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Faculty
The University of Michigan Percussion Program is comprehensive in its scope and approach. We are extremely fortunate to have four renowned faculty avaliable to the students. Students have the option to study with any of the professors full time or set up their lessons on a two-week split system between two professors.
Joseph Gramley
Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Percussion
jgramley@umich.edu
734-764-0152
 Multi-percussionist Joseph Gramley's dynamic and exciting performances as a soloist have garnered critical acclaim and enthusiasm from emerging composers, percussion aficionados and first-time concert-goers alike. He is committed to bringing fresh and inventive compositions to a broad public, and each year he commissions and premieres a number of new works. His first solo recording, American Deconstruction, an expert rendition of five milestone works in multi-percussion's huge new modern repertoire, appeared in 2000 and was reissued in 2006. His second, Global Percussion, was released in 2005.
An invitation from Yo-Yo Ma in 2000 led Gramley to join Mr. Ma's Silk Road Ensemble. In addition to participating in the group's extended residencies in American and European cities, Gramley has toured with Mr. Ma and the Ensemble throughout North America, Europe and Asia, performing in the world's finest concert halls. Along the way, Gramley has studied percussion styles and instruments from around the globe, collaborating with internationally-renowned musicians from India, Iran, China, Japan, Korea and Central Asia. He has also appeared on three top-selling albums with Yo-Yo Ma on the SonyBMG label.
In addition to his solo and Silk Road work, as well as his frequent appearances with chamber groups and orchestras, Gramley performs with the acclaimed British organist Clive Driskill-Smith in the duo Organized Rhythm. The pair's first recording, Beaming Music, was released in 2007.
Joseph Gramley has performed with: the Metropolitan Opera (on stage with Placido Domingo), Pierre-Laurent Aimard (US tour), Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, New York City Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (soloist), Seattle Symphony, Orchestre de Lyon, Dawn Upshaw (US tour), David Robertson (Carnegie Hall), Musicians From Marlboro, Spoleto Festival (soloist, chamber music and orchestra), Martha Graham Dance Company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, New York City Ballet, Eos Orchestra, Renee Fleming (in recital), Glen Velez (US tour), Keiko Abe (PASIC), Aretha Franklin, Elton John (at Radio City Music Hall and on worldwide TV and DVD), George Benjamin, Kayhan Kalhor, Alim Qasimov, Wu Tong, Sandeep Das, Wu Man, and numerous others. Productions on Broadway include: Miss Saigon, Jekyll and Hyde, Phantom of the Opera, Caroline or Change, and The Color Purple. Gramley's compositions have been performed at The Juilliard School, Rhode Island School of Design, The Art Institute of Chicago and Queens College.
Born in 1970, Gramley grew up in Oregon and was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts while a senior at the Interlochen Arts Academy in 1988. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan where he was a student of Michael Udow and Salvatore Rabbio and was a recipient of the Albert A. Stanley Medal. He has also attended the Tanglewood Institute and Salzburg Mozarteum.
Gramley made his concerto debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra after winning their National Soloist Competition, and made his solo debut at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall in 1994. He did his graduate studies at the Juilliard School in New York where he studied with Gordon Gottlieb and Daniel Druckman and received both the Goodman and the Khomanoff scholarships. Upon finishing his graduate studies, Gramley performed and recorded with the Ethos Percussion Group throughout the U. S. and Europe.
He is director of the Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar, an intensive program for high-school students held annually at Lincoln Center in New York City and the M-Pulse Ann Arbor Percussion Institute at the University of Michigan.
Jonathan Ovalle
Assistant Professor of Percussion
ovalle@umich.edu
734-763-2621
Percussionist Jonathan Ovalle is Assistant Professor of Music and co-coordinator of the percussion program at the University of Michigan. In addition to his applied teaching duties, he is the co-director of the University’s famed percussion ensemble, as well as the director of the newly created Latin jazz ensemble. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and his primary teachers include Michael Udow, Julie Spencer, Michael Gould, Gerald Cleaver, and Salvatore Rabbio as well as additional studies with Ted Piltzecker.
Known for his remarkable versatility and percussive diversity, he has made a career combining the worlds of symphonic, jazz, chamber, solo, marching, pop, and world music playing into an aggressive mix with few musical boundaries.
Born in 1976 in Mexico City, Mexico, Ovalle grew up in Houston, TX.
As a concert percussionist and chamber musician, his symphonic experience includes time as a member of the Sarasota Opera Orchestra, as well as performances with New Music Detroit, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Fort Wayne Philharmonic and, most recently, as a participant in the filming of KHU, part 2 of artist Matthew Barney's 7-part film/opera Ancient Evenings. Active as an improviser and solo player, he recently presented a recital of improvised solo works for percussion in the Great Gallery at the Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, OH.
