PAS Recent News

Nov 5, 2019, 14:46 PM by Percussive Arts Society

The Percussive Arts Society is pleased to announce the newest members to the Board of Advisors, to go into effect January 1, 2020: Dr. Sean Daniels, Maria Finkelmeier, Neil Grover, Valerie Naranjo, Sandi Rennick, Marcus Santos, Ivan Trevino, and Dr. Tracy Wiggins.

Dr. Sean Daniels has taught percussion for Middle School, High School, Community College, University levels. He has over 27 years of teaching and performing experience as a percussionist. He has received Music degrees from Alabama State University, The Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He has served as a member and adjudicator for the PAS Marching Percussion Committee and World Percussion Committees respectively. He is currently the point person for Historically Black Colleges and Universities as well as Underserved communities for the PAS Diversity Alliance. Dr. Daniels has presented numerous percussion performances and clinics. Dr. Daniels currently serves as Principal Timpanist for the COMF Orchestra and Vibraphonist for the DSD Jazz Quartet. Dr. Daniels served as Vice President and President of the South Carolina Chapter of Percussive Arts Society. His applied percussion students teach and perform throughout the United States and abroad. He the founding conductor of several Collegiate Percussion Ensembles. He is the recipient of several ASCAP Plus awards and his percussion compositions are available through C. Alan Percussion, Dutch Music Partners, Permus Percussion and Sean Sarah Publications. He is endorsed by Vic Firth Inc and Pearl / Adams Percussion. Dr. Daniels is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Tennessee State University in Nashville, TN.



Named a “one-woman dynamo” by The Boston Globe, Maria Finkelmeier is a percussionist, composer, educator, and arts entrepreneur based in Boston, Massachusetts. Maria is founder and director of Kadence Arts, a non-profit devoted to incubating artistic projects, curating performances, and engaging local communities through music-making. Dedicated to shaping the next generation of performers and arts administrators, Maria is a lecturer at Northeastern University’s Music Industry Leadership program, and from 2012 - 2015 she served as the program manager of the Entrepreneurial Musicianship Department at New England Conservatory. Prior to rooting in New England, Maria spent three years in Northern Sweden at the Piteå Institution for Music and Media as an artist in residence.








Neil W. Grover holds the distinction of having performed with one of the world’s foremost orchestras (Boston Symphony) on the soundtrack for one of the most successful blockbuster movies of all time (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) and with the iconic rock band, Aerosmith.

For more than 4o years Neil was a percussionist with both the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops, having performed with them over 2,500 times around the globe. In addition, he is active as a musical arranger and conductor for popular artists.

A renowned percussionist, music educator, and entrepreneur, he is the founder of Grover Pro Percussion Inc., an industry leader in the production of world-class percussion instruments.

Formerly the Chair of the Percussion Programs at both The Boston Conservatory and the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, today, Neil’s students occupy leading positions in many top performing, educational and music business organizations.

Neil has served on the Board of Directors of the Percussive Arts Society and as a Trustee for the Winchester Community Music School, one of America’s leading community music schools.



Valerie Naranjo has been the percussionist for the NBC Saturday Night Live Band for 23 years, performing with such artists as Paul Simon, Lady Gaga, and Mick Jagger. Otherwise she has performed with such American artists as Carole King, Glen Velez, David Byrne, Philip Glass, and Paul Winter; Thuli Dumakude, Tu Nokwe, and Zim Nqawana (South Africa); The National Symphony, Kakraba Lobi, Ba-ere Yotere, and the late Bernard Woma (Ghana); Airto Moriera and Jose Neto (Brazil); and Zakir Hussein and Srinivas Krishnan (India). Valerie is the professor of West African percussion, song, and dance at New York University’s Steinhardt School, and is a member of NYU’s “Global Institute of Advanced Studies” which helps professors to an improved international understanding. She has performed and taught as a guest artist internationally, including nine African countries, and in such situations and locations as The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver; The White House and The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.; New York’s Lincoln Center, City Center, and Carnegie Hall; London’s Royal Festival Hall; The Johannesburg Civic Theatre; The National Theater of Ghana; Ten featured appearances at annual Percussive Arts Society International Conferences; two appearances at The International Festival of the Marimba (Chiapas, Mexico); The Vancouver Jazz Festival; The Kaisuka Festival (Japan); The Grahamstown and Arts Alive Festivals (South Africa); Scotland’s Edinburgh Festival, “Young Indians” (New Delhi); FESTIBO (Bouna, Cote D’Iviore); and television’s “Jay Leno Show”.



