by Lauren Vogel Weiss

Marshall Edison Maley, Jr., owner of Maley’s Music in Arlington, Virginia, died on July 28, 2015 from complications of sarcoidosis. He was an active percussion instructor and freelance musician in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, playing jazz, rock, show, and classical music. Maley had performed with the Baltimore Symphony, Eugene Fodor, Hour of Power Orchestra, Patti Lupone, The Sesame Street Show, and Yakov Smirnoff. For eleven years he worked in and led the big band at Andrews Air Force Base Officer’s Club. Additional studio/media performances included the soundtrack for television’s America’s Most Wanted and WMAL radio appearances.    

Maley was on the faculty at the University of Mary Washington, Prince Georges’ Community College, and Northern Virginia Community College. From 1986–2006 he taught at his alma mater, George Mason University, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He was also an instructor at the Goucher College Summer Arts Institute (2007–2008). In 2000, 2002, and 2004, Maley received the Governors’ School Outstanding Teacher Award, presented by the Virginia Department of Education. In addition to teaching at the university level, he also wrote for and instructed numerous high school drumlines and concert percussion sections in Northern Virginia.    

Maley served as President of the PAS Virginia/DC Chapter for almost three decades, resigning his position on March 31 of 2015 due to health reasons. He received the PAS Outstanding Chapter President award in 1997. He also served on the PAS Education and Drumset Committees and had articles published in Percussive Notes magazine. Maley presented drumset FUNdamentals clinics at PASIC 2004 (Nashville) and PASIC 2000 (Dallas) and an accessory percussion FUNdamentals clinic at PASIC ’96 (Nashville). Maley was also a member of the PASIC ’86 Planning Committee and served as the local coordinator for the PASIC Marching Forum when PAS celebrated its 25th anniversary in the nation’s capital.    

“PAS in Virginia/DC has been my heart for my entire professional life,” Maley wrote in his resignation letter earlier this year. “I participated in the very first [Virginia] Day of Percussion at Fairfax High School in 1966—five years before VA/DC PAS was chartered. When I assumed the role of chapter president, we…funded smaller regional events, thus exposing PAS to all regions of our chapter…. My involvement with PAS was purely out of a sense of duty and responsibility, which I learned from my high school teacher, who learned the same attitude from his teachers, Roy Knapp and Claire Musser. But at this moment in my life, I must attend to my…own health. It is, therefore, with profound sadness that I must step aside from my chapter duties.”

Author’s Note: I first met Marshall at PASIC ’86 and we shared a passion for percussion and PAS. Over the years I have attended many Virginia PAS events, worked with him on PAS projects, and seen the joy his granddaughters brought to his life. PAS has lost one of its most dedicated supporters. He will be missed in Virginia, as well as in San Antonio this fall.