streaking across the top of the screen!
LA Philharmonic 100 Years Box Set--I was very fortunate to play on several selections from this box set including works by Mussorgsky, Bartok, Stravinsky, Salonen and John Adams.
LA Chamber Orchestra Meet The Music--A children's concert recorded from November 2019. These were extremely rewarding concerts to play; wonderful interaction with Artistic Advisor Derrick Spiva Jr., LACO musicians, the Composer Fellows, and the enthusiastic young audiences.
Pacific Symphony Concert Highlights--A lively performance of the finale of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique from 2019. Rute FTW!!
Across The Starts: Anne-Sophie Mutter and John Williams--This was a very exciting record to be part of. Very fortunate indeed! The percussion section makes a brief appearance around 4:20.
LA Chamber Orchestra Acoustic Caffeine--A short snippet of a performance with Wade Culbreath from August 2017. Chick Corea's Children's Song #11.
...and last but not least...
UCLA Drumline 1988 Spartan Marching Percussion Festival--Yep...went to Chicago in January to compete. Despite all of us warm-weather Bruins freezing, we received 1st place. I had a lot more hair back then.
Musings and Stuff: Articles, Things to Check Out, Words, Ideas
Here is a great article from the Wall Street Journal reporting on the current struggles specific to those in the classical music world.
Chicago Symphony Orchestra--"Sounds of Celebration" Saturday October 24, 5pm PDT. Will include principal percussionist Cynthia Yeh performing Buster Bailey's Two Sticks in Search of a Waltz for solo xylophone.
A quote from American poet Louise Glück who recently won the 2020 Nobel Prize for Literature:
When I was young I led the life I thought writers were supposed to lead, in which you repudiate the world, ostentatiously consecrating all of your energies to the task of making art. I just sat in Provincetown at a desk and it was ghastly – the more I sat there not writing the more I thought that I just hadn’t given up the world enough. After two years of that, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t going to be a writer. So I took a teaching job in Vermont, though I had spent my life till that point thinking that real poets don’t teach. But I took this job, and the minute I started teaching – the minute I had obligations in the world – I started to write again.
Doing the hobby never feels like work.--chef Grant Achatz
Hello and Welcome
I teach all levels of percussion, from beginners to professionals; snare drum, keyboard mallet instruments, timpani, drum set, world music and much more. From Abel triangles to Zappa transcriptions, crash cymbals to congas, auditions, recitals, the 3 "B's": whether it's Bach, Beethoven, Brahms or Blakey, Bonham, Beauford . . . all these topics and more are available to you.