Michael Burritt

Eastman School of Music

Having performed on four continents and more than forty states, Michael Burritt is one of his generation’s most accomplished percussionists. He is in frequent demand performing concert tours and master classes throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Canada. Mr. Burritt has been soloist with the United States Air Force Band, Dallas Wind Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Nexus, The Paris Percussion Group (France), The Amadinda Percussion Group (Hungary), Third Coast Percussion, Ju Percussion Group (Taiwan), Percussion Art Quartet (Germany), and the Amores Percussion Group (Spain). Mr. Burritt has three solo as well as numerous chamber recordings, including his work Home Trilogy, with the world-renown percussion group Nexus and soon to released a new recording of solo and chamber works by Alejandro Viñao with the Grammy Award winning Third Coast Percussion. In 2006 he recorded the Joseph Schwantner Percussion Concerto with the Calgary Wind Ensemble on the Albany label. Burritt recently premiered Fast Forward, a new chamber concerto written expressly for him by Pulitzer Prize winning Composer Joseph Schwantner in celebration of the centennial of the Eastman School.

He has been a featured artist at ten Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. Mr. Burritt has performed solo concerts in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, National Performing Arts Center in Beijing, and The Kennedy Center. He has extensive chamber and orchestral experience and has performed with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, The Chicago Symphony, and The Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra.

Mr. Burritt is also active as a composer, with three concertos to his credit as well as numerous solo and chamber works for marimba and percussion. His works for solo marimba have become standard repertoire for the instrument and are frequently required repertoire on international competitions. Commissions include The World Marimba Competition in Stuttgart Germany, The Paris International Marimba Competition, Nexus, and Paris Percussion Group. Zildjian commissioned Burritt to compose a work in celebration of the company’s 400th Anniversary in 2023 which was premiered by Third Coast Percussion at PASIC 2023. Mr. Burritt is published with Keyboard Percussion Publications, C. Alan, Masters Music, and Innovative Percussion. Burritt is also an artist/clinician and product design/consultant for Malletech, where he has developed his own line of marimba mallets and the MJB Signature Marimba. He is an artist/educational clinician with Zildjian, Evans, and Yamaha Drums. Mr. Burritt was the President of the Percussive Arts Society from 2021–22, a member of the Board of Directors from 1996–2008, a contributing editor for Percussive Notes magazine from 1991­–2006, and chair of the PAS Keyboard Committee from 2004–2010.

Burritt is the first person to hold the Paul J. Burgett Distinguished Professorship and is Professor of Percussion at The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he is only the third person in the history of the school to hold this position. Prior to his appointment at Eastman, Mr. Burritt was Professor of Percussion at Northwestern University from 1995–2008, where he developed a program of international distinction. Mr. Burritt received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, as well as the prestigious Performers Certificate, from the Eastman School of Music.