PAS Recent News

 

Megan Arns is a percussionist, ethnomusicologist, and educator with a diverse set of skills and a driven passion for her craft. She is a member of the music faculty at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO as the Assistant Professor of Percussion, and at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan during the summers. Recent past faculty positions include Mansfield University in Pennsylvania and the National Music Conservatory in Amman, Jordan where she was also the Principal Timpanist of the Amman Symphony Orchestra.

Active as a contemporary chamber percussionist, Megan’s recent highlights include collaborative performances in Spain, France, India, Jordan, Costa Rica, Ghana, and the United States at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Millennium Park, Smithsonian Institution, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. Megan regularly performs with two contemporary chamber groups: the [Switch~ Ensemble] – an electroacoustic ensemble based out of New York, and DRAX – a saxophone and percussion duo in residence at Mizzou.

Megan received her D.M.A. in Percussion Performance & Literature and M.A. in Ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music. She was also awarded performance degrees from Florida State University (M.M.) and Truman State University (B.M.), where she was recognized as a Presser Scholar. Megan is a co-host on the @Percussion Podcast with percussion colleagues Casey Cangelosi, Laurel Black, and Ben Charles. She endorses Vic Firth Sticks & Mallets, Pearl/Adams Musical Instruments, Black Swamp Percussion, Remo Drumheads, and Zildjian Cymbals.






Dr. Dave Gerhart, Product Manager for Yamaha Corporation of America (YCA) and Lecturer of Percussion at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSU, Long Beach, is a nationally recognized performer, composer, and educator. Dr. Gerhart, originally from Fairfield, California, holds a D.M.A. from the University of Southern California in Percussion Performance with a secondary emphasis in Music Education, Ethnomusicology, and Music Industry & Technology. He received a M.M. in Percussion Performance and Instrumental Conducting and a B.M. in Music Education from California State University, Long Beach. Dr. Gerhart has been featured on CDs with the Robin Cox Ensemble and Steven Hartke on Sonic Scenery for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. He has recently been named Chair of the Education Committee for the YCA Band and Orchestral Division.

As a freelance musician, Dave has performed under Zubin Mehta, Carl St. Clair, Enrique Diemecke, Mehli Mehta, and has performed with Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, Michael Kamen, Liam Teague, Yefim Bronfman, Ray Holman, Robert Greenidge and the Blue Man Group. His principle teachers include Dr. Michael Carney, Erik Forrester, Brad Dutz, and Raynor Carroll, principal percussionist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

An advocate of using technology in the classroom, Dr. Gerhart was part of the case study Using Technology to Enhance Performance Pedagogy in the Postsecondary Brass Studio by Adam Snider and Technology and Its Use by Percussion Educators in the 21st Century (Published in Percussive Notes – January 2012) by Tracy Wiggins. In 2010, Dave co-founded DrumChattr.com (with Tom Burritt and Shane Griffin) as a better way for percussionists all over the globe to connect, discuss, and experience quality web generated percussion content online. Recently, Dave has created PercussionEducation.com, a collection of videos, articles and anything related to percussion.

Dave’s compositions and arrangements for percussion ensemble and steel drum orchestra are published by Bachovich Music Publications, Boxfish Music Publishing and Living Sounds Publications. He is a founding member of the Island Hoppin’ Steel Drum Band and the IronWorks Percussion Duo.





William Moersch is Professor and Chair of Percussion Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Internationally renowned as a marimba virtuoso, chamber and symphonic percussionist, recording artist, and educator, he has appeared as soloist with orchestras and in recital throughout North and South America, Europe, the Far East, and Australia. A regularly featured artist at international percussion festivals, Mr. Moersch has performed on more than seventy recordings and is perhaps best known for commissioning much of the prominent modern repertoire for marimba. He has been honored by National Endowment for the Arts Recording and Consortium Commissioning grants and was the first marimbist to receive an N.E.A. Solo Recitalist Fellowship. Currently, he is Principal Timpanist of Sinfonia da Camera and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director of New Music Marimba, and an Artist Endorser for Pearl / Adams Percussion, SABIAN cymbals, Grover Pro Percussion, and Innovative Percussion mallets.





Doug Perkins has been declared a “percussion virtuoso” by the New York Times and founded the percussion quartet So Percussion and the Meehan/ Perkins Duo. He also performs regularly with Ensemble Signal, Eighth Blackbird, the Chicago Symphony’s MusicNOW, and many other ensembles. He collaborates with such composers as David Lang, Steve Reich, Paul Lansky, John Luther Adams, Nathan Davis, Larry Polansky, Christian Wolff, Glenn Kotche, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Tristan Perich.

Perkins’s critically acclaimed recordings as a soloist, producer, and member of the Meehan/ Perkins Duo, Signal, and So Percussion can be heard on the Bridge, Cantaloupe, Harmonia Mundi, New Focus, and New World labels. His recording of John Luther Adams’s Inuksuit was named one of the year's top recordings by NPR, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the New Yorker, and Time Out New York, and the project Parallels (with the Meehan/ Perkins Duo) was named one of Rolling Stone’s 20 Best Avant Albums of 2015.

Lately, Perkins has been organizing large-scale percussion events that encourage a sense of community and new ways of experiencing live music. His production of Iannis Xenakis’s Persephassa in and around Central Park lake and John Luther Adams’s Inuksuit in New York City were named top-ten performances by the New Yorker, New York Magazine, and Time Out New York. Alex Ross called Inuksuit at the Park Avenue Armory “one of the most rapturous listening experiences of my life.”

Perkins is the director of the Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar and previously served on the faculty of Dartmouth College and as an artist-in-residence at the University of Chicago. He proudly endorses Black Swamp, Pearl/Adams, Remo, Vic Firth, and Zildjian percussion instruments, mallets, and accessories.





