North Texas Percussion Festival

FESTIVAL INFORMATION

The Forney ISD percussion program will be hosting the 4th annual North Texas Percussion Festival on March 3, 2012.  This year’s clinicians are Dr. Brian Zator and Dr. Scott Harris.  Each group has the choice of performing one or two selections with judge’s critique after their performances. 

Large instruments will be provided for your convenience but each school will be asked to provide their own accessories.  Each school will receive written comments, and an audio recording.  Forney HS is located ten minutes east of Mesquite and twenty minutes east from downtown Dallas.  More information to come soon!

High School Clinician

Dr. Brian Zator is Assistant Professor of Music and the Director of Percussion at Texas A&M University-Commerce.  His responsibilities include the classical and marching percussion ensembles, the "Panimation" steel drum band, Brazilian Ensemble, undergraduate and graduate applied lessons, and the percussion methods and literature courses.  He earned his BME degree from Baylor University, MM degree from the University of Michigan and his DMA from the University of North Texas.  He is also a student of world-renowned marimba artist, Keiko Abe, having performed and studied with her in Japan.

As a marimba/percussion soloist, Dr. Zator has performed with the Baylor Woodwind Quintet at PASIC 2008, the Texas A&M-Commerce Wind Ensemble at the 2005 CBDNA national conference and the Birdville H.S. Percussion Ensemble at PASIC 2005.  He was also one of the soloists with the University of North Texas Wind Symphony at PASIC 2006.  Other solo appearances have included the Conroe and The Woodlands Symphonies, the Texas A&M-Commerce Symphonic Band, the Lone Star Wind Orchestra, and at several Texas Day of Percussion events.  He is active giving clinics and concerts at various colleges, high schools and state festivals including TMEA, TBA, the California Band Directors Association convention, and the Winter Music Festival in Vale Veneto, Brazil.  The Texas A&M University-Commerce percussion ensemble, under the direction of Brian Zator, has a CD entitled "Sohmon III: New and Unknown Works of Minoru Miki". These pieces were performed at the 2006 PASIC on their showcase performance of the same title.  Dr. Zator and the ensemble are proud to bring these unknown works to the public. All pieces are first-time recordings.

Dr. Zator has performed with an assortment of percussion ensembles including Keiko Abe and Ensemble Clair, Primary Colors, the Michigan Percussion Group, and the Bain Percussion Group at PASIC 2003.  Additionally, he is the principal timpanist and percussionist with the Northeast Texas Symphony.  He was a member of the Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps and taught the University of Michigan drumline.  Active within the Percussive Arts Society, he is on the Board of Directors and serves on the Keyboard and Percussion Ensemble Committees.  He provides reviews for Percussive Notes and has adjudicated the PAS International Percussion Ensemble and Composition Competitions.  Zator has two keyboard ensemble arrangements published by Go Fish Music: "Spring" from Vivaldi's Four Seasons and “Cassiopeia Marimbana” by Minoru Miki.  He is proud to be a Dynasty, Innovative Percussion, Sabian and Evans performing artist and clinician.

Dr. Scott Harris is the Percussion Director at Stephen F. Austin State University where he directs the Percussion Ensemble, the SFA Steel Band, and oversees the Lumberjack Drumline. For ten years Dr. Harris also directed the annual SFA Summer Percussion Symposium that regularly brought in over 120 students and featured percussion artists/clinicians from throughout the United States. 

Dr. Harris has presented clinics and concerts at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the Texas Music Educators Association Convention, the Texas Bandmasters Association Convention, the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, and the College Music Society National Conference. He has performed and recorded with Panama Steel--a professional steel drum band, the 1991 World Champion Star of Indiana Drum and Bugle Corps, the Orchestra of the Pines, the Oklahoma Philharmonic, and the Shreveport and Longview Symphonies. 

His teachers include Dr. Peter Tanner, Thom Hannum, Harold Jones, Mark Ford and Dr. Richard Gipson. Harris is a Promark Educational Endorser and has been active as a percussion performer, clinician and adjudicator throughout the Southeastern United States. He is currently the Associate Editor of Education for Percussive Notes magazine, the official journal of the Percussive Arts Society, and also serves on the PAS Contest and Audition Procedures Committee.

Middle School Clinician

Brandon Kelly received his undergraduate education from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2005 where he studied percussion with Dr. Gary Olmstead. As an undergraduate, Brandon was highly active in all of IUP’s major ensembles, as well as with the Altoona & Johnstown Symphony Orchestra, and continues to return to IUP each summer as a member of the Keystone Wind Ensemble. Following IUP, Brandon was awarded a teaching fellowship at the University of North Texas where he studied with Christopher Deane, Mark Ford, Paul Rennick, Dr. Robert Schietroma, Ed Smith, and Ed Soph. Brandon was active in many of UNT’s diverse percussion ensembles and was appointed section leader of the world-renowned North Texas Wind Symphony.

While active as a freelance percussionist around the DFW-metroplex, Brandon currently maintains an ambitious private teaching schedule, coaching percussion students from the Plano, Garland, Forney, and Sunnyvale ISDs as well as from his home percussion studio. Previously, he served as Coordinator of Percussion for the west cluster of the Plano ISD, and continues to serve on the faculty of the Leigh Howard Stevens High School Marimba Seminar in Plano each summer. Brandon has been a member of the Lone Star Wind Orchestra since its inception, and currently serves on the LSWO Board of Trustees and as Artistic Administrator for the LSWO Percussion Ensemble.

FORMS

Past Adjudicator and Clinicians

2009 - Day of Percussion

2010 - Dr. Brian West, TCU & Dr. Brian Zator, TAMUC

2011 - Dr. Tom Burritt, UT Austin & Dr. Brian Zator, TAMUC