Video Playlist of Inuksuit

I have created a playlist of the videos from the West Coast premiere of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit from what has been posted on YouTube. If there are any videos I have left out, please let me know and I will add them.

Mira Costa Percussion Festival Recap

On May 18, I had the opportunity to work with the percussion students from Mira Costa High School and Palisades Charter High School. Aaron Smith and I worked with the four percussion groups on a wide variety of percussion ensemble pieces. The students were very receptive to our suggestions and it was an honor working with them. Congrats to Jeremy Miller, percussion director and Joel Carlson, director of bands at Mira Costa HS for their commitment to music education and shaping these students into fine musicians. After Aaron and I worked with the students, I presented a...

Congratulations to the Graduates

On May 18, 2012, the College of the Arts at CSULB held their commencement ceremony. This year, the percussion program at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music graduated 6 majors and 1 minor. Congratulations to Andrew McAfee, Michael Malinowski, Kim Long Vo, Patrick O’Konski, Danny Chavarin, Jonathan Baer and Amanda Buda. All your hard work and determination has paid off! Good luck in the future and please keep me posted on your successes! Congratulations! Update – 6/20/12: I forgot one of our graduates and I feel horrible! Please forgive this omission. Congrats...

2012 Mira Costa HS Spring Percussion Fes...

I will be presenting a percussion masterclass on Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 5:30pm as part of the Mira Costa HS Spring Percussion Festival. The masterclass, titled “The 21st Century Percussionist: Today, Tomorrow and the Future,” will talk about becoming a successful freelance percussionists. The masterclass is sponsored by Zildjian, Yamaha, Evans and Innovative Percussion. Check out the flyer below for more information:

Genesis Hand Pan

Over the past couple of months, I have been fortunate enough to play a new instrument called the Genesis Hand Pan (aka Hang Drum). A friend of mine, David Beery, has starting making these instruments and they are absolutely beautiful instrument. Below is a video from the IronWorks Percussion Duo Concert on March 1, 2012. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz_V-75NRok For more information on the Genesis Hand Pan, please visit Dave’s Island Instruments.

New Video of “Continuous Line of E...

It has been a busy month and I haven’t been writing much on my blog! I hope to change that in the coming month. I wanted to share the first video of my new timpani solo “Continuous Line of Evenness.” This is from my Faculty Artist Series Concert on November 1, 2011. httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGiDJM542d8 Please leave your feedback below. Visit Bachovich Music Publications for the sheet music to this and other timpani solos. The photo in this post is courtesy of Yamaha Percussion Instruments.

Samba de los Changitos

I just got the recording back from UT Austin and I am very happy about the performances of my tunes with the UT Steel Band. Check out the recordings of Samba de los Changitos and PanSon. Thanks again Tom Burritt and David Saad! Samba de los Changitos will be published this Spring. PanSon is available from Bachovich Music Publications. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. [soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1724534″ height=”200″ iframe=”true” /]

2 Mallet Double Sticking Considerations

The semester is in full swing and have been continuing to teaching marimba fundamentals to my students at CSU, Long Beach. One concept I talked about was 2 mallet double sticking considerations, so I thought I would list my ideas here and see if anyone in our community had any additional thoughts. 2 Mallet Double Sticking Considerations: 1) When executing a double sticking, use your dominant hand whenever possible. We strive for evenness between the hands, but you are always going to have more control of your dominate hand. 2) Do your double sticking on the smallest...

Three Things

The other day during one of my college percussion lessons, I mentioned to a student that with all of the things we need to learn as percussionists, I think there are three things that we should always be working on. I know it is naive to believe that these are the only things to be working on, but if you can continue to improve these areas, you will become more “marketable” as a musician. Student performers tend to think about the next thing they need to prepare for an audition, a rehearsal or performance. We all get stuck in this train of thought, especially...

Website Updates and Content

I have been busy working on updating my website the past couple of weeks. Some of the changes include: 1) Concert Program Archive On the Calendar page, I will be posting all of the programs of the my past concerts. Feel free to check out the programs and let me know if you have any questions about the repertoire. 2) Listening, Reading, Practicing IN the right sidebar, I have listed what I have been listening to, what I have been practicing, and what I have been reading. All of these listings include links. I am really excited about my new site and I am working on writing...