By Rick Mattingly

“Jim Petercsak is a legend as an educator, author, past-president of PAS, conductor, clinician, composer, award winner, and virtuoso player,” says Nexus member Gary Kvistad. “He has played with the best of the best and his students — who must number in the thousands! — hold major positions in orchestras, education, and as music-industry leaders.”

A PAS Hall of Fame nomination letter co-written by former PAS President Rich Holly and Quadrant Research CEO Bob Morrison stated: “Jim has led and continues to lead a life of significant dedication to and leadership in the percussive arts and the music business fields. Most importantly, nowhere can his 50+ years of leadership still be felt more than within the Percussive Arts Society.”

James Julius Petercsak was born August 2, 1944, in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. He first studied drumming with teacher, music publisher, drummer, and future PAS Hall of Fame member Henry Adler in New York City. Petercsak also studied with Charlie Tappan, Doug Allen, and Jack Jennings. He then attended the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with legendary college percussion professor and future PAS Hall of Fame member Paul Price. Jim was a senior member of the Manhattan Percussion Ensemble, conducted by Price, that performed in Eastern and Western Europe and the Middle East under the auspices of the U.S. State Department’s Cultural Presentations Program. During that time, Jim began his work as a professional percussionist in New York and New Jersey.

He became adept both in classical and jazz settings and performed with such artists as Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Rene Fleming, the American Symphony, the New Jersey State Opera, the New York City Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre. As a drummer-percussionist, he has performed during five decades with such entertainers as Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughan, Cleo Laine, Nancy Wilson, Della Reese, Carol Channing, Liza Minelli, Shirley Bassey, Dionne Warwick, Billy Eckstine, Jack Jones, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, George Benson, Sammy Davis Jr., Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Vic Damone, Jerry Vale, Glen Campbell, Liberace, Henry Mancini, Michel Legrand, Jimmy Roselli, Joel Grey, Jerry Vale, Tom Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Barry Manilow, Melissa Manchester, Rosemary Clooney, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, and Pearl Bailey and Louie Bellson, to name just a few..

For 25 years, Jim was the principal percussionist at the Garden State Arts Center, and he has also performed at Wolf Trap, the Heinz Theatre, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Lincoln Center, many of the former Catskills resorts, and on Boston Common. 

After earning his BM and MM degrees in percussion from the Manhattan School of Music, Jim joined the faculty of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam in 1968, following PAS Hall of Fame member and former PAS President Sandy Feldstein. Petercsak headed up the percussion department there for 55 years, teaching generations of percussion students, expanding the curriculum, and initiating music education courses in percussion techniques for non-percussion majors.

“Teaching and playing all went together,” Petercsak says. “At Henry Adler’s studio and other music stores, professional players would come in and teach lessons — people like Phil Krauss, Ed Shaughnessy, Roy Burns, Sonny Igoe. It was all one profession. Once you started playing professionally, you acquired enough information to start teaching. My high school band director also played gigs in town. So becoming a teacher seemed to me to be a logical progression.”

Petercsak expanded the curriculum at SUNY Potsdam to include a wide variety of drumming styles. “We made room for all styles and players,” he says, proudly. “That’s important in a school like State University because they get students from many different backgrounds, and I think we have a mandate to let all of those students study and learn — maybe some areas they are not so familiar with. We want to accommodate all qualified students. For example, 30 or 40 years ago, most music schools and conservatories didn’t have a jazz program. But now almost all of them do. We probably made it difficult for ourselves. Look at what the students must accomplish today. You have to take lessons from multiple teachers, you have to purchase equipment, you have to buy many books — it’s a tough profession and business to be in. But it’s rewarding!”

He is especially proud of having directed the award-winning Crane Percussion Ensemble, and presenting concerts in New York City, Chicago, and Anaheim, California. “I was very keen on percussion ensemble music after playing in Paul Price’s percussion ensemble at the Manhattan School of Music,” Jim says. “We were very much into contemporary music, which was different from most schools. That’s one of the reasons I attended Manhattan. Henry Adler had told me, ‘They are doing a lot of percussion ensemble music at the Manhattan School, and that looks like the future of percussion education: all the instruments playing together. You should take a look at that.’ It was good advice.”

Jim held the rank of SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor from 1991 until his retirement in 2023, and he is now a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus. In 2010 Jim received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Manhattan School of Music. He has been recognized as a University Scholar and United University Professionals Best Award Winner. In 2003, he was honored by the SUNY Potsdam Alumni Association with an Honorary Life Membership.

