ABOUT Luke Helker

SESSION TITLE: Materials that Matter: A Context Driven Approach to Repertoire with Found Objects

VIRTUAL SESSION DATE & TIME: Coming soon…

Dr. Lucas Helker serves as the Assistant Professor of Percussion at Fort Hays State University. He received his M.M. and D.M.A. from the University of Kansas where he studied with Dr. Michael Compitello and Dr. Sam Um. 

As an active performer of new music, Luke has commissioned or premiered new works for percussion from such esteemed composers as Jenni Brandon, Kevin Day, Nicholas Tran, and Daijana Wallace, among others. His annual concert series, Ears to the Earth, has initiated the creation of some of these works in addition to providing a platform to combine musical performance with local outreach. Luke has also had the privilege to perform with Yarn/Wire, members of the International Contemporary Ensemble, So Percussion, and Sandbox Percussion and regularly performs with local ensembles such as the Free State Brass Band, the Crossroads Wind Symphony, and the Extemporaneous Music and Arts Society of Kansas City. 

As an educator, Luke has previously taught at Benedictine College and the Bishop Seabury Academy, the latter of which he helped establish their instrumental music program. He remains an in-demand instructor for the marching arts, having toured with the Jersey Surf Drum and Bugle Corps and assisting with variety of high school programs in Pennsylvania and Kansas. 

Luke is also an active academic, regularly presenting (and often performing) at conferences including the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the Kansas Music Educators Association In-Service Workshop, and the joint meeting for the American Musicological Society and Society for Music Theory. His research often focuses on the performance practice around found objects in the percussion repertoire and music that engages with the natural world.