Percussive Arts Society Tennessee Chapter

What an incredible day! 🥁 Last weekend’s PAS Tennessee Chapter Collegiate Day of Percussion was full of inspiration and great performances! A huge thank you to our sponsors for making this event possible: @percussivearts @vicfirth @zildjiancompany @innovativepercussion @pearladamspercussion @remopercussion @rowloff @ludwigdrumshq @sabiancymbals We couldn’t do it without your support! 🙌 #PAS #PercussiveArtsSociety #DayOfPercussion #TNDoP2026

2026 TN Day of Percussion Artist Spotlight: Ed Freytag Edward Freytag holds a B.S. in Music ED from the University of TN Chattanooga and a M.M. in Jazz Percussion Performance from the University of TN Knoxville where he studied with iconic jazz educator, Jerry Coker and drumset guru, Keith Brown. He has been Director of Bands at Cleveland HS and LaVergne HS in TN where his drumlines, bands, and jazz bands have placed as top finishers in all events entered including two USBands National Championships. He has been Asst. Director of Bands at Whitworth-Buchanan MS and at Eagleville School and has been on faculty at Lee University, Cumberland University, and the University of TN Chattanooga. He has performed with the Chattanooga and Knoxville Symphonies and served as percussion caption head for DCA Drum & Bugle Corps, Music City Legend, and is a consultant for DCA Corps, Southern Knights, in Birmingham, AL. He is an in-demand adjudicator and clinician in both the percussion and jazz areas both nationally and internationally and is an adjudicating member of ETPAA (East TN Performing Arts Association) and CIPA (Connecting Individuals through Performance Arts). He has often judged WGI and SCGC and has recently presented clinics/masterclasses at the Kansas PAS Day of Percussion, the Montana AA Percussion Festival, the Rutherford County Percussion Festival, the North Alabama Percussion Festival, the North Georgia Percussion Festival, the drumline THROWDOWN in El Paso, TX, the Lee University Jazz Camp, the University of TN Knoxville, Austin Peay State University, the Sumner County Day of Drumset & Percussion, the MTSBOA (Middle TN School Band & Orchestra Association) Jazz Clinic, the West Kentucky Percussion Festival, the Oklahoma Band Directors Association Conference, Balko HS in Balko, Oklahoma, and the State Music Educators Conferences for Maryland (MMEA), Texas (TxMEA), and Tennessee (TnMEA) to mention a few.

2026 TN Collegiate Day of Percussion Artist Spotlight: Derrick Greene A native of Chattanooga, TN, Derrick has always been involved in music. He began playing drum set in church and eventually joined the marching band in high school. His experiences in the high school marching band eventually led him to pursue his bachelor’s degree in music with a concentration in education from Tennessee State University, where he was a member of the Aristocrat of Bands. While at Tennessee State, Derrick received numerous awards including; 1st place in the 2013 PASIC collegiate Timpani Solo Competition, the Director’s Choice MVP award, the Top Hat award, and the 2016 Honda Battle of the Bands Ambassador Achievement Award. Immediately after finishing at Tennessee State, Derrick enrolled at the University of Memphis where he earned his Master of Music degree in percussion performance. While in Memphis, Derrick was the principal percussionist of both the wind ensemble and orchestra. During his stay in Memphis, Derrick began teaching private lessons, and working with inner-city band programs. Currently, Derrick Greene serves as one of the Assistant band directors of Tennessee State University’s Aristocrat of Bands and also serves as the head of percussion studies at Tennessee State. Mr. Greene received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Memphis. Moreover, Mr. Greene serves a teaching artist with the National Museum of African American Music. Mr. Greene is also the owner of an educational YouTube channel known as The Greene Beat where he posts educational videos about percussion as well as reference videos of various percussion pieces.

2026 TN Collegiate Day of Percussion Spotlight: Tom Hurst Tom has been a tour and recording drummer for a wide range of national recording artists for almost three decades including: The Backstreet Boys, Wang Chung, Tracy Lawrence, Gary Allan, James Otto, Joe Nichols, Easton Corbin, Lee Brice, Josh Thompson, Damon Johnson of Alice Cooper/Brother Cain, Peter Noon of Herman’s Hermits, Sister Hazel, American Idol alum’/Lyric Street Recording Artist: Bucky Covington, 80’s Pop Star Tiffany, Chuck Wicks, Trent Tomlinson, Jedd Hughes, Shelly Fairchild and many others. Additionally, Tom has served as the House Band Drummer on CBS’ presentation of the 2022 CMT Awards. Tom’s Recorded Performance Discography number well over 100 albums across a wide-range of regional and national artists including: Tracy Lawrence, Fleetwood Mac, Sister Hazel, Amy Dalley, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Danny Wuerffel, Desire Ministries and numerous Nashville custom projects.

