Welcome to the Archives

The East Rochester Percussion Ensemble/Drumline was born in the fall of 2002. My first year at ER (2001-02) there were 25 kids in the HS Band. 7 or 8 were percussionists, and they were setting the room on fire. They were bored. And I knew a thing or two about percussion. So, with the encouragement of then-principal Jim Karg, we began a bold experiment. We split the percussionists away from the HS band. It turns out that percussionists can learn their band parts in about 4% the time it takes the wind players. This system allows us all—wind and percussion both—to be much more successful and have more engaging experiences.

So here's some cool stuff...

Drumline playing at the 2008 NYS Percussion Championships at Victor HS. Took 5th place. Far from our best performance that year, but what are ya gonna do?
Click on the photo to the right to hear the Percussion Ensemble perform our arrangement of Rondo Alla Turca on Orff xylophones at the 2006 concert celebrating the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth. Yes, it's a couple of years old. It's from, like, before Twitter. But I still like it.
Crazy Train on Boomwhackers.  From East Rochester High School Percussion Ensemble's end-of-the-school-year official Boomwhacker Day. I heard somebody say that Ozzy loves this.
The Intro to Don't Stop Believin' on Boomwhackers.  From East Rochester High School Percussion Ensemble's end-of-the-school-year official Boomwhacker Day.
PDF of March 2007 D & C article
A few photos...