Dr. Annie Stevens is the Assistant Professor of Percussion at Virginia Tech where she teaches studio percussion and directs the Virginia Tech Percussion Ensemble. As an active soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S. and internationally, Annie has been featured in performances at the Banff Centre in Canada, the University of Trinidad and Tobago, the International Computer Music Conference, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S., the International Trumpet Guild, the International Trombone Festival, and music conservatories throughout Asia and Europe.

Recently, she received a selective invitation to perform at the 2016 Percussive Arts Society International Convention where she performed a Showcase Concert with her duo, Escape Ten. Additionally, Escape Ten has been featured at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, the 35th and 36th Annual Leigh Howard Stevens Marimba Seminars in New Jersey, the Rhea Miller Concert Series in Michigan, the McCormick Marimba Festival in Florida, Minnesota Percussion Association Day of Percussion and numerous universities around the United States. In the fall of 2018, Escape Ten will be the featured artists at Virginia Tech’s Moss Arts Center where they will present Double Concerto for Marimba and Vibraphone by Emmanuel Sejourne, arranged for percussion ensemble by Andrea Venet. The duo actively commissions new music, having premiered recent works written exclusively for the duo which include Michael Burritt, Ivan Trevino, Eric Guinivan, Joe Locke, and Aurel Hollo, with additional new works on the horizon from Erin Graham, Russell Hartenberger, and Robert Honstein.

As an orchestral percussionist, she is the newly appointed principal timpanist of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed with invitational summer festival orchestras-- the Music Academy of the West and the National Orchestral Institute, as well as the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Grammy nominated Metropolis Ensemble. Annie received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music. Her prominent teachers include Michael Burritt, She-e Wu, Alan Abel, Chip Ross, Bill Cahn, and James Ross. She can be heard on the albums, Blue Earth County with the Kelly Rossum Quartet, and Escape Ten’s, Colours of a Groove.





Lauren Vogel Weiss is longtime member of the Percussive Arts Society, having attended every PASIC since 1978. A prolific writer about the percussive arts, she has written 32 cover stories for Percussive Notes, including 22 Hall of Fame profiles. Her 300-plus articles have appeared in Drum Business, Drum Corps World, Modern Drummer, Modern Percussionist, Percussion News, Percussive Notes and Rhythm!Scene. Lauren served as Texas PAS Chapter President for almost two decades (1984-87 and 1991-2007), winning the Outstanding Chapter President Award twice (1992 and 2002). She also served the Society as a member of the Board of Directors (1984 1985 and 1994-1995) and Chair of the PAS Marching Percussion Committee (1994-1997). Since 1979, Lauren has been a freelance percussionist in North Texas, playing with both the Dallas and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras. She marched with the Phantom Regiment Drum & Bugle Corps from Rockford, Illinois during the 1980-1982 seasons and won DCI "Outstanding Individual Keyboard" award in 1982. Lauren was Vice-President of Lone Star Percussion (1978-1990) and currently schedules percussion clinics and concerts through Percussion Events Registry Company.




She-e Wu has appeared as a solo artist at the 25th, 27th, and 30th Percussive Arts Society International Convention; Journées de la Percussion, NancyPhony Festival, perKumania festival, and PercuPassion Festival in France; Bach Symposium/Bach Variation Festival in Lincoln Center; Taiwan Connection concert at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; International Percussion Festival and InterAmerican Music and Arts Festival Orchestra in Puerto Rico; Festival Internacional de Percusion "Ritmo Vital 2001" and National Percussion Convention in Spain; Fukui Marimba Seminar in Japan; Giornate della Percussione in Italy; Percussion Festival in Greece; Taipei International Percussion Convention, and many other festivals. She has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and Symphony Center, Chicago Chamber Musicians, and the Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Music Series in Pearlman Hall at the Kimmel Center. Ms. Wu has performed as guest recitalist and clinician at universities, colleges, and conservatories in France, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, England, Scotland, Germany, Spain, Greece, Japan, and Korea, as well as American music institutions and numerous PAS Days of Percussion throughout the United States.

Ms. Wu's composition Blue Identity was written for Frederic Macarez and the Paris Conservatory CNR percussion ensemble. Blue Identity was premiered in Paris at the Journées de la Percussion festival, and the American premiere took place at the 27th Percussive Arts Society International Convention. K-PAX, a piece for marimba duo, was commissioned by the Taipei International Percussion Convention in 2002 and was premiered in Taiwan and Japan. UP!, for solo percussion and seven percussionists, received its premiere at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago in December 2009. The world premiere of Ms. Wu's latest composition, What the Sun Would Say to the Sky, for marimba quartet, was premiered at PASIC 2011 in Indianapolis.

Ms. Wu has commissioned and premiered numerous works by Eric Ewazen, Ronald Caltabiano, Robin Engleman, Gerald Chenoweth, and many others. Ms. Wu's recent commissions are pieces written by Lee Hyla, Paul Lansky, and Dafnis Prieto. The world premiere of the percussion concerto with wind ensemble written by Paul Lansky is scheduled for January 2015 with the Northwestern University Symphonic Wind Ensemble. Ms. Wu has served as a judge for the Paris International Marimba Competition, Greece International Competition, Italy International Competition, Atlanta Snare Drum Competition, PASIC Marimba Competition, P.A.S. Composition Competition (Large Percussion Ensemble), and International Percussion Ensemble Competition (College).

Ms. Wu is a clinician and recitalist for the Majestic, Mapex, Innovative Percussion, and Evans and Zildjian companies. Her signature mallets with Innovative Percussion are available worldwide. She plays on a concert marimba of her design by Majestic. Ms. Wu is associate professor of music and the head of the percussion program at Northwestern University.