As a drum set/ jazz artist, he has shared the stage with artists such as Jon Hendricks, Vic Juris, David Hazeltine, Phil Markowitz, Harold Danko, Stephanie Nakassian, Tim Whalen, Gunnar Mossblad, and has been featured at the Detroit International Jazz Festival, Lansing Jazz Festival, Birmingham Jazz Festival, Jazzloop and the Art Tatum Jazz and Heritage Festival. He has also been honored as a two-time regional finalist in the Guitar Center Drum-Off. As a jazz vibist and congureo, he has collaborated with drummer/composer Roland Vazquez on his Music for 3 Jazz Players and Percussion Quartet, which was featured at PASIC 2003. He can also be heard as a drummer with his own Afro-Cuban quintet, Nuevo Rumbón.
An active composer and arranger, 2010 marked the world premiere of his Epic Proportions for percussion ensemble, commissioned by the Texas A&M University-Commerce Percussion Ensemble, at PASIC 2010 in Indianapolis, IN. Other recent composition and arranging projects include an original score/soundscape for the play, The Labyrinth by Fernando Arrabal, directed by Ed Lingan, presented at the University of Toledo Center for Performing Arts, as well percussion arrangements for the Fort Wayne Philharmonic’s recent production of Ballroom with a Twist, created by Dancing with the Stars pro, Louis Van Amstel. Over 15 years’ experience as a marching percussion arranger/designer and pedagogue has also led to successful collaborations/commissions with top ensembles in BOA and WGI circuits, including Redline Percussion and the Plymouth Canton Educational Park. His experience includes extensive work as both a front ensemble and battery arranger/teacher.
A passionate pedagogue, he finds motivation in unlocking students' potential by helping them overcome technical and mental roadblocks to assist them in becoming creative, technically sound, musically sensitive, self-sufficient musicians. His central philosophy works to create an interconnected web of technical and musical concepts that can be applied in any area of percussion playing and any genre of music. He also works to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurialism and self-advocacy in his students when it comes to building and maintaining a successful career in music and the percussive arts.
His current research interests include developing a progressive sightreading method book as well as a book dedicated to the understanding of memory and learning strategies when applied to practicing.
Most recently, he served as the Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Toledo and is the former percussion coordinator/arranger for the Plymouth Canton Educational Park in Canton, MI.
Ovalle is a member of the Percussive Arts Society and is an Artist/Endorser with Pearl Drums, Remo Inc., and Innovative Percussion.
Ian Ding
Lecturer of Percussion
ianding@yahoo.com
 Education:
M.M. (Percussion Performance), The Juilliard School, 2001
B.M.(Percussion Performance), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
In 2003, at the age of 26, Ian Ding was appointed Assistant Principal Percussionist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra by maestro Neeme Järvi. Prior to joining the DSO, he was a member of the New World Symphony in Miami under Michael Tilson Thomas and the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland under James Levine. With these and other orchestras, he has performed in concert halls throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia. In 2005, Mr. Ding began his appointment as Lecturer of Percussion at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
Keenly interested in blending his classical training with experimental music, world music, improvisation, and electronics, Mr. Ding has appeared throughout the metro Detroit area playing everything from solo frame drums to large percussion setups fed through his laptop computer. He is also active in commissioning and performing new works by emerging young composers. Among his many new music & chamber music credits are appearances with the Arnold Schoenberg Choir, Bang On A Can @ MASS MoCA, the Electronic Music Foundation, the Fountain Chamber Music Society of New York, FUNMusic, the New Juilliard Ensemble, and the interdisciplinary performance group Vision Into Art.
Ian Ding was born and raised in Arlington Heights, IL, outside of Chicago. He first studied music with his mother, a private piano teacher, and he played piano and cello before starting drum lessons in the fifth grade. At age 14 he joined the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra as a timpanist & percussionist. He went on to graduate from the University of Illinois and the Juilliard School, studying percussion with William Moersch, Thomas Siwe, Tom Stubbs, and Gregory Zuber. He currently studies hand drumming with Sriram Balasubramanian (South Indian mridangam) and Oussama Naja (doumbek).
Cary Kocher
Lecturer of Percussion
ckocher@umich.edu
 Cary Kocher trained at the University of Michigan under Michael Udow, the late Charles Owen, and Salvatore Rabbio.
Cary has a very diverse performing schedule that includes work with the Ann Arbor Symphony and other area orchestras. He has a weekly gig on vibes with latin jazz group Los Gatos, and plays drums with the Easy Street Jazz Band. He co-leads a classic vibraphone quartet with bassist Paul Keller, provides vibes for Dave Bennett's tribute to Benny Goodman, and plays drums and sings with Espresso.
Cary also enjoys working with developing musicians. As a middle school music teacher in Ann Arbor, he also adjudicates at jazz festivals and clinics, directed the Gold Jazz Ensemble at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp for several years, and teaches jazz vibes and drums at the University of Michigan.
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