Clinician Biographies
Guest Artist and
Instructional Staff
Biographies
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Bret Kuhn
Guest Artist
Bret graduated with a Bachelor's degree from Northeast Missouri State University where he studied percussion under the direction of Dan Petersen. He was a member of the Disney World All-American Band in 1980 and marched with the Cavalier Drum and Bugle Corps in 1981. In 1984, Bret began teaching the Cavalier Drum and Bugle Corps serving as both the Percussion Caption Head as well as the Percussion Arranger. During this time, the Cavaliers won six World Championships and five High Percussion Awards. In 2005, after retiring from the Cavalier's, Bret joined the Bluecoat Drum and Bugle Corps and is in his third year as a Design and Percussion Consultant with them.
Bret is the Percussion Coordinator for the Prospect High School music program from Mt. Prospect, Illinois who are a BOA band. He is active as a Percussion Arranger/Clinician for numerous colleges and high schools across the nation and abroad and wrote the percussion arrangement for LD Bell from Hurst, Texas who are the 2007 Bands of America Grand National Champions. He is currently an Adjunct Faculty member for the Northern Illinois Marching Band with Director Tom Bough, and is consulting with Director Jim Hudson of the Arizona State University Sun Devil Marching Band. He arranges for two of the top marching groups in Japan. One is Aimachi from Nagoya, Japan who were the 2006 Champions at the All Japan Championship. The other is Vivace from Tokyo, Japan, who are a semi-professional all girl marching band.
Bret consulted with the Texas State Indoor Percussion ensemble from San Marcos, Texas who competed at the 2006 PASIC Convention, and the Oklahoma Centennial Band who performed for the 2007 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California. Bret composed an original piece called "Renegade Highway" for Plano East High School, under the direction of John Brennan and was a guest performer with their band at a showcase concert at the 2006 Percussive Arts Society Internation Convention in Austin, Texas.
Bret has written articles for publication in Percussive Notes Magazine and is currently on the PAS Board of Directors. He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Serving as a clinician for Yamaha, Innovative Percussion, Zildjian and Remo, he has had the opportunity of traveling extensively presenting clinics across the United States, Japan and Europe. He is a freelance drum-set artist in the Chicagoland area and has performed with Rich Matteson, Bobby Shew, Gloria Estefan and Nexus.
Professor Johnny Lee Lane
Guest Artist
Johnny Lee Lane is Director of Education for Remo, Inc. Lane is one of the Nation’s foremost college percussion educators, and previously served as Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at Eastern Illinois University for 28 years. He also spent three years at Indiana University School of Music at IUPUI, and two years at Tennessee State University. At Eastern, Lane developed one of the finest total percussion programs in the nation. His students are college teachers, performers, and educators throughout the world. In the 1980s, Lane toured Germany four times and most recently gave clinics and workshops in South Korea and Japan. For 13 years, he was the Host and Founder of the UNITED STATES PERCUSSION CAMP. This camp was a total percussion camp with over 300 students and 37 faculty members. Lane and the camp appeared on ABC’s GOOD MORNING AMERICA SHOW in 1996. The percussion camp was held each summer at Eastern Illinois University. At Eastern, Lane taught undergraduate and graduate percussion majors, conducted the percussion ensemble, marimba orchestras, marimba rag bands, and the World percussion program. Lane continues to serve as the Percussion Consultant and teacher of the Tennessee State University Drum line in Nashville, Tennessee. Professor Lane also led the 2004 Tournament of Roses Parade, playing the world’s tallest drum.
Lane conducts clinics around the country for Zildjian, Remo Drum Company, Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, and Dynasty Marching Percussion. His new Marimba Book: FOUR MALLET INDEPENDENCE FOR MARIMBA by Johnny Lee Lane and Samuel A. Floyd, Jr. has just been published by Hal Leonard Publications. Lane received the 2007 PAS Lifetime Achievement in Education Award at the 2007 International Percussive Arts Society Convention in Columbus, Ohio.
