Archives: Artists

“Andy Harnsberger is a joy to watch in performance and a feast for the ears.
The sensitivity and strength in his live playing was a treasure for the audience …simply phenomenal!”
— National Public Radio 

Praised by Percussive Notes Journal as “A Master of Musical Nuance,” Andy Harnsberger enjoys a versatile career as a performer, composer, and educator. He has performed in a variety of settings across North America, Australia, Europe and Japan and presents solo recitals and clinics throughout the United States each year. He has been appointed to the artist/faculty at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Germany, and will participate in the 2015 Patagonia Percussion Festival in Argentina. He has been a featured solo artist at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto Festival and has also appeared as a guest clinician at numerous Percussive Arts Society Days of Percussion. His compact disc, Vertigo has been recognized by the Percussive Arts Society as “a must purchase for anyone who collects important marimba recordings … His performance makes it clear that he is a master player, not only technically, but musically as well.”

Dr. Harnsberger is in demand as a recitalist and clinician across the country and internationally, presenting clinics and masterclasses at as many as 40 universities per year. His compositions have been performed at PASIC and around the world and he is the recipient of multiple ASCAP PLUS awards for his contributions to American Concert Music. He has performed as percussionist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony and Richmond Ballet Orchestras, Key West Symphony Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Macon Symphony Orchestra, Lynchburg Symphony Orchestra, Hilton Head Symphony, Long Bay Symphony, Gainesville Symphony and Carroll Symphony Orchestra as well as the contemporary music ensemble “Currents,” and has toured extensively as percussionist and xylophone soloist with The Jack Daniel’s Silver Cornet Band. He has also made several guest appearances on National Public Radio, both in interviews, and live performances to bring public awareness to the marimba as a solo instrument.

Dr. Harnsberger is Assistant Professor of Music and Percussion Coordinator at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee. He earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he also received the prestigious Performer’s Certificate. He is a performing artist and clinician for Malletech instruments and mallets, Sabian Cymbals, Ltd., Remo Drumheads and Grover Pro Percussion.

David Friedman is considered to be one of the most influential vibraphonists in the history of the instrument. Internationally renowned as a vibraphonist, marimbist, composer and jazz educator, he has his own musical message, born of fascinatingly diverse musical influences.

Having worked with such varied musical personalities as Leonard Bernstein, Luciano Berio, Bobby McFerrin, Wayne Shorter and Yoko Ono, few jazz musicians can claim as broad a spectrum of performing and recording experience.

The list doesn`t stop there. Friedman has been heard either live or on recordings with, among others, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver, Johnny Griffin, Hubert Laws, Jane Ira Bloom, Ron Carter and John Scofield. Friedman’s vibraphone and compositions are both featured on Chet Baker’s award winning Enja release Peace, with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Joe Chambers.

A dedicated and renowned educator, David Friedman founded the jazz program at Berlin’s University of the Arts, and served as its head for sixteen years. He continues to perform masterclasses throughout Europe, North America and Japan. His book, Vibraphone Technique, Dampening and Pedaling, is considered to be the Bible of mallet instruction books.

In 1977, Friedman co-founded the unique vibe-marimba quartet Double Image, with Dave Samuels. Their first recording, Double Image, was nominated for a German “Grammy”, and has just been re-released as a special edition by Enja Records. Friedman’s Enja release Shades of Change, with pianist Geri Allen, bassist Anthony Cox and drummer Ronnie Burrage, was voted by Downbeat magazine as “One of the year’s best 20 CD’s”.

Friedman’s trio playing with star drummer Daniel Humair and bassist J.F. Jenny-Clarke, documented on their 1992 live release Ternaire, showcases modern, interactive jazz improvisation, ranging from an agressive driving swing to tender lyricism.

Friedman’s project with bandoneonist Dino Saluzzi, Astor Piazzola’s heir to modern tango, is a synthesis of American jazz and ethnic improvisation. The gifted bassist Anthony Coxcompletes the trio. Their 1996 CD release, Rios, on Intuition Records, has been called “a true work of art” by the Chicago Tribune.

