Short press bio
Dr. Glenn Schaft is Associate Professor and Director of Percussion Studies at Youngstown State University where he has served since 1996. He directs the YSU Percussion Ensemble, teaches private and group lessons, performs with the Faculty Jazz Group, serves as faculty advisor for the Youngstown Percussion Collective, and is founder of the SMARTS RHYTHMS Drum Circle Educational Outreach Program. His performance and teaching credits include over thirty-three years of experience in classical, contemporary, world, jazz/improvised, and popular music. He is an educational artist endorser with Zildjian, ProMark, Remo, and Black Swamp Percussion. He has performed and presented clinics throughout the United States and China. He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society and serves on the College Pedagogy and Drumset Educators Committee's.
For further information please contact geschaft@ysu.edu or www.ysu.edu/percussion
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Long press bio
Dr. Glenn Schaft is Associate Professor and Director of Percussion Studies at Youngstown State University where he has served since 1996. He directs the YSU Percussion Ensemble, teaches private and group lessons, performs with the Faculty Jazz Group, serves as faculty advisor for the Youngstown Percussion Collective, and is founder of the SMARTS RHYTHMS Drum Circle Educational Outreach Program. Glenn hosted the 2006 PAS Ohio Day of Percussion and three Afro-Cuban Arts Festivals at YSU. He produced and performed on the recently released recording Dark Wood featuring the YSU Percussion Ensemble and the Youngstown Percussion Collective. He is an educational endorser with Avedis Zildjian, ProMark, Remo, and Black Swamp Percussion. He has performed and presented clinics and masterclasses throughout the United States and China. He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society and serves on the College Pedagogy Committee and the Drumset Educators Committee. He recently completed a sabbatical leave to begin writing a drumset book.
His
performance credits include over 33 years of orchestral percussion,
contemporary music, world music, and diverse drumset experience. He has toured
the United States, Cuba, and China and has performed with the Colorado Music
Festival, Youngstown Percussion Collective, Battu World Percussion Group, Akron
Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Ohio Chamber
Orchestra, Cleveland Ballet, Cleveland Opera, Chuck Berry, Stewart Copeland,
Paquito D”Rivera, Jim McNeely, Sean Jones, Chip Stephens, Dan Wall, Allison
Krauss, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Marvin Stamm, and numerous others. He appears
as soloist on Dave Morgan’s Reactions
for drumset and wind band recorded with the YSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble on
their 2005 release Spin Cycle, winner
of the Downbeat magazine award for
Outstanding College Wind Ensemble Recording.
Glenn earned
the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana
with Tom Siwe, the Master of Arts from Eastern Illinois University with Johnny
Lee Lane, and the Bachelor of Music from Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory
with George Kiteley. He pursued post-doctoral studies and served as a graduate
assistant/manager of the New Music Associates a professional ensemble in-residence
at Cleveland State University and studied contemporary music with Edwin London.
He has studied with Tom Freer and Jay Burnham of the Cleveland Orchestra,
drumset with John Riley, Lewis Nash, John Hollenbeck, and Harold Damas,
Afro-Cuban percussion with Roberto Vizcaino, Fermin Nani, and Santiago Nani at
the National School of the Arts in Havana, Cuba through an Ohio Arts Council
Grant, with Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio Hernandez, Glen Velez, Jamie Haddad, and
Trichi Sankaran at the Berklee College of Music World Percussion Festival, drum
circle facilitation with Christine Stevens at the Remo Health Rhythms Workshop,
ethnomusicology with Bruno Nettl, Charles Capwell, Tom Torino, and jazz
composition with Alan Horney.
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Orchestra/concerto soloist bio -
revised 12/15/10
Glenn earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance and Literature at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, the Master of Arts at Eastern Illinois, the Bachelor of Music at Baldwin-Wallace College, and completed post-doctoral studies at Cleveland State University.
Glenn's twice toured China with the YSU Faculty Jazz Group appearing at acclaimed universities in Beijing, Nanjing, and Hangzhou. He performed composer Lou Harrison’s percussion and dance pieces with the Youngstown Percussion Collective and the Cleveland Dance Theater Collective at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Louisville, Kentucky and performed Edgard Varese's Ionization at the Percussive Arts Society Pennsylvania Day of Percussion with Peter Erskine and the Pittsburgh Symphony percussion section. Glenn recorded Dave Morgan’s concerto Reactions for drumset and wind band with the YSU Wind Ensemble, on the critically acclaimed Dark Wood, which also features the YSU Percussion Ensemble and Youngstown Percussion Collective. Glenn recorded Time Mark, for multiple percussion & tape on Scott Wyatt's Collections II for chamber music and electronics and recorded seven discs with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony on GM records. Glenn's symphonic experience includes the Colorado Music Festival, Akron Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Springfield Symphony, Duluth-Superior Symphony, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Cleveland Ballet, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, Robert Page Singers, and the Air Force Band of Mid-America. He has performed contemporary and world percussion music with BATTU "Artists In Residence" at Baldwin-Wallace College and at the Skaneateles Chamber Music Festival with Trichi Sankaran, Julie Newell, and others. As a drumset artist Glenn performed Cleveland Opera’s world premiere of Stewart Copeland’s Holy Blood and Crescent Moon, with rock & roll legend Chuck Berry, and numerous jazz artists such as Paquito D”Rivera, Jim McNeely, Sean Jones, Chip Stephens, Dan Wall, Marvin Stamm, Nick Brignola, John Fedchock, Randy Johnston, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, and a 25-state tour with the "1940's Radio Hour Show".
Glenn's principal teachers include Harold Damas, George Kiteley, Johnny Lee Lane, and Tomas Siwe and Tom Freer and Jay Burnham of the Cleveland Orchestra. Glenn studied drumset with John Riley, Lewis Nash, and John Hollenbeck, Afro-Cuban percussion with Roberto Vizcaino, Fermin Nani, and Santiago Nani at the National School of the Arts in Havana, Cuba through an Ohio Arts Council Grant, with Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio Hernandez, Glen Velez, Jamie Haddad, and Trichi Sankaran at the Berklee College of Music World Percussion Festival, drum circle facilitation with Christine Stevens at the Remo Health Rhythms Workshop, ethnomusicology with Bruno Nettl, Charles Capwell, Tom Torino, and jazz composition with Alan Horney.
Glenn has taught at Eastern Illinois University, Parkland College, the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Baldwin-Wallace College, University of Minnesota-Duluth, Concordia College, Moorhead State University, North Dakota State University, Cuyahoga Community College, and has presented clinics, master-classes, and lectures throughout the United States and China.
Glenn was born in Berea, Ohio and began playing drums at the age of two. He lives in Poland, Ohio with his wife Sara, a violinist and their twin boys Lewis and Karl.
Glenn is presently the Director of Percussion Studies at Youngstown State University where he directs the Percussion Ensemble, teaches private and group lessons, is co-founder and faculty advisor for the Youngstown Percussion Collective, and founder of the College of Fine and Performing Arts SMARTS drum circle outreach program. Glenn is an educational artist-endorser with Avedis Zildjian Co., ProMark Inc., Remo Inc., and Black Swamp Percussion and a long-standing member of the Percussive Arts Society, serving on the College Pedagogy and Drumset Educators Committees