Frost Percussion’s mission and vision are to nurture, educate and inspire phenomenal young musicians, empowering them to remain highly relevant in the demanding professional field.
-Classical Percussion at the Frost School thrives on a most unique and elegantly implemented modern educational model, enabling out students to consistently study with all faculty, and solely dedicated to the students’ technical and artistic growth, as well as their professional success. The Percussion Program’s numerous accomplishments feature Jobs and Competition wins within all main sectors of the industry, including Orchestral, Solo and Chamber Music. This rare and diverse combination of expertise and achievement record sets the Frost Classical Percussion Program as a trailblazer and a leader in the field.
-Our Professors’ team consists of three experts with significant current experience, who collectively represent the most fundamental disciplines within Classical Percussion performance and education: Solo and Chamber Music (Svet Stoyanov – International Soloist), Orchestral Percussion (Pablo Rieppi – New York City Ballet, Juilliard School) and Timpani (Leonardo Soto – The Houston Symphony). While many peer institutions do employ numerous Percussion faculty, the students’ ability to study with all of them regularly and simultaneously is rare. The Frost Percussion Studios proudly thrives on this unique approach and is highly successful, in part, because of it.
-Undergraduate Percussion students enjoy a unique curriculum, custom tailored to actively involve all three faculty, enabling simultaneous (throughout all 4 years), consistent and thorough studies with all professors in Orchestral Percussion, Timpani, Solo Percussion and Chamber Music. This enables our students to “connect the dots” among all these disciplines and more specifically - to understand how and when to share their technical and musical knowledge across various instruments, genres and environments. By graduation, our goals are to educate wonderful well-rounded musicians with strong technical skills, who are competitive, inspired, informed and versatile.
-Graduate Percussionists enjoy the flexibility of pursuing various Career and Study tracks, including: Solo + Chamber Music, Orchestral + Chamber Music and, in rare cases, a more densely combined Curriculum featuring Solo, Orchestral and Chamber Music. Uniquely, these tracks are also represented in the admissions/audition selection process, allowing our applicants to select repertoire closely relevant to their current and future professional goals and aspirations.
-Frost Percussion Group
Non-Conducted Chamber Music (also known as the Frost Percussion Group) is the crown-jewel of the Frost Classical Percussion Curriculum, providing all our students with irreplaceable experiences and precious performance opportunities. The internationally acclaimed Frost Percussion Group is at the epicenter of developing some of the most important skills, necessary to every musician – deep listening, contextual decision making, communication, collective creativity, collaboration and beyond.
-Basic Facts about Frost Percussion:
- The studio size varies between 15-20 students (including graduate and undergraduate students), remaining agile, yet sufficiently sized.
- The ratio of undergraduate to graduate students is approx. 50/50
- Every week, at least one faculty presents a masterclass, which is attended by all studio members.
- There are numerous guest artists who visit Frost Percussion annually.
- Frost Percussion Group consists of all student majors and presents one or multiple concerts per year, featuring solo and chamber music.
- The custom-built percussion facilities at the Frost School were developed in close collaboration with Svet Stoyanov. They are some of the finest in the world and hold a constantly evolving, impressive collection of Professional equipment, including a professional A/V setup available to all students.
- Every hall where large ensembles hold rehearsals has its unique percussion storage space, containing a full arsenal of equipment, maximizing student setup time and minimizing the need for moving equipment.
- Frost Large Ensemble placement auditions are held at the beginning of every school year – these are blind, ensuring utmost fair placement for all Studio members, while providing them with precious, real-world audition experience
- While the Frost School of Music is a private institution, it offers a wide range of financial assistance to our students, making it extremely competitive, yet realistically accessible for all applicants.