At the 2018 celebration of Petercsak’s 50th year of teaching at Crane, one of his alumni, Ashley Trudell, said, “If you want to see a true reflection of the difference JP has made, you have to look where his students ended up to see the overall impact. There are Crane percussionists teaching on multiple continents. They have students ranging from preschool age all the way through college level. They have doctorates in the field. They are on-demand performers. They are playing professionally on tour, in theaters, on cruise ships, in stadiums, in concert halls, and recording in the studio. They are published composers and arrangers. They are school administrators and advocates for the arts. They are working in the music industry, defining how the business works. They are CEOs of some of the largest music companies in the world. His high expectation for excellence pushed us all to find our true callings.”

Scott Goodman, CEO of Zoom North America observes: “The influence Jim has had on the lives of his students is immeasurable. My relationship with Jim has lasted long after studying with him 45 years ago — and not just mine, but literally hundreds of percussion students at the college. Jim’s support never ended with their graduation.” To commemorate Jim’s dedication and guidance to his students at SUNY Potsdam, Goodman and his wife made a naming gift for Jim’s new studio at Crane and ensured that Crane’s “Percussion Alley” would be forever memorialized in Petercsak’s name.

etercsak has been very involved in the history of the Percussive Arts Society. He first became acquainted with PAS in Chicago. “I didn’t know the Percussive Arts Society was going to be important until I went to a meeting in Chicago at the Midwest Band Clinic around 1970,” Petercsak recalls. “There were hundreds of people at that meeting. I was amazed to see the dialog that took place among the membership. The Executive Committee was on stage, and people were asking them hard questions: Why don’t we do this? Why don’t we do that? Everybody was interested; they wanted to get it going. It was really exciting to see an interactive discussion between the membership and the Executive Committee. A couple of years later PAS started having the Days of Percussion. So it all came together very nicely. I wanted to bring all the New York people I knew into PAS. And when I went to Chicago, I brought all the information I gained back to New York.”

Jim served as PAS President from 1977 to 1982. Gary J Olmstead recalled, “When I served as PAS President, Jim became First Vice-President, then President-elect, and then President. Jim was always extremely helpful in making the important decisions in a crucial period for PAS. He was always ready to give an opinion, to provide assistance, to accept an assignment, to share information, to do research, and to assist with the supervision of committees. Jim’s hand was often the first to go up in meetings and discussions. His honest assessment of issues was often the catalyst for furthering discussion with other members in meetings. He would communicate with and work with anyone willing to share ideas about PAS.”

While serving as PAS Vice-President, and understanding the importance of featuring percussion in numerous music genres and of showcasing the work of the manufacturers and retailers, Petercsak helped to lead the transition from the society’s Days of Percussion in Chicago, to the Percussive Arts Society National Conference, which began in 1974, to what became the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in 1976 at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Petercsak served as the Executive Director of PASIC for eight years, while maintaining his teaching responsibilities in Potsdam.

“The decision of the Board of Directors to move to the PASIC format was particularly important to the longevity of the society,” Olmstead said. “Many questioned the decision at the time. However, the decision turned out to be a game changer for PAS. The tenacity of Jim during his time as First Vice-President and as President was a key factor.”

“At first,” Jim remembers, “PAS was trying to present events, and they needed sponsors. We kept asking the Ludwig company for assistance, because they were the main total percussion company that was supporting our shows. But we couldn’t just keep asking Ludwig to support PAS, so I said we needed to get everyone to come and participate in the organization. And Bill Ludwig said, ‘Great idea!’ So we decided to go to a location where we could do our own international convention, and it had to be a location where we could be successful. I called John Beck at Eastman on behalf of PAS. He bought into the idea and concept, that’s how it started. And then Michael Combs agreed to host it in Knoxville the following year, and we were on our way. Keiko Abe performed, and it was the first time we had an international star perform a solo concert. Saul Goodman and Arnie Lang played the Bartok ‘Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion,’ and we did what we were supposed to do: play music.”

An event that helped to inspire Petercsak to work toward having PAS sponsor an international convention was a show he had attended around 1962 when he was studying at Henry Adler’s studio. “Rogers Drums did a presentation at the Edison Hotel in New York City called Drum-O-Rama, and they had products with space-age names like Dyna-Sonic and Swiv-O-Matic,” Jim says. “Nobody had ever used terms like that for equipment. There were quite a few drummers performing, and Louie Bellson was the headliner. A few days later I went to Philadelphia to see the show again, and hundreds of drummers attended. You could observe there was a big demand to see and hear live performance. It was exciting for drummers and percussionists to play for each other and demonstrate what we do. That’s what takes place at a PAS convention today.

