Classical Timpani and Percussion

Right now I’m on the “Star Wars In Concert” Tour. We started in Anaheim, CA, right now are around the midway point in Salt Lake City, and we finish up in two weeks in Jacksonville, Florida. The music has been great, it’s a great hang with all the orchestra members, and it’s been great traveling to all these cities. There are a bunch of clips of this on youtube-

In my previous post I described some basic things about being part of The Golandky Institute’s Summer Symposium at Princeton.  Two things specifically that were great (and that gave me a chance to perform) were performing with my Timpani Instructor, Mr. Sal Rabbio, in a class he gave in sound production and how it relates from Timpani to piano, and performing with piano virtuoso Ilya Itin in Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf.

Mr. Rabbio’s class was really excellent.  He focused on how producing sound on Timpani was similar to process on Piano.  There was a lot of relating Timpanist striking the head of the drum with a mallet to the piano having a hammer that hits a string, and how the differences in velocity in which you strike, along with how the touch you use effects the sound.  It was also great because I was able to play a duet with Mr. Rabbio, and was also served as the “ginny pig” in his demonstrations.

Getting to play with Ilya Itin was great, and was a real lucky happening. Basically, he was performing Peter and the Wolf, a version with solo piano  and a narrator.  After rehearsing with the narrator, Ilya felt that towards the end (where there is a big snare drum part), not having any percussion would not suffice.  Consequently, I showed up at the dress rehearsal, played the part, and got the gig.  Ilya is an outstanding performer, and a great person, so getting to perform with him and spend some time with him was a real treat.  Hopefully more of these opportunities will continue to present themselves…