Sandi Rennick has been an integral part of the percussion community of professionals, composers, and performers for many decades. She is a world renowned composer and teacher both in regard to the marching arts and in the marimba community. She is currently teaching adjunct percussion at the University of North Texas and Texas A&M Commerce. Sandi is a percussion arranger and instructor for the Santa Clara Vanguard, five time winner of the Fred Sanford "High Drums" award and the 2018 DCI World Champion Drum Corps. In addition to her work with the Santa Clara Vanguard, Sandi has written and taught for numerous other drum corps over the tenure of her career, including Carolina Crown, Phantom Regiment, and the Troopers. Sandi is a performer and presenter at the Girls March Camps, and has been on the faculty of the UNT Keyboard Percussion Workshop from 2014 - Present.

A contemporary percussionist and educator, Marcus Santos, is a native of Bahia, Brazil. He commits his life to the study, teaching and performance of his hometown's Afro-Brazilian music and heritage.

Marcus performed with several world renown artists such as the Gypsy Kings (Spain), Daniela Mercury (Brazil) and the Brand New Heavies (England). He has also performed for the president of Brazil, TEDx and with the “One World Band” produced by MTV. Marcus also played at the Sony Pictures Oscar nominated movie ‘Rachel's getting Married’ with Anne Hathaway. He has been honored with the 2013 KOSA Recognition award, Outstanding Arts Performer Award by the Brazilian Immigrant Center (2008) as well as Outstanding Percussionist Award by Berklee College of Music in 2004.

Marcus currently teaches in the Boston area at New England Conservatory, Middlesex Community College and Somerville High School. He is the author of the DVD ‘Modern Approach to Pandeiro’ and performed in the music education DVD ‘Musically Speaking II’ by BOSE. Marcus has lead workshops on Afro-Brazilian percussion and music for Social Change in festivals, universities and conventions around the world such as Fiesta Del Tambor (Cuba), Carnegie Hall (NYC), PASIC (USA) and Harvard University. He is currently the artist director of the Grooversity global drumming network project that includes twenty four drumming groups from the US, Canada, Germany, Mexico and France.



Ivan Trevino (b.1983) is a Mexican-American composer and percussionist who has become a recognizable voice in the percussion community. His honest blend of contemporary, percussive and indie-rock compositions have become standard repertoire in the field of percussion and are regularly performed around the world. He is a multi-award winning recipient of the Percussive Arts Society’s International Composition Contest and has over 70 compositions and songs to his name, many of which were commissioned by leading performers and institutions in the field.

Ivan is well-known for his work as a drummer and composer with Break of Reality, an international touring cello and percussion quartet. As a founding member of the ensemble, Ivan has headlined concerts across North America, South America, and Asia and was named a music ambassador by the U.S. State Department during the Obama administration. His work with Break of Reality has been heard on PBS, Huffington Post, Yahoo Music and is on regular rotation on NPR.

In addition to composing and performing, Ivan is an active educator who has presented educational clinics at hundreds of institutions around the world. He has designed and taught courses at Eastman School of Music and was most recently a faculty member at Baylor University’s School of Music. He is currently an artist and clinician for Vic Firth, Malletech Instruments, Zildjian Cymbals, Evans Drumheads, and Meinl Percussion.

In 2017, Ivan co-founded The Big Trouble alongside composer and percussionist, Drew Worden. The percussion / songwriting collective received a Boston Foundation Artist Grant in 2017, produced and released their self-titled debut album, and was a featured performing ensemble at the 2018 Percussive Arts Society International Convention.

Ivan’s work spans various media including storytelling, poetry, and film scoring. He recently authored Space Junk, a children’s story accompanied by music, with an illustrated book set to release in 2018. His collection of online writings are regularly circulated throughout the arts community, including “My Pretend Music School”, a blog post that sparked debate about music school curriculum and has become required reading for collegiate courses around the U.S.

Ivan received a BM and MM from Eastman School of Music where he studied with John Beck and Michael Burritt. He currently resides in Austin, TX with his wife, Amanda, and their son, Henry.

 

Dr. Tracy Wiggins is assistant director of bands and coordinator of the percussion program at The University of North Alabama. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the HARTT School, University of Hartford. Dr. Wiggins holds a Masters Degree in Percussion Performance from the University of New Mexico and a Bachelors Degree in Music Education from Oklahoma State University.

He has performed with The Huntsville Symphony, The Fayetteville Symphony Orchestra, Florence Symphony Orchestra, Carolina Philharmonic and as principal percussionist for the Santa Fe Symphony; marching percussion with the Freelancers and Black Gold Drum and Bugle Corps, as well as instructing the DCI Division III World Championship finalist Delta Brigade and the Northern Aurora Drum and Bugle Corps, and DCA Finalist Carolina Gold; and solo appearances at universities throughout the United States and Jordan. He has presented clinics at The Midwest Clinic, The Percussive Arts Society International Convention, The National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy and at numerous state Days of Percussion and Music Conferences. He is also an active adjudicator for marching percussion throughout the southeast.