Tentative Schedule

Time	Event	Presenter	Location
8:00	Registration	CNY PAS	Storer Auditorium Lobby
9:00	African Drumming	David Etse Nyadedzor	Storer Auditorium
10:30	Marimba Clinic	Michael Burritt	Storer Auditorium
12:00	Lunch		Gordon Student Center
1:00	Drumline Presentation	OCC Indoor Marching Percussion Ensemble; Central Square HS; Rochester Crusaders D & B Corps	OCC Gymnasium
2:00	Percussion Techniques	Jim Armstrong	Storer Auditorium
3:00	Drum Set Clinic	Carl Allen	Storer Auditorium
4:00	Final Concert	SU Brazilian Ensemble; OCC Percussion Ensemble; Michael Burritt; Carl Allen	Storer Auditorium

The cost to the public is $10.00 for the day

The cost for current PAS members is $8.00 for the day

The cost for Members of the performing ensembles is $5.00 for the day

The fee for the Day of Percussion is waived if you join PAS at registration

All events should conclude by 6:00pm.

Artist Bios

David Etse Nyadedzor – African Drumming

David is an experienced Ghanaian Traditional Drummer with expertise in many areas of African music and dance. In the Syracuse area, he has performed at: The Syracuse University MLK Celebration; NY State Fair Pan-African Village; Harborfest; Turning Stone Casino; Welcoming Ceremony for the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Namibia; and the Westcott Street Cultural Fair. He has presented clinics and master classes at Syracuse University; Onondaga Community College; and in the Syracuse City Schools. David studied drumming at the Folkloric Selamta – Center for National Culture, Accra, Ghana. His studies included Ghanaian and other African drumming techniques resulting in a repertoire of 30+ Ghanaian, Togolese, Nigerian, Guinean, Senegalese, Zimbabwean, and South African dances.

Michael Burritt – Marimba

Michael Burritt is currently Associate Professor and Director of Percussion Studies in the School of Music at Northwestern University. He has quickly developed a program of National distinction.

He previously held the position of Associate Professor of Percussion at Kent State University. Mr. Burritt received his Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees, as well as the prestigious Performers Certificate from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. His teachers have included John Beck, Gordon Stout, Paul Yancich and Herbert Flower.

Mr. Burritt has become one of the World's leading percussion soloists and pedagogs, specializing in the areas of marimba, and is in frequent command performing concert tours and masterclasses throughout the United States, Europe and Canada. He has released two solo recordings - Perpetual, and most recently Shadow Chasers, both comprised of original compositions as well as works written expressly for him. He has been a featured artist at four Percussive Arts Society International Conventions, and in 1992 presented his New York solo debut in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Burritt is also active as a composer, having written two books of etudes as well as numerous solo and chamber works for marimba and percussion. He is published with Ludwig Music, C. Allen and Keyboard Publications. He is also an artist/clinician and product designer/consultant for Malletech, where he has designed his own line of signature marimba mallets. Don't forget, he's an artist and educational clinician with the Zildjian Company. Mr. Burritt is a current member of the Percussive Arts Society Board of Directors, and is a contributing editor for Percussive Notes Magazine.

View Michael’s Website for more info

Jim Armstrong

James Armstrong holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Central Michigan University and a Master of Music Performance (emphasis in jazz studies and ethnomusicology) from Bowling Green State University. He is a specialist in Haitian, Cuban, and West African folkloric drumming, and has done extensive field research and performance of this music throughout the United States and abroad. He has also done extensive fieldwork in Ghana, West Africa, where he has studied and performed with several master musicians in the cultural context. Apart from his world music background, he is also an accomplished drumset artist, jazz vibraphonist (winning several awards nationwide for arranging and soloing), and symphonic percussionist, as well as a respected clinician and educator throughout North America and abroad.

Jim has recorded and toured with the Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble (1984-2000), and can be heard on the DMP releases Different Strokes, World Music Tour, and The Percussion Music of David Maslanka. He can also be heard with Smallstone artists Five Horse Johnson (Blues for Henry, Double Down). Jim can be seen performing with Rising Sign (9piece salsa band), and various groups throughout the central New York region, as well as with his own folkloric percussion trio. He also performs frequently in New York City and throughout the eastern United States as a freelance artist.

Currently, Jim is the Director of Percussion Ensembles at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. His duties include directing the Percussion Ensemble, the Cornell Steel Band, and the CU World Drum-Dance Ensemble, as well as guest lecturing in several music courses. He also teaches privately at 171 Cedar Arts Center (Corning, NY) and at his home. Jim is the co-author of Vodou Drumset: Traditional Afro-Haitian Rhythms Applied to Drumset (Carl Fischer Publications), and has several solo percussion and percussion ensemble pieces published (Drop6 Media). Apart from his teaching and performing schedule, Jim travels extensively as a clinician (world percussion, drumset, and vibraphone) for Yamaha, Sabian, and Vic Firth.

View Jim’s Web Site for more info

Carl Allen

The pursuit of knowledge, experience, and ever-present swing is a recurring theme in the life of drummer/composer and Milwaukee native Carl Allen. It's a theme that began to take shape when, as a teenager, he performed with such greats as Sonny Stitt and James Moody and it's a theme to which he held fast as his musical quest took him to The University of Wisconsin - Green Bay (1979-81) and New Jersey's William Patterson College (1981-83). While at William Patterson, he pursued his life-long dream -- the drum chair in trumpeter Freddie Hubbard's band. He got the position in 1982 and remained with Hubbard for eight years - also serving as the trumpeter's musical director and road manager.

Allen says, "my ultimate goal is to get to a level like Art Blakey, Art Taylor, Elvin Jones and Billy Higgins and these cats who, every time they sit down behind a set of drums it's swinging. The power of swing is something else and once I get to that level everything else falls into place."

In a true Messenger (as in Art Blakey) state of mind, Allen began to extend Blakey's ideals into his efforts outside of Hubbard's band. In 1988, Allen co-founded Big Apple Productions (with altoist Vincent Herring), which through its production of several albums for labels in Japan (Alfa, King, Venus, Keystone Music International and others), introduced now rising stars like Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton and Cyrus Chestnut.

Allen maintains an exhaustive schedule of recording and touring. He remains active as a leader (most recently leading his New York All-Star Band on a month long U.S./Japan Tour and up-coming dates with The Carl Allen Quintet) and as an in-demand sideman (recent recordings with Terence Blanchard and Joe Henderson, Eric Reed, Vincent Herring, and many others).

View Carl’s Website for more info

Final Concert

Syracuse University Brazilian Ensemble

OCC Percussion Ensemble

Rob Bridge’s Web Site