One of Friedman’s unique accomplishments is his solo mallet recording, which utilizes multiple vibe and marimba overdubs to create richly textured soundscapes. The first recording of its kind ever done by a mallet performer, it is aptly entitled Air Sculpture (Traumton Records). Jazz Friends Review writes: “This music is made of the same fabric dreams are made of. This daring recording is riveting.” Germany’s Die Woche callsAir Sculpture, “a humble masterpiece!”

Friedman’s project Other Worlds is a trio with an instrumentation and sound all its own. Featuring the exciting French accordianist Jean-Louis Matinier and the brilliant American bass virtuoso Anthony Cox, their CD, Other Worlds, was recorded in November 1996 for Intuition Records and released in December 1997. It’s a spellbinding musical journey, featuring original compositions and improvisational dialogues of incredible depth and beauty. Jazzthetik remarks: “You feel your ears being drawn to the speakers as if by magic! Other Worlds is a true musical adventure”.

In addition, Friedman still finds time for special projects. He has been the featured guest soloist with the NDR Big Band in a program of his original compositions. He continues to tour and record regularly with Dave Samuels in the ground breaking mallet duo Double Image – a partnership that has endured for more than 35 years. Sponsored by Yamaha, the duo is often featured at Percussive Arts Society international events, and colleges and universities throughout the world.

In the summer of 2002, Friedman invited vocal virtuoso Bobby McFerrin to help celebrate the official 10th anniversary of the jazz department of the University of the Arts. One of the most exciting moments of this sold-out concert event was a spontaneous duo with Friedman and McFerrin.

In 2003 Friedman formed his new trio, Tambour, with star German saxophonist Peter Weniger, and bassist Pepe Berns. Their CD, Earfood, on Skip records, was released in January 2004 to rave reviews.

Just after the release of Earfood Friedman was asked by RBB (Radio Berlin Brandenburg) television to moderate the 2004 Berlin Jazz Festival.

2005 saw David touring with Tambour and performing as a duo with Hungarian guitarist Férenc Snetberger, as well as with Double Image.

In 2006 Friedman began a collaboration with the Norwegian publisher Norsk Musikforlag, and celebrated this new partnership by composing a series of solo marimba pieces and several vibraphone solo pieces, as well as compositions for mallet ensemble.

In August 2007 he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the art of vibraphone playing and education at the KOSA International Percussion Festival, while in 2008 he was recognized for his life’s work at the Ludwig Albert Marimba Festival in Belgium.

David’s CD with Tambour, Rodney’s Parallel Universe, for Skip Records, was released to critical acclaim in March of 2007.

Retro, the stunning new CD collaboration with duo partner, saxophonist Peter Weniger, was released in October of 2010 on Skip Records to rave reviews. It was immediately voted “CD of the month” by Germany’s Jazz Podium magazine. Since then, Friedman and Weniger have been touring internationally under the name Duo Élegance, introducing audiences to their uniquely intimate, and very personal approach to improvised, ensemble jazz.

In Sept. 2014 David premiered Leah Muir’s concerto for improvised vibraphone and orchestra, ‘By the Reflecting Pool’ with the Bruckner Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies. The performance was the highlight of the ‘Ars Electronica’ festival in Linz, Austria. This work for completely improvised vibraphone is the first of its’ kind in the history of solo performance with orchestra.

In 2016 David premiered Leah Muir’s new composition for solo vibraphone, string orchestra and percussion, ‘The Quanta of Sublimity’, in Lausanne, Switzerland.

That same year David was commissioned by the Landesmusikrat of Nordreinwestfalen to compose a piece for 5 percussionists, to be premiered at the “Slash” crossover festival on Oct. 22nd 2017, in Essen Germany.

David just recorded a new CD with his “Generations” band, featuring Clara Haberkamp, piano, Tilo Weber, drums and Josh Ginsburg, bass, some of the most gifted young jazz players on the scene today.

“These are two remarkable artists whose voices blend seamlessly in a dazzling display
of marimba performance at its highest level.”
— Scott Stevens, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra percussionist

Escape X Percussion Duo was formed by Dr. Annie Stevens (Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech) and Dr. Andrea Venet (Assistant Professor, University of North Florida). Their name originates from their trademark “roadtrip” style performance tours in a Ford Escape with many miles traveled on I-10.

