Annie Stevens
Virginia Tech
As a chamber musician and soloist, Stevens has performed internationally at music conservatories in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Xi’an, China, The Academy for the Performing Arts in Trinidad, the Paris Conservatory with the Eastman Percussion Ensemble, and has toured throughout Germany as timpanist with the Detmold Chamber Orchestra. In 2017, she was invited as a fellow to attend Ensemble Evolution, a performance seminar hosted by the International Contemporary Ensemble at the Banff Centre in Banff, Canada. Nationally, she has collaborated with New York’s Ensemble Signal and the Grammy nominated Metropolis Ensemble. Local engagements include those with the Roanoke Symphony as the principal timpanist, the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival, and the Garth Newell Music Center. She can be heard on albums, Blue Earth County with the Kelly Rossum Quartet, and Escape Ten’s, Colours of a Groove and Our Favorite Things (Parma Recordings label).
Annie has been featured at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention on numerous occasions, the Virginia Music Educator’s Association annual conference, the New Interfaces for Musical Expression international conference, the International Computer Music Conference, the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music, the International Trumpet Guild, the College Music Society National Conference, and the International Trombone Festival.
Stevens earned a D.M.A. degree from the Eastman School of Music where she studied percussion with Michael Burritt. Her research interests are in the area of chamber percussion, percussion pedagogy, and world percussion. She has pursued research on the music of Paul Lansky, having presented a lecture recital entitled, “From Electronic to Acoustic: A Study on Paul Lansky’s Acoustic Percussion Music.” She also holds degrees from Northwestern University (B.M.) and Rutgers University (M.M.), and spent a semester abroad at the Hochschule für Musik in Detmold, Germany. Her teachers include Michael Burritt, She-e Wu, Bill Cahn, Alan Abel, Chip Ross, and Tom McGowan. Previously, she has served as a faculty member at Christopher Newport University and the University of West Georgia. Annie is a Malletech Performing Artist, a Remo artist, a Dream Cymbals and Gongs artist, and serves on the Board of Advisors and music technology committee for the Percussive Arts Society. Annie currently lives in Blacksburg with her husband and violinist, John Irrera.