“The Percussive Arts Society has always been predicated on live performance,” Petercsak says. “If we keep presenting live performances with different generations of new and exciting people with enormous talent, we’ve got a winning combination, and it has a chance to be successful for a long time. The most important thing is that when you go to PASIC, there is a great amount of music played, and there is something for everybody to express themselves. I believe all the live performances at PASIC inspire the people who attend to become better players and teachers . The best thing we do is play music.”

During his time as PAS President, Petercsak also oversaw the expansion of the society’s headquarters. For its first two decades, the PAS office had been located in Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1981, the society’s success and growth brought about the need to hire a staff to handle the society’s day-to-day operations. So, PAS rented office space in Urbana, Illinois, where then Vice-President and future PAS President Tom Siwe was head of percussion at the University of Illinois. PAS also hired its first Executive Director, David Via.

Petercsak also increased the influence of marching percussion within PAS. He began the PAS Marching Competition as a vehicle to bring the rudimental and marching folks into the organization. In addition, he established the PAS Rudimental Review Committee with Jay Wanamaker as Chair, which resulted in the establishment of the PAS 40 International Rudiments list. “I brought in Fred Sanford, a leader in marching percussion at the time, when we wanted to have the marching competition, because he was highly respected and a great organizer,” Jim says. “And then we increased the number of rudiments. Inclusiveness is something drummers have done for a long time.”

Following his two terms as PAS President, Petercsak served as an advisor to several presidents and officers who followed him. “During my tenure as president of PAS, I was fortunate to have had Jim’s counsel,” said Tom Siwe. “Whatever success I had was due, in part, to his sage advice and support.”

In 2003, PAS honored Petercsak with its Lifetime Achievement Award in Education. At PASIC 2023 Yamaha announced a PASIC scholarship to be given in Petercsak’s name that will assist students to attend the annual percussion conference. During the 2024 NAMM show, Petercsak was honored with the Percussion Marketing Council’s PlayDrums.com Lifetime Achievement Award for Drum Education.

im is internationally recognized as a performer, educator, clinician, and music industry visionary. As a clinician, he has performed and presented throughout the United States, as well as in Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, Italy, Norway, Belgium, Poland, Austria, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Lebanon, and Brazil. He has numerous publications, articles, and presentations at national and state conferences. Jim was Associate Adjunct Professor at Queens University, Kingston, Canada from 1974–90.

He composed “Snare Drum Solo No. 1,” published by Music for Percussion, and co-authored the books Double Drums with Louis Bellson (Alfred Music), The Roy Burns Big, Bad & Beautiful Drum Set Method with Roy Burns (First Place Music), and Contemporary Collection for Snare Drum with Murray Houllif (Mostly Marimba). In addition, Houllif dedicated many works to Petercsak including “Four Verses for Timpani” (Colla Voce Music), “Whole Tone Piece,” “JP Quartet” (C Alan), and “Four Portraits of Jim – Snare Drum Suite in 4 Movements” (Per-Mus Publications). Jim also commissioned “Digressions for Marimba and Vibraphone” by Bob Shechtman (Music for Percussion).

Petercsak has served as a music-industry consultant to Sabian, Yamaha, Zildjian, Samson Technologies, DCI Music/Video, Time Warner Music, Custom Music, and QuasiProd Ltd. He was instrumental in establishing the Crane Institute for Music Business and Entrepreneurship, which quickly emerged as one of the leading music-industry programs in the nation, specializing in the music products industry. He coordinated the format and the planning of the annual Sandy Feldstein Music Business Roundtable for many years at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, California.

“When you are a drummer or a percussionist, and you’re in that community, there has to be a connection with the manufacturers and the teachers,” he insists. “It’s like a triangle. You have the manufacturers and the retail stores where you can see the equipment and try it out; the teacher is often involved, either in the store or in a school; you have the professional players who might teach or consult with a company. It’s all one group. Percussionists seem to work together very well in that environment. To me, it’s natural to see the connections between the manufacturer/retailer, the teacher/student, and the professional player.”

As a human being, James Petercsak has always been a person of integrity and honor,” said Siwe. “He has compassion for his fellow man, a willingness to share his knowledge, and he brings wit and humor to the table.”

Petercsak likes to quote something Richard Hochrainer said when he was inducted into the PAS Hall of Fame in 1979: “What a wonderful life to be a drummer!”