by Rick Mattingly

Former Boston Symphony Orchestra percussionist Arthur Press died on Nov. 5, 2026, at age 96.

Born on July 9, 1930, in Brooklyn, New York, Arthur Charles Press bought his first pair of drumsticks while a freshman in high school. Soon, he got a small set of drums. Press began studying drums with Roy Harte, and later he took lessons from a show drummer named Sammy Gershack. The music department in his Brooklyn high school had an orchestra, concert band, and swing band, all of which Arthur participated in. He also played in Dean Dixon’s All-American Youth Orchestra and the YMHA Symphony in Brooklyn. During his final year in high school, he began studying with Morris “Moe” Goldenberg at the Juilliard School, which he attended after high school.

Upon his graduation from Juilliard in 1952, Arthur became solo percussionist with the Radio City Music Hall orchestra, a job he held until becoming a percussionist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Boston Pops in 1956. Eventually he was named Assistant Timpanist and Percussionist for the Boston Symphony and Principal Timpanist with the Boston Pops. 

“That’s a 52-weeks-a-year job,” he said of the BSO in 1984, “and my life is spent keeping my artistry up to the level demanded by the job. When I go on vacation, I take a pair of sticks with me. It never stops; if you want to play, you have to practice. Every day is a learning experience. Every day I realize that there’s so much I don’t know. When you’re playing professionally, the hardest job is to stay professional. There’s no such thing as ‘Well, you’ve made it, now you can relax.’”

Besides playing with the BSO and the Pops, Arthur also played drumset with the orchestra’s jazz band, the Renaissance Jazz Ensemble. “I worked my way through my first couple of years at Juilliard by playing club dates,” Arthur explained. “I also had a lot of experience playing Latin drums. Everything you do in music you are going to be able to utilize, whether it’s playing a Jewish or Greek wedding or playing Latin music.”

Press also had a significant career as an educator. Besides teaching at Tanglewood (summer home of the Boston Symphony), he became Head of Percussion at the Boston Conservatory of Music (now The Boston Conservatory at Berklee), where he began teaching during the 1968–69 academic year. “Arthur invited me to join him on the faculty of The Boston Conservatory, eventually asking me to become Chair of the Percussion program,” said Neil Grover. “In that capacity I observed Arthur’s successes as a wonderful teacher of percussion. Not only is he a world-class percussionist, but he is a highly respected educator and musical scholar.”

Press also invited Nancy Zeltsman to teach at Boston Conservatory. “Arthur created a feeling of a safe space for free-flowing ideas,” Zeltsman said. “That stuck with me and probably influenced how I came to brainstorm future projects. In the fall of 1993, I was invited to begin teaching alongside Arthur at The Boston Conservatory. I likely owe my now-30-year teaching position to Arthur Press.”

Press also founded his own teaching studio, the Percussion Academy. A flier from the studio listed “Jazz, Rock, Latin, Classical Percussion, Timpani, Vibraphone, Marimba” and “Private Instruction utilizing Stereo, Tapes, and Records.” 

Kenny Aronoff started studying with Press at The Percussion Academy when Kenny was a sophomore in high school. He says that Arthur was a very important influence on his eventual success. “He wanted everyone who took lessons from him to take it as seriously as he did,: Aronoff said. “By the time I graduated from high school, I was practicing eight hours a day. Arthur instilled in me hard work, self-discipline, and perseverance, and once you learn that, you can apply it to anything.”

For those who couldn’t study with Press privately, there was his audio-plus-book set, Classical Percussion, published by Music Minus One in the mid-1970s. The package contained three vinyl records and a book with exercises and excerpts from classical masterpieces for snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, castanets, tambourine, and triangle with performance suggestions. The vinyl records (later available with CDs and now with online audio content) contained narrated instruction, with each piece demonstrated solo, then given again with soloist and ensemble, as well as a play-along version with orchestral accompaniment minus the percussion part. An excerpt from the book was published by Belwin-Mills as Mallet Repair, and a revised version of that book was later published by Alfred Music. In the 1980s, Press also wrote several articles on symphonic playing for Modern Percussionist magazine.

Press retired from the Boston Symphony in 1992 and The Boston Conservatory in 1994 to take care of his wife, who had cancer. Before retiring, Press played on over 50 recordings by the Boston Symphony, and he also recorded the Bartok “Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion” with Vic Firth and the Boston Chamber Orchestra in addition to recording with Empire Brass. After his wife’s death, Arthur moved to Birmingham, Alabama, and for several years he often played with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. Press was elected to the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2023.

“Arthur Press was in many ways the heartbeat of the Boston Symphony Orchestra percussion section,” recalls Frank Epstein, a longtime percussionist with the BSO. “Always positive, helpful, and supportive of his colleagues, Arthur was the backbone of the section. He was a consummate professional and a gifted percussionist, and his snare drum playing was second to none. He was a gentleman, he dressed in a stylish manner, and he was a gifted orator and a wonderful teller of jokes. He was also a devoted teacher. There are many fine percussionists around today who studied with Arthur and can remember his supportive nature.”