Remaining passionate about exploring all genres and expressing these creatively through the world of percussion, their repertoire includes innovative arrangements and compositions commissioned exclusively by the duo. Through collaboration with composer Eric Guinivan, they are the recipients of a marimba duo​​ commission awarded from the prestigious Fromm Foundation, completed in 2018. Recent commissions include world premieres by Aurél Hollo, Joe Locke and Michael Burritt at PASIC, 2300 Degrees by Ivan Trevino, premiered at Spivey Hall (Atlanta, GA), and the wind ensemble arrangement of Séjourné’s Double Concerto, premiered at VMEA

In addition to regular appearances at percussion festivals across the country, Escape X have been featured artists ​in Trinidad, at the Barnes Foundation, the Leigh Howard Stevens ​Summer ​Marimba Seminar, ​CSU Summer Arts Festival, Heartland Marimba Festival, ​Rhea Miller Concert series, Musica Viva Concert Series, McCormick Marimba Festival, Interlochen, the International Trombone Festival, ​VMEA, PMEA, ​and the Virginia Humanities Conference at Roanoke College.

Their first album, Colours of a Groove, was released in 2014. ​​Their second album, My Favorite Things, is to be released by 2019. Escape X proudly endorses Malletech, DREAM Cymbals, and Remo, and have their own publication series containing several of their commissions through Keyboard Percussion Publications.

Dennis was the first percussionist inducted into the DCI Hall of Fame (1991), along with the late Fred Sanford. He has also been inducted into the WGI Hall of Fame (2006) and the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame (1990) making him the only person who has ever been inducted into all three of the major “marching arts” halls.

DeLucia grew up in Bergenfield, NJ where he was mentored by the late Dr. Bernard Baggs, Mr. Donald Angelica and Mr. Bobby Thompson. He graduated from Bergenfield HS and Upsala College, and performed in the West Point Band’s prestigious “Hellcats” for three years. In 1981, his drumlines won the only “Triple Crown” in drum corps history, winning percussion honors with the Bridgemen (DCI), Sunrisers (DCA) and Fantasia III (DCI Class “A”). He has appeared as a commentator/analyst on every DCI broadcast since 1994 on PBS, ESPN2 and the Regal Cinema chains for Fathom Events. He is the narrator on the DVDs of “The Historic Drummers Heritage Concert” and “The Rudiment Project” for the Percussive Arts Society and “Hand Technique and Rudiments” for Hudson Music. DeLucia has judged band competitions since 1985 and WGI “Indoor” Percussion Championships every year since 1995. He was an Associate Professor of Percussion at Rutgers University from 1996 until 2003.

Although best known for his work with drum corps (Muchachos, Bridgemen, Star of Indiana, Crossmen, Sunrisers and Caballeros), the Rutgers University Band and many high school bands, including Piscataway HS in NJ and Bunnell HS in CT, DeLucia has also written four books on the art of drumming and has recorded video drum lesson apps for Drum Guru.

DeLucia is an artist/clinician/consultant for Yamaha drums, Remo drumheads, Sabian cymbals, Malletech eMotion sticks and mallets and Row-Loff publications. He lives in New Jersey with his wife Rene, daughter Chelsea and dog Ernie.

Anthony J. Cirone received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied with Saul Goodman, solo timpanist of the New York Philharmonic. Upon graduation, he was offered the position of Percussionist with the San Francisco Symphony under Josef Krips and also an Assistant Professorship of Music at San José State University where he has served from 1965 to 2001. During his ensuing tenure at the Symphony, he has performed under the baton of Seiji Ozawa, Edo DeWaart, Herbert Blomstedt and Michael Tilson Thomas as Music Directors and noted guest conductors such as: Leonard Bernstein, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Eugene Ormandy, Kurt Mazur, Rafael Kubelik and James Levine.

