ABOUT PERCUSSION PAL
Percussion Pal is a non-profit organization founded to create resources for percussion education. We are doing this through developing curriculum, writing music, and making high quality recordings of important pieces in the percussion repertoire. Our goal is to set a new standard for students in the first years of their percussion education. We found that many resources exist for intermediate and advanced players, but felt there was room for improvement when it came to resources for beginning percussionists. We hope to provide clear and concise resources that get students and teachers excited about percussion! You can read more about our goals here.
THE TEAM
Who We Are
Ricky Bracamontes, Taylor Davis, and Stephen Seymour met as students in the percussion studio at Baylor University, performing in the major university ensembles and teaching in the surrounding area together. They have a combined experience of instruction in the major arenas of music education - public school, private lessons, Drum Corps International, collegiate drumline, and competitive high school band. They have had the privilege of working with great educators and quickly realized there was an opportunity to consolidate resources for percussion education in a central, online location.
As they started their professional lives, they stayed connected, sharing experiences from their classrooms and rehearsals and began brainstorming solutions to create a resource that was packed with clear and easy to understand information. This started the process of building what is now Percussion Pal. This platform exists to provide online content that will help students and teachers establish a solid foundation in the formative years of music education.
TAYLOR DAVIS
BACKGROUND
Percussionist Taylor Davis is an educator, performer, and artistic leader with a passion for collaboration. Equal parts performer and educator, he has given clinics and concerts throughout the United States, spanning a variety of ages and topics related to both marching and concert percussion. Taylor is the co-founder and Executive Director of Percussion Pal, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality and distribution of resources for percussion education. As performer, he has shared the stage with groups such as the Meehan/Perkins Duo, Sō Percussion, Glenn Kotche of the band Wilco, and Yo-Yo Ma. In addition to concert and contemporary music, Taylor has a strong background with marching percussion, performing with the World Class DCI Finalist Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps in 2015.
PROJECTS
In addition to performing and teaching, Taylor is one half of the professional media company 2x1 Media, based in Waco, Texas. 2x1 Media aims to provide musicians with a resource to produce engaging recordings of concerts and recitals, as well as music videos. He has helped film significant works for percussion such as Paul Lansky’s Threads, John Cage’s Third Construction, and Ivan Treviño’s Space Junk. 2x1 Media also works closely with Vic Firth in documenting and producing both marching and concert recordings.
He is a founding member of Lagan Percussion, the 2016 winner of the inaugural Semper Pro Musica chamber music competition. With Lagan, he is an active participant in commissioning and performing new music. The quartet has collaborated with composers such as Ivan Trevino, Robert Honstein, and Aaron Houston. Lagan also seeks to collaborate with other musicians, and has organized performances of important works such as Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians and Terry Riley’s In C.
TODAY'S PLANS
Taylor is currently Assistant Director of Percussion at Flower Mound High School in Flower Mound, Texas. in addition to both competitive marching and concert band, he consults at the feeder middle schools, providing instruction primarily to 7th and 8th grade level percussionists. He also serves as Adjunct Professor of Percussion at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas, where he teaches Percussion Methods, private lessons, studio class, and chamber music. He completed a Master of Music Degree in Percussion Performance at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, with renowned teacher Robert van Sice. He is a member of the National Association for the Future of Music Education (NAFME), Percussive Arts Society (PAS), and the Texas Music Educators Association (TMEA). Additionally, Taylor is a Presser Scholar and recipient of the Peabody Artistic Excellence Award. He completed his undergraduate studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, graduating with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education. Taylor is a licensed K-12 music educator and received the TMEA Outstanding Music Educator Award, given to an exemplary and dedicated music educator. He also was admitted to the Sō Percussion Summer Institute (2016) and the Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar (2014) where he worked with artists such as Sō Percussion, Paul Lansky, Stephen Mackey, John Luther Adams, and Cynthia Yeh. Taylor proudly endorses Black Swamp Percussion and is a member of the Black Swamp Collegiate Educator Network.
RICKY BRACAMONTES
BACKGROUND
Percussionist Ricky Bracamontes has built a professional life in education, performance, media production, and community engagement. He is passionate about finding the intersection of quality teaching and performance, and works toward this in all of his artistic endeavors. Ricky’s professional focus includes providing a comprehensive and holistic percussion curriculum to a studio of 30+ students ranging K-12, and leading the Midway High School Front Ensemble. His duties with Midway include rehearsing, writing, and arranging each season. Ricky currently serves as the Beginning Band Director at Woodgate Intermediate School, overseeing beginning band curriculum and instruction in Midway ISD.
SIDE PROJECTS
As an artist, Ricky is part of the group Lagan Percussion, a quartet that focuses on bringing contemporary music to life and commissioning current composers to expand the repertoire in the area of percussion quartet. Lagan has commissioned composers such as Ivan Trevino, Aaron Houston and Alejandro Viñao and aims to record high quality videos of their repertoire to ensure that their reach extends far beyond physical travel. Lagan performed their commission with Ivan Trevino at the 2018 Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Indianapolis and they will have the Texas premier of Alejandro Viñao’s new quartet. Each member of Lagan is an educator and this drives the group to perform and teach at unique locations such as children’s museums, elementary schools, and art galleries.
Ricky is one half of the 2x1 Media, a production company that aims to provide musicians with a resource to produce engaging and quality recordings of concerts, recitals and music videos. He completed his undergraduate studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education. While at Baylor he received the TMEA Outstanding Music Educator Award for dedicated and exemplary teaching and now holds a K-12 teaching license in the state of Texas. He holds memberships to the Percussive Arts Society, the Texas Music Educators Association and the National Association for the Future of Music Education.
TODAY'S PLANS
Ricky performs regularly in the Central Texas area with groups such as: the Waco Symphony Orchestra, Temple Symphony Orchestra, Central Texas Master Singers and Central Texas Choral Society. He has a long standing relationship with the Out On A Limb Dance Company, playing for early childhood dance classes on a weekly basis and accompanying all levels of dancers with improvisatory percussion music at venues in the community. Ricky has also shared the stage with artists such as the Meehan/Perkins Duo, Glenn Kotche of Wilco, Jason Treuting of Sō Percussion, and line upon line percussion. Ricky is a winner of the inaugural Semper Pro Musica competition and an alumnus of the Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar, where he worked with artists such as John Luther Adams and Robert Honstein. Ricky strives to stay active in the community, leading hand drumming and percussion history courses for elementary aged children and seeking performances and collaboration with local artists.