#471 Dr. Vivienne Shippy- Percussionist, Educator, and More!
This week’s guest is Dr. Vivienne Shippy. Vivienne is a Sacramento-based performer and educator, and currently serves as the Adjunct Assistant Professor of Percussion at Cosumnes River College and as Assistant Instructor of Percussion with Folsom High School. She also currently serves as president of the California Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society.
Vivienne has performed and presented her research in a variety of settings including the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, The Festival of New American Music, The Midwest Conference, and the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy. Her most recent research focuses on the in-depth teaching of repertoire in Percussion Methods courses.
She has also premiered commissioned and premiered new works at events such as the Festival of New American Music and the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy.
As a performer, she has sat in frequently with groups such as Music in the Mountains, Little Rock Wind Symphony, and the Conway Symphony Orchestra, where she served as the principal timpanist for several years.
In addition to her frequent performances, Vivienne also regularly conducts outreach performances and education presentations across the country at places including California State University: Sacramento, the University of Kansas, Ouachita Baptist University, and the University of Central Arkansas Percussion Festival.
Experienced in both concert percussion and front ensemble teaching, she has worked with award-winning marching bands and front ensembles that have been circuit champions under her instruction.
Vivienne is a founding member of Metaphor Percussion, a nationally-touring percussion duo she formed along with Dr. Jordan Shippy (CSU: Sacramento). Metaphor frequently tours the U.S., commissioning and premiering new works, presenting concerts, and participating in artist residencies.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Neil Larrivee! Neil is the Vice President of Mission Advancement. Mr. Larrivee will play a crucial part of Music for All’s current efforts to lead through the challenging times of the pandemic with new and expanded fundraising efforts through donations, grants, and new sponsorships. Looking forward, Mr. Larrivee’s vast experience and knowledge of the music industry will help support a strong Music for All long into the future.
Mr. Larrivee was the Vice President of Drumstick & Mallet Innovation for the Avedis Zildjian Company. For 34 years, Neil played a unique role in the overall growth of Vic Firth while also coordinating its music industry leading education program. In 2016, he was responsible for bringing together both the Zildjian and Vic Firth Education staffs into a single, fully integrated department. Most recently he was responsible for drumstick and mallet product innovation for Zildjian, Vic Firth & Mike Balter Mallet brands.
Outside of Zildjian, Neil has over 40 years of music teaching experience within the marching band, drum corps, and indoor marching percussion activities as well as private lesson instruction resulting in his induction into The Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps, Winter Guard International, Massachusetts Drum Corps and Music Educators Hall of Fame.
Neil is an active clinician and adjudicator in the marching band and indoor percussion arena. As an avid concert attendee, Neil will often be found taking in live performances of jazz, orchestral, or contemporary chamber music in Boston or wherever his travels may take him.
“With a decorated multi-decade career in the music education and business world, Neil will be a resource for all facets of Music for All, which includes the shouldering of responsibilities which will allow others to shift focus as we retool MFA for the realities of the years to come,” said Jeremy L. Earnhart, President and CEO of Music for All.
Headquartered in downtown Indianapolis, Music for All is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization that uniquely combines regional and national music education programming with awareness and advocacy efforts aimed at ensuring and expanding access to music in schools and communities.
Happy Birthday to Dr. Andrea Venet! Dr. Andrea Venet is a percussion artist, soloist, educator, and composer specializing in contemporary and classical genres. She is currently Assistant Professor of Percussion and head of the department at the University of North Florida, where she directs the UNF percussion ensemble, teaches applied lessons, pedagogy, methods and percussion literature. Her creative activity includes performance, composition, and commissioning new works.
As an international soloist, chamber musician, and clinician, Andrea maintains an active performance schedule, having held appointments in Europe, Japan, Canada, and Trinidad. Andrea has been a featured soloist at the Celebrate Marimba Festival, The Steve Weiss Mallet Festival (Barnes Foundation, PA), Prairie Music Residency (SK, Canada), with the Kutztown University Symphony, in addition to being a featured performer with SNL percussionist Valerie Naranjo, Ivan Trevino, the Lawson Ensemble, Project Trio, and the Eastman Percussion Ensemble. Early in her career, Andrea was a member of the award winning Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps from 2002-2004 and performed with Grammy winning alternative band TOOL with the Gilbert Drumline in 2001.
