The goal for percussion students at ASU that they become better humans through the study of music, that they build community around their work, and that they seek to transform the world through the shared experiences musicians are uniquely able to create. I hope to develop passionate fluid, skillful, and critical thinking musicians who will advocate for their artistic passions in myriad ways. In the 21st century, it is more important than ever that students receiving music degrees are spokespeople for music’s role in society as a whole in addition to just superb performers and inspiring teachers. I enable my students to be those advocates by giving them the tools to play, describe, and understand the musical currents running through contemporary culture.
The objective of our teaching is total musicianship. Through the study of a wide variety of repertoire, instrumental techniques, and musical cultures, I emphasize the development of musical fluency over percussive virtuosity. Our percussionists become a skilled collaborator and broadly talented player—an intellectually curious, flexible musician and a virtuosic learner.
Our pedagogical objectives are to cultivate:
Collaboration is the foundation of successful artistic education. Students acquire technical skills through the performance of a diverse array of new and canonical ensemble music, providing a solid interpretive toolbox and exposure to a broad spectrum of performance practices and compositional styles.
The focus of our curriculum is to provide a foundation of technique and musical expression across all percussion instruments. Each student’s strengths are ranked and studies begin with the weakest diagnosed area and progress to the strongest within the first 2 years of undergraduate study. The repertoire covered during these periods of focus ranges from technical studies, etudes, solo pieces, excerpts from orchestral repertoire and selections from contemporary chamber music repertoire to non-Western percussive cultures.
More information can be found here:
ASU Undergraduate Percussion Curriculum
As musicians with an interest in connecting with diverse communities around the arts, I focus on the skills of learning. I synthesize humanities methodologies around cultural contextualization, scientific ideas around motor learning, and the principles of Deliberate Practice to help my students learn with intention, focus, discipline, joy, and efficiency. I strive to ensure that my students develop well-considered, dynamic opinions about the music around them. I emphasize the process of inquiry and the skills of music making— task individualization, self-discipline, collaboration, flexibility—both within the context of developing interpretive skills, and with a goal of acquiring a familiarity with the history of percussion literature.