He served as Professor of Music at San José State University where he headed the Percussion Department and taught the Manuscript Preparation/Computer Engraving section of the Music Technology course from 1965 to 2001. Cirone has also been on the faculty of San Francisco State University and Stanford University. His students have gone on to hold positions in major orchestras and universities around the world. Mr. Cirone was Professor of Music and Chairman of the Percussion Department at Indiana University at Bloomington from 2001 to 2007.

A prolific composer, he has over 100 published titles, including textbooks (Cirone’s Pocket Dictionary of Foreign Musical Terms), 3 symphonies for percussion, 4 sonatas, a string quartet, and 7 works for orchestra. He is the Percussion Consultant/Editor for Meredith Music Publications, and is the author of PORTRAITS IN RHYTHM, a collection of 50 studies for snare drum, used worldwide as a standard text for training percussionists in colleges and universities and his most recent title, THE GREAT AMERICAN SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, is an in-depth look at the music profession in general and the “good” and “bad” of performing in a major orchestra. In 1999, he received a Special Distinction Award from ASCAP for his Pentadic Striations for Orchestra. Anthony Cirone is featured in a video, entitled, “Concert Percussion – A Performers Guide”, distributed by the Alfred Publishing Co; he has also designed two pairs of Signature Snare Drum Sticks for Malletech Corp.; he won The Modern Drummer Magazine Reader’s Poll for Classical Percussionist five years in a row; was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2007; an active clinician for the Avedis Zildjian Cymbal Company, the Yamaha Corp. and the Remo Drum Company.

Having performed on four continents and nearly forty states Michael Burritt is one of the World’s leading percussion soloists. 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 Dallas Wind Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, Eastman Wind Ensemble, Ju Percussion Group (Taiwan), Percussion Art Quartet (Germany), Amores Percussion Group (Spain), Peaux (Sweden) and the Tempus Fugit Percussion Ensemble of Pittsburgh, PA. Mr. Burritt has three solo recordings —Perpetual, and Shadow Chasers and recently released his third entitled Waking Dreams on the Resonator Records label. All the recordings are comprised of Burritt’s original compositions as well as works written expressly for him. He has been a featured artist at seven Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. In 1992 he presented his New York solo debut in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and in 1998 performed his London debut in the Purcell Room at Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Mr. Burritt is also active as a composer, with two concertos to his credit, numerous solo and chamber works for marimba and percussion as well as two books of etudes. His works for solo marimba have become standard repertoire for the instrument and are consistently required repertoire on international competitions. Mr. Burritt is published with Ludwig Music, C. Allen and Keyboard Percussion Publications. Burritt is also an artist/clinician and product design/consultant for Malletech, where he has developed his own line of signature marimba mallets and an artist / educational clinician with the Zildjian Company. Mr. Burritt is a member of the Percussive Arts Society Board of Directors, a contributing editor for Percussive Notes Magazine and the chairman of the PAS Keyboard Committee.

Michael Burritt is currently Professor of Percussion and head of the department at the Eastman School of Music. He has the distinction of being only the third person in the history of this storied institution 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 in Rochester, New York. His teachers have included John Beck, Gordon Stout, Paul Yancich and Herbert Flower.

Kevin Bobo is currently serving as Professor of Music (Percussion) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, a position he has held since 2007. Prior to his appointment at IU, he served as Assistant Professor of Percussion at the University of Kansas (2003-2007). He studied percussion with J.C. Combs and Gordon Stout and composition with Greg Woodward and Dana Wilson.

Internationally respected as a solo marimba artist, Bobo has performed on five continents. His travels have taken him to Taiwan, Singapore, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Australia, Spain, Latvia, Lithuania, France, Italy, the Czech Republic and much of the United States.

As a composer, Kevin’s compositions are performed all over the world with his solo works frequently appearing on international competition repertoire lists. He has authored two method books and composed numerous pieces for a variety of instruments and ensembles.

Kevin currently lives in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife Emily and their children, Penelope and Eli.