2026 TN Collegiate Day of Percussion COMPETITIONS!!! Register today 📍📅

TN Collegiate Day of Percussion Artist Spotlight: Ji Hye Jung Praised as “spectacular” by the Los Angeles Times and “extraordinary” by the Ventura County Star, the Times describes percussionist Ji Hye Jung as “a centered player who can give the impression of being very still yet at all places at once”. Ms. Jung began concertizing in her native South Korea at the age of nine where she performed more than 100 concerts including solo appearances with every major orchestra in Korea. Soon after coming to the United States in 2004, Ms. Jung garnered consecutive first prizes at the 2006 Linz International Marimba Competition and the 2007 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. With percussion repertoire still in its formative stages, Ms. Jung feels strongly about collaborating with composers to further the creation of a new voice for the art form. She has commissioned and premiered works by several important composers including, Kevin Puts, Alejandro Viñao, Paul Lansky, John Serry, Lukas Ligeti, and Jason Treuting. In 2013 she made the premier recording of Michael Torke’s marimba concerto Mojave and in 2014 recorded Phillip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra for the Naxos label. Ms. Jung frequently performs with many of today’s most important conductors and instrumentalists. For six years she has served as principal percussionist with the west coast-based chamber music ensemble Camerata Pacifica, with whom she has premiered works by Bright Sheng and Huang Ruo. She has also recorded Stravinsky’s Les Noces with JoAnn Falletta at the Virginia Arts Festival, performed as soloist with David Robertson conducting an all Messiaen program at Carnegie Hall, and made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony under the baton of Hans Graf in 2005.

TN Collegiate Day of Percussion Artist Spotlight: Kevin Bobo Kevin Bobo is professor of music in 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 from 2003 to 2007. 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. Bobo’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. He studied percussion with J. C. Combs and Gordon Stout and composition with Greg Woodward and Dana Wilson.

We can’t stop thinking about our 2026 Scholastic Day of Percussion 😍😍 Thank you to all of the students, parents, educators, and clinicians who made it such a special day!!!

2026 Tennessee Collegiate Day of Percussion lineup and schedule 📍📅 April 25th at Tennessee State University Registration in bio!!!

THIS SATURDAY! 📍🎟️📅 ​Dr. Brian Mueller is currently Lecturer of Percussion at Middle Tennessee State University, where he has been on faculty since 2015. He is also on faculty with the Tennessee Governor’s School for the Arts. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music (2016). His prior academic background includes a Master of Music degree from the University of North Texas (2009) and a Bachelor of Music degree from Wichita State University (2007). Brian has worked as a freelance drummer and percussionist for many years, and is a published composer and arranger, with pieces available through Tapspace Publications and C. Alan Publications. He also has developed a metronome app for iPhone, “The Gnome,” which is published through the Apple App Store. Brian has performed and presented clinics nationally and internationally, including at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention; the MTSU Jazz Festival; the Shanghai Jazz Festival; the Columbus (OH) International Festival; the North Georgia Percussion Festival; the McCormick Marimba Festival; Reinhardt University; Southeastern University; Florida State University; Tennessee Tech University; Indiana University; Wichita State University; Kansas State University; Middle Tennessee State University; the University of the South (Sewanee, TN); the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris; the Central Conservatory of Beijing; the Midi School of Music (Beijing); Wuxi Grand Theater (Wuxi, China); Hangzhou Normal University (Hangzhou, China); the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music (Hangzhou, China); and the Wuhan Conservatory of Music. Brian proudly endorses Pearl/Adams Concert Percussion and Innovative Percussion.

ONE WEEK!!! Register today 📍🎟️ Rich Redmond has been the touring/recording drummer with multi-platinum country rocker Jason Aldean for over two decades. With Aldean, Rich has recorded 35 #1 hits and plays to millions of fans per year in iconic venues around the globe. Rich has also performed with: Garth Brooks, Ludacris, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Bryan Adams, Bob Seger, Chris Cornell, Joe Perry, Jewel, Miranda Lambert, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, and many other top performers. Rich has appeared on Saturday Night Live, The Voice, American Idol, The Grammy Awards, The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, Ellen, The CMA Awards, ACM Awards, CMT Awards, etc. Rich was voted “Country Drummer of the Year” many years in a row by Modern Drummer magazine and DRUM! Magazine voted Rich one of the “Top 60 Rock Drummers of All Time.” Rich is also a busy speaker, host, educator, author and actor.

Meet our next artist! Dr. Julia Montag (All-State Percussion Ensemble) Montag is the author of the Sequential Studies for Four-Mallet Marimba series, published by Tapspace. This three-volume series—comprising twenty lessons per book—systematically addresses the technical strokes foundational to four-mallet marimba repertoire. She also has produced a solo recording Tiger Dance, which features performances of selected intermediate solos from the series alongside additional commissioned works. As a performer, Montag has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States and internationally, including performances in Brazil, China, England, and Russia. Her orchestral experience includes work with the Missouri Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Fox Valley Symphony, Green Bay Symphony, and Idaho-Washington Symphony. She has presented extensively at professional conferences, including the Midwest Clinic (2013, 2025) and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in 2004, 2008, 2013 and 2019. Montag holds three degrees in percussion performance: a Bachelor of Music from the Lawrence Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Oklahoma. A long-standing member of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS), she has held several leadership roles, including Secretary of the Executive Committee and Associate Editor of Percussive Notes. She currently serves on the PAS Board of Advisors. Prior to joining Oklahoma City University, Montag served at the University of Missouri, where she began as Director of Percussion Studies and was appointed Director of the School of Music in 2014. Among her administrative achievements are leading the School of Music’s Centennial Celebration and overseeing the design, construction, and grand opening of the Sinquefield Music Center. In recognition of her leadership, she received the 2026 Missouri Outstanding Administrator Award from the Missouri Music Educators Association.