Percussion Ensemble

When I joined the band at Wilson Middle School in Tulsa, Ok, I spent my first 2 weeks holding a tuba. It was a beautiful instrument with great sound, but it did not call out to me. So I talked to the band director and he let me switch to clarinet where I sat next to my future sister-in-law. However, once again the instrument did not click with me. "The wand chooses the wizard", and in my case, neither clarinet or tuba chose me. So once again I begged Mr. Scott to let me change. Thus, I found myself hiding behind the drums at the back of the room, and it was a perfect fit for me!

In the late 1990's, I started giving private lessons in my HS for free. In college, I helped tech local HS drumlines during the fall football seasons. In 2005, I was officially hired as a part time Assistant Band Director at Will Rogers HS. In 2011, I began directing SCIS's percussion ensembles where I helped grow the program from a single middle school class to a five year, four level program.

Promotional Percussion videos, 2013

School concerts are always fun, but there can be a lot of "down time" between acts when the audience can become restless. As such, to help keep our audience engaged at the 2013 SCIS Winter Concert, my percussion classes presented these fun videos between groups. As each ensemble took the stage, set their music on their stands, gathered and arranged their instruments, the following videos played on our overhead projector.  It was a smashing success! The stage changes took less time than normal as the kids hurried to set up before the videos were over, and of course, the audiences loved seeing their kids appear, "in the movies!" 

Concert Performances

These next three videos are a small sampling of some of our many performances. Over the years, we've performed both on and off campus, in collaboration with multiple dance programs and even other schools. 

I hope you enjoy these selections.