2010 Day of Percussion
Saturday, April 17
8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m.
Memorial Auditorium
Featuring these guest musicians:
BOB BECKER
Bob Becker holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Eastman School of Music where he studied percussion with William Street and John Beck, and composition with Warren Benson and Aldo Provenzano. He also spent four years doing post-graduate study in the World Music program at Wesleyan University where he became intensely involved with the music cultures of North and South India, Africa and Indonesia. As a founding member of the percussion ensemble NEXUS, he has been involved with the collection and construction of a unique multi-cultural body of instruments which responds to his wide background of training and experience.
Becker's performing experience spans nearly all of the musical disciplines where percussion is found. He has been percussionist for the Marlboro Music Festival and timpanist with the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under Pablo Casals. For several years he was percussionist with the Paul Winter Consort, and he has performed and recorded with Gil Evans, Steve Gadd, Paul Horn and Chuck Mangione. He has also performed and recorded with such diverse groups as the Ensemble Intercontemporaine under Pierre Boulez, the Ensemble Modern of Germany, the Schoenberg Ensemble of Amsterdam and the Boston Chamber Players. He has appeared as tabla soloist in India and has accompanied many of the major artists of Hindustani music. He is also a founding member of the Flaming Dono West African Dance and Drum Ensemble in Toronto.
As a member of NEXUS he has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra among many others, and has received the Toronto Arts Award and the Banff Centre for the Arts National Award. In 1999, he and the other members of NEXUS were inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame. As a regular member of the ensemble Steve Reich and Musicians, he has appeared as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the London Symphony and recorded for Deutsche Grammophone, EMI and Nonesuch.
Generally considered to be one of the world's premier virtuoso performers on the xylophone and marimba, he also appears regularly as an independent soloist and clinician. He has served as editor for the contemporary percussion issue of the British publication Contemporary Music Revue and served for two years on the Board of Directors of the Percussive Arts Society.
Becker's compositions and arrangements are performed regularly by percussion groups worldwide. He also has a long history of association with dance and has created music for the Joffrey Ballet in New York, among others. In 1991, he and Joan Phillips were awarded the National Arts Centre Award for the best collaboration between composer and choreographer at Toronto's INDE '91 dance festival. His most recent works include There is a Time, commissioned by Rina Singha and the Danny Grossman Dance Company; Noodrem, commissioned through the Canada Council by the Dutch ensemble Slagwerkgroep Den Haag; Turning Point, composed for the NEXUS ensemble; Cryin' Time, a setting of poetry by the Canadian artist Sandra Meigs; Never in Word and Time in the Rock, settings of poetry by the American author Conrad Aiken; and Music On The Moon, commissioned through the Laidlaw Foundation by the Esprit Orchestra in Toronto.
Becker's solo CD album There is a Time was released in 1995 on the Nexus Records label and features many of his recent compositions. In the spring of 1997 he was selected to be composer-in-residence for the Virginia Waterfront International Festival of the Arts which featured the United States premier of Music On The Moon by the Virginia Symphony and a concert of his chamber works by his own group, the Bob Becker Ensemble.
SAMMY K (Kestenholtz)
Grammy-nominated musician Sammy K (Kestenholtz) began his professional career at the age of 13 in Michigan. While earning his degree in Political Science and Communications at Michigan State University and Western Michigan University, Sammy performed as a member of the multi-award-winning Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band, and the nationally recognized Spartan Drum Line. He was selected as a member of the "All American College Band" at Disneyland, under the direction of the legendary Art Bartner, and led his own band to 3 consecutive Best Band Awards in the Down Beat Magazine international competition (6 total DB's).
During his tenure as the drummer for Michigan State University's Jazz Band I, Western Michigan University's Jazz Orchestra, and the premiere college vocal ensemble Gold Company, Sammy received numerous solo and best band awards at festivals and competitions. He then became a Drummer in the United States Air Force Band of Flight where he performed in the Concert, Marching, Jazz and Rock Bands while traveling extensively in the US.
Sammy has been active as a Clinician and/or performer at the International Association of Jazz Educators International Conference, Brandon Jazz Festival, Indianapolis Jazz Festival, Montreux/Detroit Jazz Festival, Percussive Arts Society Invitational Marching Competition, North Dakota State University Jazz Festival, Notre Dame Jazz Festival, Aquinas College Jazz Festival, Spartan Invitational Marching Competition, Southwest Ohio Jazz Festival, Miami Valley Jazz Camp, Bands of America Marching Competition and the International Music Camp.
