The Michigan State University Percussion Ensemble focuses on the performance of unconducted chamber music from a wide-range of repertoire from classic traditional pieces to new commissioned works and includes multiple African Diaspora drumming ensembles under the direction of Gwendolyn Dease, Jon Weber and Kevin Jones. The award-winning ensemble includes undergraduate students majoring in music performance, music education and composition, and graduate students in the masters, performance diploma and doctoral program. Current members of the ensemble come from Taiwan, South Korea, Texas, Florida, Nevada, Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, Iowa, Ohio and Michigan. The ensemble has been invited to perform at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the McCormick Marimba Festival, the Blue Griffin Recital Series, The TubaBach Festival and many other venues. The ensemble promotes the creation of new music and has commissioned and premiered new works by composers such as Alejandro Vinao, Andrea Clearfield, Molly Joyce, Roshanne Etezady, James Wood, Martin Bresnick and Peter Klatzow. Alumni and current members represent a wide range of interests and accomplishments. They include a Fulbright Scholar and prize winners at the Great Plains Marimba Competition, the Southern California Marimba Competition, the Australian International Marimba Competition, the Taiwan International Percussion Championship, the Barbara Wagner Chamber Music Competition, Brownsville Marimba Competition and the White Lake Solo Competition. They have attended prestigious summer festivals including Aspen, Brevard, Chautauqua, National Orchestral Institute, Bang on a Can, Yellow Barn, Soundscape, the BANFF Indigenous Musician’s Residency, Cortona, SoSi and the Sandbox Seminar. Students and graduates of the ensemble have performed with leading symphony orchestras including the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, the Detroit and Grand Rapids Symphony among others. Alumni hold teaching positions at colleges, universities and K-12 music programs in Argentina, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and across the US including the University of Kansas, Missouri State University, the University of Central Missouri, Boise State University, Virginia State University, the University of Oklahoma, North Dakota State University, Elon University, San Francisco State University and the University of Louisiana, Monroe.