Born on June 22, 1947 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Bob Becker holds the degrees Bachelor of Music with Distinction, and Master of Music (Performance and Literature) from the Eastman School of Music where he studied percussion with William G. Street and John H. Beck, and composition with Warren Benson and Aldo Provenzano. As an undergraduate he was also awarded the school’s prestigious Performer’s Certificate for his concerto performance with the Rochester Philharmonic. He later spent four years doing post-graduate study in the World Music program at Wesleyan University where he became intensely involved with the music cultures of North and South India, Africa and Indonesia. As a founding member of the percussion ensemble NEXUS, he has been involved with the collection and construction of a unique multi-cultural body of instruments as well as the development of an extensive and eclectic repertoire of chamber and concerto works for percussion.

Becker’s performing experience spans nearly all of the musical disciplines where percussion is found. He has been percussionist for the Marlboro Music Festival and timpanist with the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under Pablo Casals. He has also performed and toured as timpanist with the Kirov Ballet and the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra. For several years he toured as drummer and percussionist with the Paul Winter Consort. He has performed and recorded with such diverse groups as the Ensemble Intercontemporaine under Pierre Boulez, the Ensemble Modern of Germany, the Schoenberg Ensemble of Amsterdam, and the Boston Chamber Players. In 2003 and 2004 he performed as percussionist with the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra. He has worked with today’s most significant conductors including, among many others, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Andrew Davis, and Michael Tilson Thomas. In 1988 he directed and performed in the show SuperPercussion at the Tokyo Music Joy Festival, which brought together NEXUS, the Korean percussion group Samul-Nori, drumset artist Steve Gadd, and Ghanaian master drummer Abraham Adzenyah.

His work with African percussion traditions includes study and performance with master drummers Abraham Adzenyah, Gideon Alorwoye, and Freeman Donkor, as well as with mbira specialist Paul Berliner. In 1986 he traveled to Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Kenya as the representative of the World Drums Festival of Expo ’86. He was co-founder and the first director of the Flaming Dono West African Dance and Drum Ensemble in Toronto, a group devoted to learning and performing the dance-drumming styles of the ethnic groups in present-day Ghana.

A disciple of Pandit Sharda Sahai, the foremost exponent of the Benares tabla style, Becker began his study of Hindustani music in 1970. He has since appeared with many of India’s leading artists including sarangi virtuoso Ram Narayan, sarodist Amjad Ali Khan, composer and flutist Vijay Raghav Rao, and vocalists Laksmi Shankar, Pandit Jasraj, and Jitendra Abisheki. In addition, he has worked closely with some of the most significant American exponents of Indian classical music – sitarist Peter Row and bansuri flutist Steve Gorn. For several years Row, Gorn, and Becker performed together as the Vistar Trio. Becker made his tabla solo debut in 1982 at the Nagri Natak Academy Concert Hall in Benares, India.

Becker co-founded the percussion group NEXUS, which gave its first performances in 1971 and continues to perform around the world. The ensemble has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, performing in chamber music venues as well as with symphony orchestras, and has recorded over twenty-five CDs. With NEXUS Becker has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many others, and has received the Toronto Arts Award and the Banff Centre for the Arts National Award. In 1999 he and the other members of NEXUS were inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame.

Becker has been a regular member of the ensemble Steve Reich and Musicians since 1973. With this group he has appeared as soloist with the Israel Philharmonic, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic and the London Symphony and recorded extensively for Deutsche Grammophone, EMI and Nonesuch. In 1998 the ensemble won a Grammy award for its recording of Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. Becker has been a featured performer in all of Reich’s percussion music, including Drumming, Piano/Marimba Phase, Six Pianos/Six Marimbas, Sextet, and Nagoya Marimbas; the large ensemble and orchestral pieces, such as Tehillim, The Desert Music, and City Life; and also the recent large-scale theater works, including The Cave and Three Tales.

Generally considered to be one of the world’s premier virtuoso performers on the xylophone and marimba, Becker also appears regularly as an independent soloist and clinician. In particular, his work toward resurrecting the repertoire and performance styles of early 20th century xylophone music has been recognized internationally. He has appeared as xylophone soloist at the Blossom Festival, the Eastern Music Festival, the Meadow Brook Festival, the Grand Teton Music Festival and with orchestras and concert bands throughout the United States. Since 2000 he has directed an annual ragtime xylophone seminar at the University of Delaware, Newark, DE, which has attracted an international student body. In 1998 he was concertmaster, marimba soloist, and xylophone soloist with the 164-member Musser Festival Marimba Orchestra, conducted by Frederick Fennell, at West Point, NY. In 2005 he was again concertmaster and soloist with the Clair Musser World’s Fair Marimba Orchestra at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. In 2011 he was concertmaster for the 50th Anniversary Marimba Orchestra at PASIC, 2011 in Indianapolis, IN.

