Percussion Studio

Alma College Percussion Studio
David Zerbe, Director

Percussion ensemble students playing during Resonance at the Detroit Opera House

Alma’s Percussion Ensemble is in a class all its own. As the group tours around the country, invited to selective events like the Annual Notre Dame University Jazz Festival, the Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival and the Port Townsend Jazz Festival, it’s not just members of the Alma College family who sing their praises.

Grammy-winning bassist/composer/conductor John Clayton, who serves as artistic director for the Centrum Jazz Workshop in Port Townsend, Wash., is effusive in his praise:

“The Alma College ensemble left a packed house at the Notre Dame Jazz Festival, the Clayton Brothers’ members, and me with our jaws on the floor when we heard them. It wasn’t just precision, it was passion. It wasn’t just synched, it was soulful. It was exciting, it was beautiful, and it was an experience that no one in the audience would forget. Is there a better place to go to study mallet percussion? I think not.”

The Percussion Ensemble, founded in 1989 by David Zerbe, is a multi-faceted performance ensemble. The group performs traditional chamber music as well as world music, jazz, and steel drum music.

Please contact David Zerbe at the Alma College Percussion Studio for more information at percussionstudio@alma.edu.

 

Alma College is one of the first undergraduate colleges in the United States to belong to the International Criminal Court Student Network (ICCSN). Created in 2006 by students at the London School of Economics, the ICCSN aims to promote the work of the ICC and increase knowledge of international criminal law. Alma joins Duke University School of Law, the University of Cambridge and other institutions in a global community that connects students who share an interest in the ICC.

 

Faculty Profile

Dr. Will Nichols

Dr. Will Nichols
Departments: Music

Dr. Nichols conducts the Alma College Choir, the College Chorale and the Women’s Glee Club. Under his leadership the Alma Choirs have become one of the nation’s highly regarded collegiate choral programs.