He works with school Districts around the US and Canada as a guest instructor for their Jazz and Rock Bands, and has been the Drum Line Instructor for multiple award winning high school programs. He created the Groove Boot Camp program of intense Drum Set instruction and has been presenting that program to students and Educators in the US and Canada.
Currently based in Los Angeles, Sammy K has performed and/or recorded with a list of artists that includes Bob Hope, The Coasters, Michael Orland (American Idol), Engelbert Humperdinck, Wes Anderson, Lucy Lawless, Burt Bacharach, The Stars of the Lawrence Welk Show, Jon Hendricks, Dennis Tufano (The Buckinghams), Jimmy Heath, Zara (Dire Straights, Bob Geldof), The Platters, Buselli/Wallarab Big Band, Bobby Vinton, The Nelson Riddle Orchestra, Steve Turre, The Mills Brothers, David Pomeranz, Travis Howard, Kate Miner, Dave Brubeck, The Ink Spots, The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and Harry Connick Sr. Grammy winners Ray Bardani, Ted Perlman and Mike Acosta utilize Sammy's grooves for their recording and live projects.
He has appeared on the Emmy Award winning Wayne Brady Show, Ally McBeal with KC and the Sunshine Band and Josh Groban, Unsung Heroes on CMT and in the films The Fast and the Furious and The Spaces In Between: On The Road With Amy Cook. The clients that have used his talents include the Walt Disney Company, Ferrari, NBC, Hal Leonard Company, Much Music Television, the Six Flags Corporation, Daimler-Chrysler, ABC, the International Toys for Tots campaign, and CBS. In addition to his Drum Set career, Sammy is a Drum Circle Facilitator for both REMO and UpBeat Drum Circles.
He is co-creator of the body based percussion game/teaching tool Body Beat which is used internationally by recreational drummers and educators alike. He also Co-Produced music used at the United Nations International Conference On Children, and the soundtracks for the stage shows The Winter Dance Party and Buddy, Roy & Elvis. Sammy is an Educator/Artist for REMO Drumheads, Drum Circle Facilitator, Zildjian Cymbals, and Yamaha Drums.
JOHN TAFOYA
John Tafoya serves as chairman of the percussion department and is professor of percussion at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music. From 1997-2007 he served as principal timpanist for the National Symphony Orchestra and has held previous principal timpani positions with the American Wind Symphony, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Owensboro Symphony (KY), the Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra (IN) and the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra. Mr. Tafoya has also performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra.
An active educator and sought after clinician, Mr. Tafoya has presented numerous master classes and clinics at universities across the United States. He has also been a featured clinician at the Virginia/D.C. Percussive Arts Society's Day of Percussion and at PASIC 2002 and 2006 (Percussive Arts Society International Convention). He has published articles for The Band Director's Guide, the Texas Bandmasters Association, the Florida Percussive Arts Society Newsletter and Percussive Notes magazine.
His informative and educational web site, www.johntafoya.com, is accessed by thousands of percussion students and professional players each month. Mr. Tafoya has served on the music department faculties at the University of Evansville, Kentucky Wesleyan College, Florida International University, and the University of Maryland. In May 2004, Carl Fischer publications released Mr. Tafoya's first book entitled The Working Timpanist's Survival Guide offering practical advice on how to prepare and perform orchestral timpani excerpts. The book also includes illustrations displaying various timpani technique and a CD-ROM containing complete timpani parts that can be printed out for further study.
Mr. Tafoya can be heard on the 1987 Summit Brass compact disc release All American Brass on the Pro Arte label and on the 1992 Arkay compact disc release of William Albright's Music for Organ and Harpsichord featuring organist Douglas Reed. He performed in the award-winning Florida Philharmonic Orchestra recording of Mahler's First Symphony under the direction of James Judd. Tafoya has also performed in orchestral recordings by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin. He can also be heard on the recently released American Wind Symphony Orchestra compact disc Concertos All And Sundry performing Kaoru Wada's Concertante for Timpani, Percussion and Winds under the direction of Robert Austin Boudreau.
Tafoya has worked under many prestigious conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, James Conlon, Jiri Belohlavek, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Valery Gergiev, Christopher Hogwood, Lorin Maazel, David Robertson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, Osmo Vanska, John Williams, Hugh Wolff, and David Zinman.
Day of Percussion