Andrea has performed and presented at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention multiple times, the Florida and Virginia Music Educators Association conventions, The College Music Society National Conference, the International Trombone Festival, and has been invited to co-present at the World Symposium of Choral Music in Auckland, NZ in 2020 with Dr. Cara Tasher.
Dr. Venet’s percussion duo, Escape Ten, maintains a steady performance schedule touring as guest artists and clinicians nationally and internationally, consistently featured as chamber artists and clinicians at music festivals, concert series, conferences, and universities. Through collaboration with composer Eric Guinivan, they are the recipients of a marimba duo commission awarded from the prestigious Fromm Foundation entitled Illuminations (2018), which they premiered at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, FL. In 2016 they performed a Showcase Concert at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, giving 3 world premieres. Select appearances include performances in Spain at the Ágora Actual Percussion and WASBE 2019 festivals, the Academy of the Performing Arts (UTT) in Trinidad, at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, The Eastman Summer Percussion Festival, and at the Leigh Howard Stevens Marimba Seminar. They have collaborated with composers Michael Burritt, Russell Hartenberger, Aurél Hollo, Emmanuel Séjourné, Ivan Trevino, Joe Locke, Steve Danyew, Steve Ridley, Drew Worden, and Kelly Rossum. As signature artists, Escape Ten has their own mallets (2020) and publication series of new percussion duos through Malletech/Keyboard Percussion Publications (KPP). You can hear them their albums, My Favorite Things (Parma Records, 2020) and Colours of a Groove (2014).
Andrea’s compositions and arrangements can be found self-published via her website, through Keyboard Percussion Publications (KPP), Tapspace, and Alfonse-Production, in addition to articles published with PercussiveNotes and Rhythm!Scene magazines. A passionate educator, Andrea’s research involves pedagogy, with focus on college percussion education at various levels, classical improvisation and historically informed Baroque performance practice techniques for Bach on marimba. She has presented her lecture recital entitled “Affekt and Execution: Historical Performance Practice and Contemporary Techniques for performing Bach on Marimba” multiple times across the country. Andrea holds a DMA in Performance and Literature with a minor in Pedagogy, and the prestigious Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. She received her Masters and Bachelors degrees from Rutgers and Arizona State University, respectively. Andrea is endorsed by Malletech, Remo, DREAM Cymbals, Black Swamp Percussion, and currently serves as the Percussive Arts Society Florida Chapter President.
Happy Birthday to Kristen Klehr! Kristen is a drummer/percussionist and singer new to the Bay Area. Prior to moving to San Francisco, she toured internationally with Scrap Arts Music from 2017-2020 and was based in Los Angeles when not on the road. She’s performed on stages as big as Coachella and as small as Hotel Café, with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra and Juneau Symphony Brass, from orchestral to pit musicals to singer+songwriter and pop - in short, she loves it all. Kristen received her first GRAMMY® Nomination on marimba with The String Theory in 2020, and was honored to be a featured artist at the Mallet + Voice Fest 2023.
Kristen is a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music earning a bachelor’s degree in Percussion Performance, holds a master’s degree in Arts Administration from Florida State University, and a continuing education certificate in The Business of Art from the Los Angeles Center for Cultural Innovation. She has studied percussion primarily with Joel Smales, Josh Ryan, and Valerie Naranjo as well as Randy Messing and Joanne Uniatowski in voice. A serial entrepreneur within the music industry, she owns Produced by BEAR, is the founder of The Den Collective and Pawprint, and is currently the Professional Development and Engagement Center Director at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Kristen is proudly endorsed by Marimba One, Dream Cymbals and Gongs, Vater Drumsticks, Black Swamp Percussion, and Earasers. She is represented for screen, commercial, and print by Instrumental Casting.
Happy Birthday to Matthew-Lee Erlbach! Matthew-Lee is a writer, actor, and filmmaker from Chicago and New York, whose work largely focuses on erased histories as well as the impact of technological revolutions on capital, labor, race, spirituality, and democratic movements. He also writes comedy. It’s dark. He loves pudding.
