A Sad Day in the Percussion World

Today the percussion world lost one of our dearest friends and finest musicians. John Wyre, a founder and former member of the percussion group Nexus, died today having suffered for more than a year with throat cancer and recently also with Parkinson's disease. John was raised in Philadelphia where he studied with Fred Hinger, and later studied at the Eastman School of Music with William Street. He was the timpanist of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for 11 years and performed and toured with numerous well-known ensembles over the past 40+ years. John was the music director of World Drums and produced several international drumming festivals during the past 25 years. His compositions received great acclaim and have been performed by many renowned ensembles.

John was one of the nicest people I have ever known, a very kind soul and an extremely intelligent man. I will cherish my memories of the times I was with him and had talks with him. He will be missed dearly by many, many people.

Shameless Self-Promotion

I am a faculty member at the Northern Illinois University School of Music, an incredible place to be. The faculty and students that I get to work with are just terrific. I've been lucky enough to be a guest on a large number of college and university campuses, and at many schools and departments of music there's quite a bit of egotistical snobbery going on. You won't find that at NIU. The faculty work together extremely well, and the students are treated respectfully and friendly. I don't think of going to my job as going to a job - it's where I get to do the things that I love and be with people I enjoy being with.

In the percussion area at Northern Illinois University, we have several fantastic faculty members: Robert Chappell, Greg Beyer, Cliff Alexis, Liam Teague, Rodrigo Villanueva and Jui-Ching Wang. If you or someone you know is interested in pursuing a degree in music with percussion as your applied instrument, I strongly encourage you to check us out. If you're reading this and are not a percussionist but are interested in a degree in music, check us out, too! The only thing the NIU School of Music does not have that schools with "bigger names" have is a huge budget to advertise ourselves. We focus our resources on students, where they should be focused. At NIU you won't be studying with only a graduate student for the first couple of years like you would at many universities. All of your required music courses are taught by faculty members who are internationally renowned performers and scholars.

PASIC is Coming Soon!

Everyone who is serious about percussion needs to strongly consider attending each year's PASIC - the Percussive Arts Society International Convention. This year it's in Austin, Texas, November 8 - 11. Go to the PASIC website to learn more about it. Hotel rooms are selling out quickly, so don't delay!

To attend PASIC, you must be a Percussive Arts Society member. But again, if you're serious about percussion and drumming, you should be a PAS member anyway. There are 12 publications each year, and the members only section of the website has well over 10,000 pages of incredible information that will help you with your career. Visit the Percussive Arts Society website for more information:


Here's a photo of me and the incredible Steve Gadd from PASIC 2005. As an attendee at PASIC, you'll get to meet and rub shoulders with many of the greatest players in the world!

Here are some more photos of my trip to Fermo, Italy.

Some of the other artists who participated in the festival were John Beck, Sergio Bellotti, Ivana Bilic, Neil Grover, Keith Aleo (and he learned while there that the correct pronunciation of his last name is AH -lay-oh!), Klaus Tresselt, Marta Klimasara, Agostino Marangolo, Michael Burritt, Ria Ideta and Mike Quinn.

I just returned from the 4th annual Giornate della Percussioni (Days of Percussion) in Fermo, Italy. Antonio Santangelo was the host of the event, which took place at the Pergolesi Conservatory. Fermo is an absolutely beautiful town, and here are the photos to prove it!