Interviews with Successful Percussionists Volume
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THE 10,000-HOUR THRESHOLD: INTERVIEWS WITH SUCCESSFUL PERCUSSIONISTS VOLUME TWO ____________________________ DISSERTATION _____________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Kentucky. By Colin Jeffrey Hill Lexington, Kentucky Director: James B. Campbell, Professor of Music Lexington, Kentucky 2013 Copyright © Colin Jeffrey Hill 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLUME TWO Part One Personal Interviews ............................................................................................................. 1 Joakim Anterot and Anders Holdar ........................................................................ 1 Jason Baker ............................................................................................................. 9 Kevin Bobo ........................................................................................................... 17 Michael Burritt ...................................................................................................... 20 Thomas Burritt ...................................................................................................... 30 James Campbell .................................................................................................... 35 Omar Carmenates .................................................................................................. 40 Gary Cook ............................................................................................................. 49 Christopher Deane ................................................................................................ 56 Bret Dietz .............................................................................................................. 61 Matthew Duvall .................................................................................................... 68 I-Jen Fang .............................................................................................................. 76 Mark Ford ............................................................................................................. 82 Andy Harnsberger ................................................................................................. 87 Julie Lacata ........................................................................................................... 93 John Lane ............................................................................................................ 100 Frederic Macarez. ............................................................................................... 105 Brian Mason ........................................................................................................ 110 Payton McDonald ............................................................................................... 116 William Moersch ................................................................................................ 123 Jason Nicholson .................................................................................................. 134 Brian Nozny ........................................................................................................ 139 John Parks IV ...................................................................................................... 152 Paul Rennick ....................................................................................................... 161 Emil Richards ...................................................................................................... 168 Steven Schick ...................................................................................................... 171 Robert Schietroma .............................................................................................. 176 i Joshua Smith ....................................................................................................... 183 Gordon Stout ....................................................................................................... 189 John Tafoya ......................................................................................................... 195 Blake Tyson ........................................................................................................ 202 Michael Udow ..................................................................................................... 211 Ben Wahlund ...................................................................................................... 222 Eric Willie ........................................................................................................... 227 Brian Zator .......................................................................................................... 233 Part Two Degree Recitals ............................................................................................................... 240 Solo Recital Program .......................................................................................... 240 Chamber Recital Program ................................................................................... 242 Lecture Recital Program ..................................................................................... 244 Curricullum Vitae ........................................................................................................... 246 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 255 Copyright © Colin Jeffrey Hill 2013 ii PERSONAL INTERVIEWS The following thirty-six interviews were conducted between November 12, 2010 and March 25, 2013. While most were done in person, a few were done over the phone and via email. All of the percussionists were asked the following ten questions: 1. If you have a regular warm up routine, could you please describe it? 2. How do you go about learning new music? Do you have a regular process? 3. When learning new material, do you typically listen to existing recordings? If so, how frequently and during what stage of your progress? 4. When performing, how much of what you play is memorized? Do you utilize any mental or physical methods during or before the performance to avoid memory slips? 5. How do you practice problem spots? 6. How often do you record yourself? 7. Do you practice differently the weeks and days leading up to a performance? 8. Do you have a ritual the day of the performance? 9. How old were you when you started playing percussion? At what age did you start focusing on your “primary” instrument? Please give your best guess as to the number of hours per day you spent practicing during the given time periods: middle school, high school, undergrad, graduate school, early career, and currently. 10. Do you believe your practice habits have contributed to your success? Minor edits were made to the following transcripts, as most people do not speak in complete sentences. The content itself was un-altered and any grammatical edits were done with careful consideration to preserve the thoughts and opinions of the interviewees. 1 ~ Joakim Anterot and Anders Holdar ~ Personal Interview with Colin Hill October 28, 2011 Lexington, KY Note: Joakim Anterot and Anders Holdar did a joint interview. CH: If you have a regular warm up routine, could you please describe it? AH: Yes, if I’m going on the stage or whatever I have to do, my body has to react so I have a real good rule - I never start with my sticks. I don’t grab my sticks and do like this (air-drumming). I have learned that if I start like this (massaging and stretching muscles). Suddenly my blood comes and my body wakes up and says, ‘Aha, Joakim is going to make something with his drums or with his marimba, so I have to wake-up.’ So warming up for me is just a couple minutes of warming up (massaging muscles and rubbing hands together). Everything that makes my blood flow is warming up. When I go to the next step it is for me technical practicing but I have a strict limit for what is ‘warming up.’ I can do with sticks but I do it in air. My technical warm-up depends on what I’m going to do on stage or what I’m going to practice. It is really different every time, I can’t give you one answer. JA: I have a special warm-up that I do. I prefer doing it everyday but life doesn’t allow that. But it is a very good day if I have done it in the morning. It could be maybe a half an hour or maybe an hour but I must admit it doesn’t happen everyday but I still stick to it as soon as I have the possibility. I do about the same thing everyday. I also try to make my students find their special things to do, like a mantra, because you feel good doing it. The purpose is not only for skills, it has a mental purpose. You feel like a percussionist. Even if bad or sad things happen in the day or you have a lack of money, if you go for one hour and do your things, it is a good day. The few things I always do in the morning on snare are here in these notes (scripts written in Swedish). If I’m cold, I do things very slow as possible. It makes the blood go fast. Never quick things. The slower you do it. It works. AH: You got a point with the mental because when I was younger, I had a much easier time going into performance mode or practice mode, but growing older, things are in your mind. More things about your daily life than about being a musician. So the problem is when I go on stage and I don’t feel warmed up, it is not just the body, the