Gamelan D’Drum at the Aspen Music Festival

“Gamelan D’Drum” took on a new life thanks to composer Stewart Copeland’s collaboration with percussionist and conductor Jonathan Haas. Originally written for an orchestra and the “mad Texans who are D’Drum,” as Copeland affectionately called them – Ron Snider, John Bryant, Doug Howard, and Ed Smith – the piece had not been performed since PASIC 2015.

Haas, Director of Percussion Studies at the Steinhardt School at New York University, as well as a faculty artist at the Aspen Music School, revisited Copeland’s original 2011 composition and, with the help of fellow NYU faculty member Sean Statser, transformed it from a work for symphony orchestra and the D’Drum percussionists into a piece for a large percussion ensemble. “The new arrangement brings the gamelan-inspired music into a world of marimbas, mallet instruments, drums and other percussion,” Haas explained, “allowing the intricate rhythms and colors of Copeland’s original to speak through an entirely new sonic palette.” Copeland approved the reimagining, which Haas conducted in its world premiere at Colorado’s Aspen Music Festival on August 17, 2026. In addition to Copeland, original D’Drum members Bryant and Smith were in attendance.

Student soloists for this performance included Marcus Alvarado (currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Texas at Austin), John Hanchey (a senior at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee), Jordan Katz (a senior at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University), Will Morgan (a first-year Percussion Fellow at the New World Symphony), and Xavier Zwick (a junior at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California).

Other members of the 2026 Aspen Music Festival School (AMFS) Percussion Ensemble were Frank Bao, Kitty Chao, Xin Yi Chong, Jack Fischer, Matt Garcia, Nava Gold, Seth Hooker, William Huang, Minwoo Jeong, Karl Lee, Issac Lutz, Grant Mellone, Justin Melvin, Cory Sittinger, Halle Song, and Kevin Tan. The concert opened with a performance of the first movement of Takuo Kochi’s “Nirai Kanai Folk Suite” for Percussion Ensemble.

Many of the original D’Drum instruments were in Aspen for this performance, having been acquired by NYU from Ron Snider’s estate after his passing in November 2020. From the orchestrally-tuned gamelan, to gongs and Javanese drums, the stage was covered with percussion instruments.

After the concert, the Aspen Film Festival hosted a special screening of Bryant’s 2015 documentary film Dare to Drum, which chronicled the composition process and premiere concert with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, at the Isis Theater in Aspen. Following the showing, Haas moderated a question-and-answer session with Copeland, Bryant, and Smith. For those who have not yet seen the film, it is available for rental or purchase on Prime, Apple, and YouTube.

More information on the original piece, “Gamelan D’Drum,” can be found in the July 2015 issue of Percussive Notes.

The NYU Percussion Ensemble will perform this arrangement again on December 7, 2026 at 8:00 pm at the Iris Cantor Theater in NYU’s Paulson Center.