ABOUT Aaron Ragsdale

SESSION TITLE: The Right Lick with the Right Stick (and Right Quick): Development, Motivation and Maturation of Keyboard Percussionists in the Contemporary Band Program

VIRTUAL SESSION DATE & TIME: Coming soon…

Aaron Ragsdale is Professor of Percussion at South Dakota State University where he teaches applied percussion and percussion pedagogy, conducts the SDSU Percussion Ensemble, and serves as Assistant Director for the Pride of the Dakotas Marching Band. In addition to his performance slate with the South Dakota Symphony, Aaron has maintained an active career as a solo and chamber performer, appearing at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the National Convention on Percussion Pedagogy, and the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, among others. 

His playing can be heard on his March 2017 release with saxophonist Nathan Jorgensen, A Miraculous Tale: Mixed Music for Percussion and Saxophone and on the 2021 release Resonance, an album of new works for flute and percussion with flutist Tammy Yonce recorded at the Tank Center for Sonic Arts in Rangely, CO. Ragsdale has premiered and commissioned over 30 works for percussion in solo or chamber settings by composers including Adam Silverman, Steven Snowden, Roshanne Etezady, Nick Zammuto, Katherine Bergman, Jay Batzner, Dave Hall, Gene Koshinski, Alicia Jane Turner, Kimberly Osberg, Emma O’Halloran, Ivan Trevino, and David Skidmore. In addition, his percussion quartet, Opener for R.H., co-composed with Barrett Hipes, is published by Studio 4 Music and has been performed by ensembles around the United States. He has a work for large percussion ensemble, Graceful Circles, forthcoming from C. Alan Publications. 

A native of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Aaron holds a DMA from Rutgers University, an MM from the University of Arkansas, and a BME from the University of Oklahoma. His teachers have included She-e Wu, Bob Becker, Alan Abel, Richard Gipson, and Chalon Ragsdale. He lives in Brookings, SD with his wife, Ashley, and children, Liv and Harrison.