Erick Saoud
Instructional Staff
Erick Saoud is in his fourth year as percussion instructor at The Episcopal Collegiate School. He has been on the faculty of Hendrix College for six years and a member of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra since 2005.
Mr. Saoud has performed in the United States, Canada and Europe as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral percussionist. In 2003, his performance of Creston’s Concertino for Marimba with the Little Rock Wind Symphony was hailed by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette as “dazzling!” His solo recitals in 2004 were received with critical acclaim and praise. “Saoud [performed] with rarely seen grace and ease…masterfully made the difficult look easy…World-class artistry.” (Pine Bluff Commercial)
Mr. Saoud is currently a member of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and is principle percussionist with the Pine Bluff Symphony. Over the past several years Mr. Saoud has contributed articles to the Percussive Notes journal dealing with percussion education and research, ranging from Learning Marimba Literature and Beginning Your Career While a Student, to The Analysis and Effect of Legato and Staccato Techniques on Marimba. In August, Developing a Well-rounded High School Percussionist will be published by Percussive Notes, highlighting the percussion program started at Episcopal in 2005-2006. Mr. Saoud is a proud endorser of Grover Pro Percussion.
Ryun Louie
Instructional Staff
Ryun Louie is the principal timpanist with the South Dakota Symphony. He has performed with symphony orchestras across the United States and Mexico including the Utah Chamber Orchestra, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Salt Lake City Symphony, and the Orchestra at Temple Square, Omaha Symphony, Lincoln Symphony, Sioux City Symphony, Butler Symphony, Eire Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Parkersburg Symphony, and the Orchestra Sifonica De Minarea.
Mr. Louie delighted audiences on the stages of the Montreux Jazz Festival, Breintz Jazz Festival, Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival, Park City Jazz Festival and the Art and Edison Farmer Memorial Jazz Festival. He now tours with his own jazz quintet, Louie, which has released its first album, Says You. He has performed with jazz greats Curtis Fuller, Dick Oates, Greg Gizbert, Clark Terry, Eddie Daniels, Chuck Findley, Tom Garvin, Ira Nepus and Matt Wallis. Ryun also recorded his third CD with the Greg Floor Quintet.
Among his influences and teachers, Ryun names some of the best percussionists in the world: Peter Erskine, Dave Jette, Doug Wolf, George Brown, Jay Lawrence, Steve Houghton, Paul Samuels, Jamey Haddad, Dwight Thomas, Guy Romanco, Kelly Wallis, Bill Hill, Cloyd Duff, Timothy Adams Jr., Tom Freer and Rick Sebastian.
"Ryun Louie is the good rare breed of musician who is equally comfortable and adept in both the legit and popular music worlds. His musical enthusiasm is contagious. He is an excellent percussionist and drummer.” ~ Peter Erskine
Most recently, Ryun has taken the helm of the percussion programs at the Medina and Wadsworth School Districts in Ohio, and recently served as Artist-in-Residence for Cleveland Heights High School in northeast Ohio. Ryun is on the faculty of the Yamaha Midwest Percussion Camp held in the summer at McKendree University in Lebanon, Illinois. Additionally, he has taught at Bingham, West Jordan and Davis High Schools in Utah, Southside High School in Pennsylvania, Belleview East High School in Nebraska, Weber State College, University of Omaha-Nebraska, Iowa Western Community College and Duquesne University.
He works as an active clinician for the Percussion Arts Society (PAS) and is endorsed by Evans Drumheads, Bosphorus Cymbals and Vic Firth Drumsticks.
A native of Salt Lake City, Ryun started his professional career at the age of 15. He attended the University of Utah where he studied with Doug Wolf, Professor of Percussion, and George Brown, principal timpanist of the Utah Symphony. During this time, he also studied with Cloyd Duff, principal timpanist of the Cleveland Orchestra. He furthered his education at Carnegie Mellon University where he studied under Timothy Adams, Jr., principal timpanist of the Pittsburgh Symphony.
