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KEVIN ERICKSON (b. 1971)

Kevin Erickson is a performer, composer, and educator living in Houston, TX. As an orchestral percussionist and timpanist, Kevin has performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería in Mexico City, and orchestras throughout California and southeast Texas. Performances as a drumset/percussion artist include Dave Brubeck, Shania Twain, Pete Escovedo, Mike Vax, Gabe Baltazar, Jack Sheldon, La Mafia, and Vocal Flight, and he has collaborated with pop superstar Janet Jackson. His performance experience also includes four years as a member of the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum & Bugle Corps (1988, 89, 91, & 92), during which time the group won the 1989 Drum Corps International World Championship and three DCI High Percussion titles. Kevin is the currently the Principal Percussionist for Opera Vista (Houston, TX). He is also the drummer for the contemporary R&B group Angelstar and performs frequently with various groups throughout the state of Texas. Kevin recently performed as a guest artist at the Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic in Chicago.

Kevin is the Percussion Composer/Arranger & Caption Head for Imperial Percussion Theater, an independent WGI ensemble from Houston, TX. He also serves as a program consultant for Appalachia Percussion Theater (Asheville, NC) and Rosie’s Broadway Kids (New York, NY). Kevin is currently the Assistant Director of Bands and Percussion Coordinator at J. Frank Dobie High School, and has previously served as Percussion Coordinator for the University of Houston, San Jacinto College-South, High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, and the Houston Youth Symphony & Ballet. He has also served as Marching Percussion Coordinator at the University of Houston and was the Percussion Coordinator and Arranger for Super Bowl XXXVIII. Kevin has presented clinics at colleges, universities, and high schools in California and Texas and remains active as an arranger, clinician, and consultant.

Erickson’s compositions have been performed internationally at colleges and universities, at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) and the Music for All National Percussion Festival, and by world-renowned artists such as the Ju Percussion Group (Taiwan), and Don Liuzzi (timpanist, Philadelphia Orchestra). His composition At the Dawn of War is featured on the compact disc Surge by the University of Houston Percussion Ensemble. In the Valley of the Kings, for solo timpani, was a prizewinner in the 1998 Percussive Arts Society Composition Contest. Kevin’s works are published by C. Alan Publications and Innovative Percussion.

Kevin holds degrees in performance from the University of the Pacific and the University of Houston. He has also studied extensively with Brian Del Signore, principal percussionist of the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Kevin is an artist/ endorser for Pearl Drums and Adams Musical Instruments, Paiste Cymbals, Remo Drumheads, and Innovative Percussion.

WORKS

Percussion
At the Dawn of War (percussion ensemble 12)