Hall of Fame

The Voice of Marching Percussion By Lauren Vogel Weiss “On the starting line, from Bayonne, New Jersey, the Bridgemen…from Hawthorne, New Jersey, the Muchachos…from Bloomington, Indiana, Star of Indiana!” These are but a few of the drum and bugle corps that Dennis DeLucia has coached during his career. He is the only instructor to win the…

The Man Behind the Mallets By Lauren Vogel Weiss Percussionists today may take for granted the enormous selection of mallets available to them, from ones that can entice the softest soft to those that can produce the loudest loud. But as recently as 40 years ago, choices were limited to soft, medium, and hard. In 1976,…

 by Garwood Whaley  In 1996, while I was president of PAS, I was honored to be invited to represent PAS at the Taipei International Percussion Festival by its founder, Tzong-Ching Ju. Since PAS had no budget for such an expensive trip, Mr. Ju graciously volunteered to pay all expenses for my wife and me. Together…

 by Lauren Vogel Weiss  He dreamed of being a timpanist in a major symphony orchestra. He almost changed careers to work with underprivileged children. But fortunately for the world of music, Ed Soph kept returning to the drumset, making the multiple-percussion instrument sing with music. Edward “Ed” Soph (which rhymes with “loaf”) was born in…

by Lauren Vogel Weiss Chamber music is defined as a small ensemble, usually one player per part, with the members themselves serving as artistic directors. These conductor-less groups have been around for centuries, usually as string quartets, woodwind trios, or brass quintets. But during the mid-20th century, a new form of chamber music began to…

by Rick Mattingly Javier Nandayapa remembers a time in 1989 when Marimba Nandayapa was scheduled to play a concert at a police department building in Mexico City. There were five musicians in Marimba Nandayapa; there were three people in the audience. Javier, who had just started playing with the group, was angry that the concert…

by Rick Mattingly Bobby Hutcherson’s career didn’t get off to a very promising start. Although he hadn’t been playing very long, he and a friend who played bass entered a music contest. His friend marked the bars on Hutcherson’s vibraphone with a marker so he would know what notes to play. But, as Hutcherson told…

by Lauren Vogel Weiss From jazz to calypso, steel band, and world music, Andy Narell has made the steel pan his life’s calling. As a performer, composer, and educator, he brings the music of the pan to people all over the world. I was very moved,” he says about receiving the news that he was…

by Lauren Vogel Weiss Richard Weiner was an integral part of the “Cleveland sound” for almost a half-century, during which time he served as principal percussionist of the Cleveland Orchestra. From the delicate jingle of the tambourine to the roar of the bass drum, he provided the perfect “color” on top of the shimmering strings…

by Robyn Flans Reflecting back on his life, drummer/percussionist Joe Porcaro knows that one decision above all others was life-changing: he needed to move from Hartford, Connecticut to Los Angeles. “I got to the point in my life where I knew I couldn’t go any further,” Porcaro explained. “I was doing a lot of symphony…