Becker has performed and lectured for music departments and percussion programs throughout North America and Europe. His clinics and workshops cover a wide variety of percussion topics including North Indian tabla drumming, West and East African percussion,”melodic” snare drumming, rudimental arithmetic, creative approaches to cymbal playing, and ragtime xylophone improvisation concepts. In 1996 and 2001 he was a Guest Lecturer for the Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Alberta. In the fall of 2002 he was a jurist for the Geneva International Music Competition in Switzerland and in 2005 he was a member of the jury for the International Percussion Competition Luxembourg. He has served as editor for the contemporary percussion issue of the British publication Contemporary Music Revue and served for two years on the board of directors of the Percussive Arts Society. For the fall term of 2005 he was appointed Lecturer in Percussion and Director of the Percussion Ensemble at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.

Since 1988 he has been associated with the Malletech Company, where he helped design the Bob Becker Concert Xylophone as well as a successful line of signature xylophone mallets now used by percussionists around the world. As an endorser for the Sabian cymbal company he has helped design special instruments for applications in symphonic and contemporary chamber contexts, the Becker Bowing Cymbal being one result. In 2005 he received Sabian’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006 he was recognized as a “Master Drummer” by the International Association of Traditional Drummers, an organization founded by the legendary rudimentalist John S. Pratt.

Becker’s compositions and arrangements are published by Keyboard Percussion Publications and are performed regularly by percussion groups world-wide. He also has a long history of association with dance, and has created music for the Joffrey Ballet in New York, among others. In 1991 he and Joan Phillips were awarded the National Arts Centre Award for the best collaboration between composer and choreographer at Toronto’s INDE ’91 dance festival. Recent works include There is a Time, commissioned by Rina Singha and the Danny Grossman Dance Company, Noodrem, commissioned through the Canada Council by the Dutch ensemble Slagwerkgroep Den Haag, Turning Point, composed for the NEXUS ensemble, Cryin’ Time, a setting of poetry by the Canadian artist Sandra Meigs, Never in Word and Time in the Rock, settings of poetry by the American author Conrad Aiken, and Music On The Moon, commissioned through the Laidlaw Foundation by the Esprit Orchestra in Toronto. Five of his compositions are included on his solo album, There is a Time, released in 1995 on the Nexus Records label. In the spring of 1997 he was selected to be composer-in-residence for the Virginia Waterfront International Festival of the Arts which featured the United States premiere of Music On The Moon by the Virginia Symphony, conducted by JoAnn Falletta, and a concert of his chamber works by his own group, the Bob Becker Ensemble. In April, 2005 he was featured during the 25th Anniversary of the Budapest Spring Festival as guest soloist with the Hungarian percussion ensemble Amadinda in a concert of his own compositions. In July, 2009 he was showcased at the first International Belgian Percussion Festival as soloist with the Swedish percussion group Kroumata in a concert featuring his own compositions and arrangements. He recently completed work on a book titled Rudimental Arithmetic, an in-depth study of the mathematical bases of the rudiments of snare drumming and their applications in composition and polyrhythmic theory, released by KPP in 2008. His most recent composition, Preludes, was premiered in August, 2011 at the Roots and Rhizomes Percussion Residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Banff, Alberta, with Steven Schick conducting. The 20-minute work is in two movements, scored for string quartet, piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba and timpani, and was commissioned by the Banff Centre. In November, 2011 Becker’s music was showcased in a concert at the Percussive Arts Society’s 50th Anniversary International Convention.

Becker was instrumental in the development of the “Bob Becker model” Malletech Ragtime/Soloist Xylophone and offers a signature line of Malletech mallets especially suited to xylophone playing.