Ryun and his family live in Medina, Ohio, where he freelances as a percussionist and maintains a full teaching studio.
Dan Smithiger
Instructional Staff
Daniel Smithiger currently serves as Director of Percussion and Assistant Director of Bands at McKendree University. His duties include teaching applied percussion, percussion ensemble, marching percussion, and percussion methods. He also assists with the Marching Bearcat Band and the Pep bands. Prior to this appointment, he served as Director of Athletic Bands, Lecturer of Percussion, and Assistant Director of Bands at Angelo State University, San Angelo, Texas, from 2004 – 2007. He has been an active educator/adjudicator, recruiter, and performer throughout Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Nevada, Arkansas, and Arizona.
Earning degrees at the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University, Mr. Smithiger serves on the Educational Committee for the Percussive Arts Society; he is published with Percussive Notes; he is endorsed by Sabian Cymbals; and he is the Education Consultant for Black Swamp Percussion, where he has initiated an Educator Article Series: contributing monthly articles towards the advancement of percussion performance and pedagogy. He is also a member of the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, Texas Music Educators Association (formerly), Pi Kappa Lambda, and an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi and Tau Beta Sigma. He has toured with the McKendree University Percussion Ensemble throughout Illinois and Missouri, and was a featured clinician at the Illinois “Day of Percussion” in May 2008.
Jeff Crowell
Instructional Staff
Dr. Jeffery Crowell is an Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of the Wind and Percussion Division at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, where he teaches applied percussion and percussion techniques, conducts the UW-Eau Claire Percussion Ensemble, and leads Jazz Ensemble III, part of the outstanding UW-Eau Claire award-winning jazz area. Before joining the faculty at UW-Eau Claire, Dr. Crowell taught on the faculties of several colleges, including Purdue University.
Dr. Crowell received his DMA in percussion performance with a jazz performance/electro-acoustic media emphasis from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. He is active throughout the United States as a performer, clinician, adjudicator, and educator with recent performances at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. and in South Africa.
A versatile artist in many genres, Dr. Crowell's performance and recording credits include such artists as Bobby Shew, Louie Bellson, David Samuels, Henry Mancini, Joan Rivers, Lou Harrison, Kent Nagano, David Garibaldi, Buddy Baker, Glen Velez, Nebojsa Zivkovic, and John Bergamo. He has performed at the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella Series, presented and performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, is in the motion picture "The Majestic" starring Jim Carrey, marched with the Velvet Knights Drum and Bugle Corps, and has taught on the staffs of numerous award-winning groups including the Tournament of Roses Marching Honor Band.
He is an active member of the Percussive Arts Society having been recently the Wisconsin Chapter President as well as a current member of the Music Technology Committee.
Dr. Crowell is an artist/clinician for Pearl Drums and Percussion and Adams Musical Instruments, Sabian Cymbals, REMO drumheads, Black Swamp Percussion, and Innovative Percussion Sticks and Mallets.
Mike Vercelli
Instructional Staff
Dr. Michael B. Vercelli is the director of the World Music Performance Center at West Virginia University. Michael holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance with a minor in Ethnomusicology from the University of Arizona. While well versed in the classical percussion repertoire, Michael’s specialty lies in non-Western instruments. He has studied the traditional music of other countries and done fieldwork in Bali, Cuba, Brazil, and primarily, Ghana. Dr. Vercelli has received many awards for both his performance and study of indigenous music such as being named a Fulbright Alternate and recipient of numerous grants including the prestigious Northern Trust/ Piper Enrichment Scholarship.“Project Ghana,” first organized and facilitated by Dr. Vercelli in the summer of 2006, is an annual study abroad course focusing on music, dance and cultural emersion. Dr. Vercelli is a contributing author to the World Percussion chapter in the third edition of Gary Cook’s Teaching Percussion. He is a participating member in the Society for Ethnomusicology and Percussive Arts Society where he serves on the World Percussion Committee. Michael has given lectures, performances and workshops, across the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and China and is a founding member of the Zumbumba Percussion Trio.