Zumbumba Percussion Trio
Foforo Twene by Zumbumba
Wednesday, 3:15 p.m.

Zumbumba is a Tucson-based percussion ensemble committed to integrating authentic world music styles and instruments, emphasizing West Africa, with traditional Western percussion. The group’s musical strength lies in the diversity of its members. Meeting as graduate students at the University of Arizona, the three founding members, Aaron Emery, Michael Sammons, and Michael Vercelli formed Zumbumba to blend their individual talents rooted in classical percussion, jazz, and world music. Focusing on musical compositions ranging from contemporary Western composers to traditional repertoire of African, Caribbean, and South American origin, Zumbumba is dedicated to the perpetuation of the percussive arts as well as the commissioning of new works. Zumbumba currently keeps an active performing schedule, primarily through educational outreach programs in Arizona’s public schools. Individually, Zumbumba’s members have given performances and workshops throughout the Southwest, Florida, and New England and have studied internationally in Ghana, Trinidad, Cuba, and Bali.
      
Aaron Emery, originally from Bangor, Maine, has been a performing artist for the last ten years. Emery earned his master’s degree in percussion performance from the University of Arizona in 2006. He received a bachelor’s degree in percussion performance from Northwestern University in 2001. Emery has performed in a wide array of musical styles with artists such as blues diva Nikki Armstrong, Los Angeles studio bassist Brian Bromberg, and jazz legend Bud Shank. He appeared at PASIC in 2003 with Crosstalk, the University of Arizona Electronic Percussion Ensemble, and in 2005 as a guest performer at the Crested Butte Music Festival in Crested Butte, Colorado.
      
Michael Sammons is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Arizona. He earned his master’s degree from the University of Arizona in 2005 and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida in 2002. His travels abroad include Trinidad and Ghana, researching the traditional music and dance of these cultures. Sammons is active as a timpanist, performing and giving master classes in Florida and Arizona. His professional orchestral experiences include: Tucson Symphony, Sierra Vista Orchestra, Catalina Chamber Orchestra, Gainesville Symphony and Central Florida Symphony. In 2004, Sammons participated in the Crested Butte Summer Music Festival in Crested Butte, Colorado as a guest performer and appeared as a guest soloist for the Music Educators National Convention, Southern Division Conference in January of 2005. He is an active member of the PAS Collegiate Committee and is published in the June 2006 issue of Percussive Notes. Sammons recently presented a session entitled “New Music for Steel Band” at PASIC 2006 in Austin, Texas.
      
Michael Vercelli is a recently appointed adjunct professor of music at the University of Arizona, where he is the founder and director of the World Music Gang focusing on the repertoire of other cultures and taught entirely through oral tradition. He also teaches applied percussion, and is an accompanist in the UA School of Dance. He holds a doctor of musical arts degree in percussion performance with a minor in ethnomusicology from the University of Arizona. While well versed in the classical percussion repertoire, Vercelli’s specialty lies in non-Western instruments. He has studied the traditional music of other countries and done fieldwork in Bali, Cuba, Brazil, and primarily, Ghana. Vercelli has received many awards for both his performance and study of indigenous music such as being named a Fulbright Alternate and recipient of numerous grants including the prestigious Northern Trust Piper Enrichment Scholarship, which enabled him to spend seven months in West Africa researching his dissertation project on Ghanaian xylophone. Vercelli was a contributing author to the world percussion chapter in the third edition of Gary Cook’s Teaching Percussion. He is a participating member in the Society for Ethnomusicology and on the PAS World Percussion Committee.