Indiana State University Newsroom

Indiana State University will host the annual Indiana Day of Percussion on Saturday April 13, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Landini Center for Performing and Fine Arts.

This year's conference will include percussion ensembles from Vincennes University, Indiana Wesleyan University, Indiana University - Purdue University - Fort Wayne, Butler University, Indiana State University, Indiana University - Bloomington, Ball State University, Wabash College and Eastern Illinois University. The day will also feature two international clinicians, Jerry Tachoir and Joe McCarthy.

Tachoir will conduct a vibraphone clinic at 11 a.m. A Grammy-nominated contemporary jazz artist, he has been an artist/clinician for the Ludwig/Musser company since 1972 when he was discovered in high school. As a Musser clinician, he has performed and presented improvisation and advanced harmony clinics at most of the major colleges and universities throughout the US, Canada, and Europe. In addition to the numerous solo recordings and the Group Tachoir (www.avitajazz.com ), he has published "A Contemporary Mallet Method - An Approach to the Vibraphone & Marimba" by Riohcat Music distributed by Mel Bay. Tachoir has been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, Jazz Live, National Public Television, at many Percussive Arts Society International Conventions, and Music Education Conventions as a clinic and performer.

McCarthy will give a clinic on afro-cuban drum set at 4 p.m. A Grammy Award-winning drummer, producer and bandleader, he has led a diverse career which has taken him from Symphony Orchestra and Big Band, to Afro Cuban, Bebop, and beyond. McCarthy is the leader/founder of Afro Bop Alliance, an Afro Cuban Jazz Ensemble based in the Washington DC area. He is the leader and drummer of the United States Naval Academy Band's Jazz Ensemble, The Next Wave and former Principal Percussionist of the USNA Band's Wind Ensemble. Active in education, he is an adjunct professor of drumset and Afro-Cuban Percussion Studies at Georgetown University and George Mason University. McCarthy is in demand as a clinician throughout the US and abroad and was a featured drum set artist at the 2011 and 2012 PASIC Conventions.

The Indiana Day of Percussion is free and open to the public. A pizza lunch provided by the Music Industry Association will be available in the Landini Center for Performing and Fine Arts from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.

Contact: Jimmy Finnie, director of Percussion Ensemble and Steel Drum Band, School of Music, Indiana State University, 812-237-2737, jimmy.finnie@indstate.edu

 Writer: Ebonie Lamb, arts marketing intern, Office of Communications and Marketing, Indiana State University, elamb1@sycamores.indstate.edu