Percussionist, Composer, Author
I've been having interesting discussions with my friends and family recently about the change in education since I went through high school. I was always confronted by my transition from being a student to being a teacher. I started teaching in a serious capacity when I was 19 years old, my oldest students were only a few years younger than me.
A very confronting thing I came across was that I remembered what it was like to be a student,
At the end of 2022, I published my book “How to Get Good”. Up until that point I've been referencing it to a lot of my students and I think they were curious but didn't entirely understand what I was talking about. Then came the new iteration of my junior percussion ensemble and I decided to really methodically follow the steps of my book and apply these principles to the ensemble setting. I started by setting a group goal with them that
I decided to finish my graduating recital surrounded by my friends in the QCGU percussion department. Inspired by my chorale for harmonic whirlies, ‘The Angels are Coming’, I wrote a chorale for 12 players. I’ve gone through a fantastic journey surrounded great people and I thought it’d only be fitting to work with my friends from the percussion department to symbolise that journey. This was the last piece of the recital,
Eight on 3 and Nine on 2 by George Clements and Robert Marino is a multi percussion duet. The piece combines drum corps elements into a challenging formal recital piece for any percussionist. Two players perform the piece facing each other, sharing instruments just as they share in playing almost every rhythm in the piece. The listener is engaged aurally and visually as both performers sound like one in an exciting and captivating percussive showcase.
I've wanted to play this piece for so
Continuing the challenge of playing Ross Edwards' pieces, I decided to also play 'More Marimba Dances' by the Australian composer. Dancers Grace Miel and Juwai Pitkin joined me for this set of dances as well.
This set of marimba dances is similar to the first in terms of tonality and ideas though it still manages to clearly set itself apart. I loved working on the first movement because of an image my teacher, Vanessa Tomlinson, suggested. She created an image of two birds communicating
Rhythm Magic is a rudimental-style snare drum solo written by Australian master drummer and percussionist David Jones. It features many interesting sticking patterns and rhythmic groupings and my mate Lachlan Hawkins and I arranged it last year for his honours recital.
What we have done is expanded the solo, playing the piece three times – each time with some changes:
First time
Is played as written. I mirrored Locky’s stickings and some movements as well. We both learnt percussion
Marimba Dances, by Ross Edwards was my audition piece into the conservatorium. I played the first movement of the piece for my audition and only realised through the years that not only was there more to Marimba Dances, there was also ‘More Marimba Dances’ by Ross Edwards.
In one of my lessons with my teacher, Vanessa Tomlinson, she brought forward the idea of imagining a story for each section of the piece. We thought of birds straight away and I began thinking of incorporating the imagery
The multi percussion piece to rule them all! XY was the challenge of a lifetime and sort of like a movie where the character has to endure through a hard task to find that afterwards everything makes sense. Only in a movie it takes a montage and in real life it takes a lot of time!
XY is a multi percussion composition by Michael Gordon for 5 drums which focuses on the phasing in volume between your left and right hands. A simple idea, though this is done while playing polyrhythms
So the time has come to finally share my graduating recital! It was an exhilarating experience to play some music that I have been waiting to perform for years and to share the stage with my dad, my best friends Lachlan Hawkins and Jamee Seeto, my brothers from Spankinhide, Elliott Orr and Piers Langford, choreographers and dancers Grace Miel and Juwai Pitikin and finally the whole Queensland Conservatorium Percussion department. I chose to present a concert showcasing my musical journey from
SoundStruck has been invited to perform at the Flying Pepper Cafe & Restaurant at Rochedale to raise funds for recent tragedies in Tonga and Cambodia. I'll be joined by Lachlan, Tom and Andy to perform our signature bucket jams, choreographed drumming pieces and paint drumming! This concert will also showcase a bit of Lachlan's handpan music as SoundStruck plays a bit of mellow music and we take up a bit of auxilary percussion.
The event is organised by a good friend Sophie Min, a
