Percussion Ensemble – Kevin Bobo, Joseph Gramley, and John Tafoya, directors
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About the Directors

Kevin Bobo is professor of music in percussion at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, a position he has held since 2007. Prior to his appointment at the Jacobs School, he served as assistant professor of percussion at the University of Kansas (2003-07). He studied percussion with J. C. Combs and Gordon Stout and composition with Greg Woodward and Dana Wilson. Internationally respected as a solo marimba artist, Bobo has performed on five continents. His travels have taken him to Taiwan, Singapore, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Australia, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, and nearly 40 states in the United States. As a composer, Bobo’s compositions are performed all over the world, with his solo works frequently appearing on international competition repertoire lists. He has authored two method books and composed numerous pieces for a variety of instruments and ensembles.

Joseph Gramley is professor of music in percussion and chair of the Percussion Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. A Grammy Award-winning multi-percussionist, Gramley has performed and taught internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in addition to playing with major symphony orchestras. He released eight albums as a founding member of the Silkroad Ensemble and served as the group’s first associate artistic director, working directly with Yo-Yo Ma. Gramley’s two solo recordings, American Deconstruction and Global Percussion, represent definitive, milestone works in the modern multi-percussion canon. Gramley came to Bloomington after 12 years of leading the percussion program at the University of Michigan, where he successfully placed a generation of percussionists in varied posts worldwide—from symphony orchestras to Broadway, and top-tier universities and conservatories to world stages with pop artists and chamber musicians alike. His versatility as a percussionist has found him performing alongside a broad cross section of artists, including Ma, Elton John, Michael Stern, Renee Fleming, Wu Man, Glen Velez, and Keiko Abe. Gramley’s cross-genre collaborations have seen him involved with more than 100 new commissions from the leading composers of our time. His duo, Organized Rhythm, with Clive Driskill-Smith, is the world’s premier and most active organ/percussion collaboration. Born in 1970, Gramley grew up in Oregon and was named a presidential scholar in the arts in 1988. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan. Festival experience includes Tanglewood, Salzburg Mozarteum, Spoleto Festival, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and 15 summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. He made his concerto debut with the Houston Symphony and his solo debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Gramley earned his master’s degree from Juilliard and directed its Summer Percussion Seminar for 17 years. (Photo by Brandon Ilaw)

John Tafoya is professor of music in percussion at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He served as principal timpanist of the National Symphony Orchestra from 1999 to 2007. Tafoya has held previous principal timpani positions with the American Wind Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony (Kentucky), Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra (Indiana), and Florida Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also performed with the symphony orchestras of Indianapolis, St. Louis, Baltimore, and Detroit. Tafoya has presented numerous master classes and clinics at universities across the United States and Canada. He was a featured clinician at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in 2002, 2007, and 2011. His website, johntafoya.com, is accessed by thousands of percussion students and professional players each month. He has served on the faculties of the University of Evansville, Kentucky Wesleyan College, Florida International University, and University of Maryland. He is the author of two orchestral timpani repertoire books: The Working Timpanist’s Survival Guide (2004), published by Carl Fischer, and Beyond the Audition Screen (Hal Leonard, 2011). Tafoya performed on the award-winning recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 by the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of James Judd and on orchestral recordings by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leonard Slatkin. Tafoya can also be heard on the American Wind Symphony Orchestra’s CD Concertos All and Sundry performing Kaoru Wada’s Concertante for Timpani, Percussion, and Winds under the direction of Robert Austin Boudreau. Tafoya also participated on the Summit Brass CD All American Brass (Pro Arte, 1987) and on the 1992 Arkay CD William Albright: Music for Organ and Harpsichord, featuring organist Douglas Reed. Tafoya has worked under many prestigious conductors, including Marin Alsop, Vladimir Ashkenazy, James Conlon, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christopher Hogwood, Lorin Maazel, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, John Williams, Hugh Wolff, and David Zinman, among others. He proudly endorses American Drum Manufacturing Co., Avedis Zildjian Company, Grover Pro Percussion, Remo Inc., and Yamaha Corporation.