Mastering Auxiliary Percussion: Workshop with Mike Williams

In this interactive, hands-on 90-minute workshop with expert clinician Mike Williams, participants will gain firsthand experience in the primary auxiliary percussion instruments. You will explore fundamental sound concepts and playing techniques unique to instruments such as cymbals, tambourine, triangle, castanets, and bass drum, along with examples from the repertoire that demonstrate their characteristic uses. At the end of the workshop, you will be prepared to set yourself apart as a percussionist with hands-on experience in this crucial skill.  Registration required.

About Mike Williams: Hailed by The Boston Globe as “one of the city’s best percussionists,” Mike Williams has performed throughout North America and Europe and makes his home in Boston. An advocate for contemporary music, he is a founding artist and the ensemble director of Guerilla Opera, with whom he has commissioned and premiered dozens of operas since 2007. Williams has worked with many of the leading composers of our time including Pierluigi Billone, Michael Finnissy, Philippe Leroux, Salvatore Sciarrino, Gunther Schuller, Roger Reynolds and many others. He was a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center and has performed at numerous festivals including Gaudeamus Music Week, the Festival de Mexico, the Internacional Cervantino Festival, Monadnock Music, and the Gaida Festival in Vilnius, Lithuania. As an orchestral musician, he performs with groups including Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Portland Symphony, New Bedford Symphony, Springfield Symphony, and the Boston Pops. Williams studied at Boston Conservatory, winning top prize in the concerto competition, and the Amsterdam Conservatory. He serves on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Free for WCMS Students; $15 for the general public.

Following the conclusion of the workshop at 4:30, all participants are invited to stay for a tour of the brand-new WCMS Percussion Studio.

Register Online (WCMS students)

Register Online (general public)