2017 Guest Artists
Hailed by the New York Times as “deeply expressive” for his groundbreaking recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on solo marimba, Pius Cheung is widely known as a one of the most important percussionists of his generation. A native of Hong Kong, Mr. Cheung moved to Vancouver at the age of 12. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, an Artist Diploma from The Boston Conservatory, and Doctorate from the University of Michigan. He is a Yamaha Performing Artist and a Signature Artist with Innovative Percussion, who produces his mallet series. Mr. Cheung is currently Assistant Professor and Chair of the Percussion Area at the University of Oregon. Paul Rennick is Assistant Professor in Percussion at the University of North Texas. He is currently the music coordinator, percussion director and arranger for the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum & Bugle Corps, recently winning the DCI Fred Sanford Award for Percussion Performance in 2014 and 2016. Paul is also the percussion coordinator and arranger for the Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps. He was a design team member, music composer/arranger, instructor, and percussion manager for the Tony & Emmy Award-‐winning Broadway production “Blast!” Paul is an artist and product consultant with Dynasty USA, a signature artist with Innovative Percussion, and an artist and clinician for Remo and Zildjian. A native of Chicago, Kobie Watkins attended Vandercook College of Music studying with Marc “Max” Jacoby and Kevin Lepper. He received a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University in Jazz Pedagogy. Kobie has played and recorded with artists including jazz legend Sonny Rollins, Branford Marsalis, Joe Lovano, Curtis Fuller, Bob Mintzer, Jim Hall, John Patitucci, Arturo Sandoval, George Coleman, Ira Sullivan, Sonny Fortune, including Roy Haynes, Roy Hargrove, Kurt Elling, Fred Anderson, Chrstian McBride, Bobby Broom, Orbert Davis, Ken Chaney, Ron Perrillo, Bethany Pickens, Ryan Cohan, Jarrard Harris and James Austin. He is a product level artist with Sabian, Sonor, Aquarian and Vic Firth. Joining the percussion faculty at BYU is Dr. Matthew Coleman. Matt has served as a faculty member for the Maricopa County Community Colleges for the past five years. He enjoys building drums from exotic hard woods and renovating drums of all shapes and sizes. As a freelance percussionist, Matt has performed in contemporary groups, orchestras, chamber music ensembles of all kinds, including those of the jazz and pop genres. He earned degrees from Eastern Washington University and Arizona State University.