PAS Percussion Ensemble Competition & Festival
at Portland State University
Saturday, April 19, 2025
Hosted by Chris Whyte
Portland State University
Lincoln Hall
1620 SW Park Ave
Portland, OR 97201
PAS Group Member
$250
Non-PAS Group Member
$400
Learn more about becoming a PAS Group Member here.
Only one registration per school/organization will be accepted up until one month prior to the chosen event.
Judges
Scott Farkas
Scott Farkas is a musician, educator, and creative artist based in Tacoma, Washington, with a passion for connecting communities through music and art. He believes that everyone can—and should—make music for their whole lives. With a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in percussion from the University of Washington and degrees in percussion and composition from SUNY Fredonia and the University of Akron, Scott has built a career rooted in creativity, collaboration, and lifelong musicianship.
Scott draws inspiration from composers like Danny Clay, Kenneth Maue, and Jenny Beck, creating and performing participatory, instruction-based pieces that blur the line between audience and performer. His projects celebrate music as a universal, joyful language, making experimental art accessible to people of all experience levels.
Growing up near New York City, Scott studied percussion with Glenn Rhian, a Broadway percussionist, and later explored classical and experimental music with Kay Stonefelt and Bonnie Whiting, drum set with John Bacon and Ted Poor, and music from non-Western cultures with Bernard Woma and Tiffany Nicely. His performance credits include the Seattle Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, and Greenwich Symphony, as well as solo performances of works like James Romig’s Small Infinities glockenspiel concerto and Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto.
From 2012 to 2022, Scott served as a professor and Chair of Visual and Performing Arts at the College of Southern Idaho, where he directed initiatives like the Stage Door Series and hosted the Idaho premiere of John Luther Adams’ Inuksuit. He also hosted the Northwest Percussion Festival and a week-long residency of the Saakumu Dance Troupe from Ghana.
Now based in the Pacific Northwest, Scott continues to lead impactful projects like Playsound | Playground, an interactive sound installation co-created with Paulina Michels and exhibited in Seattle and Portland in the spring of 2023. He currently teaches percussion and chamber music at Pierce College, South Puget Sound Community College, and Graham-Kapowsin High School. Whether teaching, performing, or developing collaborative works, he remains committed to fostering a world where everyone has the opportunity to make and share music. Follow his journey on Instagram at @scottfarkaspercussion or visit scottfarkas.com.
Ji Hye Jung
Praised as “spectacular” by the Los Angeles Times and “extraordinary” by the Ventura County Star, the Times describes percussionist Ji Hye Jung as “a centered player who can give the impression of being very still yet at all places at once”.
Ms. Jung began concertizing in her native South Korea at the age of nine where she performed more than 100 concerts including solo appearances with every majororchestra in Korea. Soon after coming to the United States in 2004, Ms. Jung garnered consecutive first prizes at the 2006 Linz International Marimba Competition and the 2007 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition.
With percussion repertoire still in its formative stages, Ms. Jung feels strongly about collaborating with composers to further the creation of a new voice for the art form. She has commissioned and premiered works by several important composers including, Kevin Puts, Alejandro Viñao, Paul Lansky, John Serry, Lukas Ligeti, and Jason Treuting. In 2013 she made the premier recording of Michael Torke’s marimba concerto Mojave and in 2014 recorded Phillip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra for the Naxos label.
Ms. Jung frequently performs with many of today’s most important conductors and instrumentalists. For six years she has served as principal percussionist with the west coast-based chamber music ensemble Camerata Pacifica, with whom she has premiered works by Bright Sheng and Huang Ruo. She has also recorded Stravinsky’s Les Noces with JoAnn Falletta at the Virginia Arts Festival, performed as soloist with David Robertson conducting an all Messiaen program at Carnegie Hall, and made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony under the baton of Hans Graf in 2005.
Other performance credits include appearances at Portugal’s Tomarimbando Festival, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland, The Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Grachtenfestival in Holland.
In 2015 Ji Hye Jung was named Associate Professor of Percussion at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. She previously served as Associate Professor of Percussion at the University of Kansas for six years. An active educator and clinician, Jung has presented masterclasses at the Curtis Institute, the Peabody Conservatory, Rice University, Beijing’s Central Conservatory, and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland.
Ji Hye Jung completed a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, both under the tutelage of Robert van Sice. As an artist endorser, she proudly represents Pearl/Adams instruments, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, and Zildjian cymbals.
