Composer Spotlight: Dave Hall

DAVE HALL is Associate Professor of Percussion and coordinator of the percussion program at the University of Nebraska. Under his direction, the University of Nebraska Percussion Ensemble was selected to perform a showcase concert at PASIC in both 2019 and 2016 as winners of the Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition (IPEC). Before his appointment in Lincoln he was a percussion instructor at Texas Christian University (TCU) and also taught lessons, ensembles, and courses at the University of North Texas as a teaching fellow.

He regularly performs as a marimba and multi-percussion soloist, collaborative chamber musician especially in contemporary classical settings, jazz drummer, orchestral percussionist, steel pan player, and improviser – favoring an eclectic and omnivorous approach to percussion and the arts. In addition to regular engagements in the contiguous United States, he has also performed abroad in Spain, Puerto Rico, Belgium, France, Italy, and at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

Dave is an active composer, published by C. Alan Publications. His works for percussion have been commissioned, performed, and recorded around the world. His music has been called “the aural equivalent of a Dali painting” (New York Concert Review). His compositions are regularly performed at notable venues including the Midwest Clinic, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, The National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, and at major concert halls and performing arts centers in the USA and abroad. He's regularly involved nationally and internationally as an adjudicator and clinician for concert and marching percussion. In the summer of 2019, he joined the staff of the Bluecoats (DCI) as Associate Music Ensemble Coordinator.

Dr. Hall has earned degrees in percussion performance from the University of North Texas (D.M.A), TCU (M.M.), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (B.M.). He is an endorsing artist for Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets, Pearl/Adams concert percussion, Remo drumheads, and is a member of the Black Swamp Percussion Educator Network. He currently resides in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife Elizabeth and their children Ariadne, Emily, and Porter.