FAC Percussionist Wesley Strasser Attends Juilliard Summer Program

Fine Arts Center percussionist Wesley Strasser (Wade Hampton HS, 11) was one of 16 students chosen internationally to participate in the Juilliard School Summer Percussion Seminar. Held in their Manhattan facility this year from July 19 to July 31, the seminar is designed specifically for advanced high-school percussionists, who must have reached age 15 at the time of their application. Two intensive weeks in the exciting cultural environment of New York's Lincoln Center, students pursue hands-on study of all the major percussion instruments: two and four-mallet keyboard, snare drum, timpani, and orchestral accessories. In addition, students are introduced to world hand drums, percussion chamber music, and both multi- and solo-percussion repertoire. Seminar participants will experience a challenging range of master classes, clinics, lectures, rehearsals, and performances—all of this activity focused on preparing them for success in conservatory and college auditions. Resident faculty included such as Daniel Druckman, Gordon Gottlieb, Joseph Gramley, (Director, Summer Percussion Seminar), Javier Diaz, and many other luminaries from classical, jazz, and world percussion.