| PERCUSSION PROGRAM |
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History
For more than fifty years, the University of Michigan percussion program has occupied a significant place in American music education. Its faculty has included some of the field’s most outstanding teachers, and its alumni have achieved success in all areas of percussion performance, pedagogy, research and composition.
The percussion program was born under the leadership of James Salmon in 1954. A Michigan alumnus and active performer in the Chicago music scene, Salmon was renowned for both his teaching gifts and his writings on percussion. It was during his tenure that he founded the University of Michigan Percussion Ensemble, which gave its first performance in 1958.
In 1968, Salvatore Rabbio, longtime principal timpanist with the Detroit Symphony, joined the faculty, adding his expertise to that of Mr. Salmon’s and starting a relationship between the percussion program and the Detroit Symphony that would continue long into the future. Following James Salmon, in 1972, Charles Owen was named Professor of Percussion at Michigan. Owen made his name as the timpanist and mallet keyboard soloist with the U.S. Marine Band from 1934 to 1954 and then later as the principal percussionist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, under Eugene Ormandy, a position he held for 18 years. Professor Owen’s artistic inspiration continued to motivate the strong work of the UM Percussion Ensemble, and the group recorded its first two albums, in 1975 and 1981. Owen was known as an inspirational teacher and a source of encouragement to both his colleagues and the many percussionists who studied with him. His legacy continues through the Owen Memorial Master Class Fund, which brings a guest artist to campus for an extended period each year. The James D. Salmon and Charles E. Owen Percussion Scholarships also honor the legacy of these two outstanding teachers and recognize their significant place in the history of the Michigan percussion program.
In 1982, Michael Udow took the reins of the program for a tenure that would last 27 years. A founding member of the pioneering Blackearth percussion group, and the longtime principal percussionist for the Santa Fe Opera, Udow was known as an outstanding performer, composer, and teacher. His dedication to his students was recently recognized as he was awarded the Percussive Arts Society Lifetime Achievement Award for Teaching, in 2010. Under his direction, the percussion ensemble quickly gained an international reputation for its numerous recordings and performances with renowned soloists and ensembles around the world. During his tenure at Michigan, the percussion ensemble was featured at multiple PASIC conventions, toured Japan and Taiwan, and performed in New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Merkin Hall. Timpanist, Salvatore Rabbio continued to teach as a member of the percussion faculty during these years, along with a number of adjunct professors, which included marimba virtuoso, Julie Spencer, and jazz vibist, Ted Piltzecker. Additional former adjunct faculty include composer/percussionist, Warren Benson, and Sousa Band percussionist, John Heney.
In 1995, drumset artist and UM alumnus, Gerald Cleaver, was called on for his teaching and performance expertise serving as Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies from 1995-2000. A Detroit native, Cleaver has been mainstay of the New York jazz scene since 2002 and has made his name performing with artists such as Roscoe Mitchell, Miroslav Vitous, Yaron Herman and Ralph Allesi, among others.
In 1998, approval was granted to hire an additional full-time percussion faculty member and Michael Gould was added to the faculty as a second full-time artist/teacher of percussion and who now continues to teach as a member of the UM jazz faculty and as a faculty member of the UM Residential College primarily mentoring jazz majors in drumset study. Also in 1998, Salvatore Rabbio, the longtime timpanist for the Detroit Symphony retired after 40 years of service to the orchestra and along with his retirement from the orchestra retired from his position at Michigan. A native of Boston, Rabbio returned home to the east coast and continues to teach and mentor young students while continuing to maintain a national profile with PASIC clinic appearances most recently, in 2010.
Following in the footsteps of Salvatore Rabbio came Brian Jones who won the Principal Timpanist chair for the Detroit Symphony in 1998. Jones, a native of Texas, studied at the University of North Texas where he was a member of the renown “One O’Clock Lab Band” and later at Temple University where he studied under Alan Abel. Following his Detroit Symphony appointment, in 2001 Brian Jones began teaching as Associate Adjunct Professor of Percussion working with students in private percussion and timpani lessons as well as teaching the orchestral repertoire class. His inspired playing, teaching, and mentoring of UM percussion students continued until his recent departure to take the Principal Timpanist chair in the Dallas Symphony, in fall 2011.
Brian Jones’ colleague at the Detroit Symphony, percussionist Ian Ding, joined the faculty in 2005 and continues to be a part of the percussion program’s artist faculty teaching lessons, teaching the orchestral repertoire class as well as assisting with coaching percussion ensemble. Ian’s experience as an orchestral artist as well his experience as a performer of contemporary solo and chamber repertoire, including recent performances with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, makes him a valuable and unique asset to the percussion program’s stellar faculty.
In 2007, following a major national search, Professor Joseph Gramley became Coordinator of the Percussion Program and director of the Percussion Ensemble. Known for his dynamic solo playing, he has vast experience as both a soloist and as a member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Also in 2007, jazz vibist and drummer, Cary Kocher, was added to the Michigan percussion faculty which then comprised 6 artist-teachersin residence, including: Michael Udow, Joseph Gramley, Brian Jones, Ian Ding, Cary Kocher, and Michael Gould.
iIn November of 2009, Professor Udow announced his retirement from Michigan, effective Fall 2010.  Professor Udow gave the University of Michigan nearly three decades of leadership, artistry, and pedagogy as attentive as it was inspred. Under his tutelage, he has trained hundreds of musicians and teachers and, through his own compositions, been a major force in the expansion of percussion's canon and general presence in the musical world.
Following Michael Udow’s retirement, in 2011 another national search was conducted, culminating in the hire of Professor Jonathan Ovalle as the newest member of the Michigan percussion faculty. Together with Prof. Joseph Gramley, Prof. Jonathan Ovalle will serve to co-coordinate the program as well as co-direct the program's famed percussion ensemble.
Going forward, Professors Gramley, Ovalle, Ding, and Kocher and Gould are dedicated to honoring the program’s history and maintaining the high standards set by their predecessors. Their current work is focused on preparing percussionists for the ever-changing demands ofthe 21st century music world. Their dedication to teaching, performance, and research will undoubtedly make a new mark on the program as it grows and pushes forward into a new chapter in it’s storied history.
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