A proud graduate of the public school system from K-College, Matthew-Lee created a writing program for single mothers transitioning out of homelessness and prison and is a team leader for Habitat for Humanity, locally and globally. He is the Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy for the Arts Hero campaign and co-founder of Arts Workers United, where he is lobbying for a landmark Arts & Culture worker relief bill he co-wrote, called the DAWN (Defend Arts Workers Now) Act.
For his organizing, activism, and policy work on behalf of Arts Workers, he has been interviewed/featured in multiple national media outlets including NPR, MSNBC, CNN, PBS, WGN, Washington Post, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Crain’s Chicago Business, Chicago Reader, and Playbill, among others. He is also an advocate for ethical AI and ethical transhumanism.
He has received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Laurents/Hatcher Foundation, Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation, Puffin Foundation, was a member of Ars Nova's Play Group, MVMNT Theatre’s Play Group, is a HUMANITAS New Voices recipient, and is a proud member of the Dramatist’s Guild, WGA, and SAG-AFTRA.
Matthew is the co-founder of Be An Arts Hero.
Happy Birthday to Terence F. Clark! Terence is a Memphis based drummer, producer and overall creative. Known for his impeccable and soulful performances, his professionalism and discipline of craft, Terence has traveled the world building relationships with and through music. As Terence finds inspiration in his travels and engaging other cultures, he always lends inspiration with his unique brand of performance, solid groove and musical knowledge and excellence. It's always been more than “just about the music”, to Terence; it's about creating the very best and discovering a community of artists with which to learn from and create with along the way.
Terence began to dream about making music at the age of two. His father, Marc Clark, an organist and pianist and grandfather Loyce F. Clark, a guitarist and legendary quartet vocalist, became his early mentors along with music producers, Kevin Paige and Niko Lyras. Terence developed the gritty elements of his style while playing with local bands on Beale Street. Those experiences stirred up his love for the city’s music legacy and heartbeat of all musical forms. His professional career has spanned from touring nationally and internationally as well as recording with an eclectic array of artists of many genres. He currently tours with the legendary, Robert Cray Band. A musical education and real-life experiences have refined his talents.
Terence is also a Producer and Co-Founder of The Undertone Collective, a production company that enables artists by providing a vast range of media and production services. He's passionate about furthering the legendary music that Memphis has always heralded, while creating a support and resource system for new and experiences artists. Terence is currently mentored by David Porter, Tommy Sims, James Waddell, and Steve Jordan. His musical inspiration stems from the likes of Steve Jordan, Al Jackson Jr., Howard Grimes, Steve Gadd, Tony Williams, Dennis Chambers, William Kennedy, Dan Needham, Dave Weckl, Marvin McQuitty, and Austin Bradley.
Working with Terence means working with an artist whose creativity and versatility are only matched by his personal warmth and dedication to the project. His passion is not only for the art, but for the artist.
Happy Birthday to Amaury Acosta! Amaury (aka King Klave) is a Cuban American Drummer, Producer, Composer, & Educator. He authentically blends his Afro-Cuban roots with the various Musical influences he experienced growing up in Hell's Kitchen NYC! Amaury Acosta (aka King Klave) is a Cuban American Drummer, Producer, Composer, & Educator.
Gig Alerts
Jeffrey Barudin has released new job openings for percussionists and percussion educators. You can sign up for updates on his website.
The Governors Ball Music Festival is happening in NYC June 5-7th.
Sō Percussion is performing at Carnegie Hall on Jan 23rd in NYC. Friend of the show, Jason Treuting is one of the members of the group.
The Biamp Portland Jazz Festival is happening March 5th-14th in Oregon.
The Greenwich Town Party is happening in Greenwich, CT on May 23rd.
Friend of the show, Eddie Montalvo has a couple of gigs coming up in the Bronx, NY.
If you’re interested in submitting to perform as part of NPR’s Tiny Desk series, you have until February 9th to submit your entry.
Educational Spotlight
The deadline to submit someone to the Percussive Arts Society’s Hall of Fame is January 31st.
Damon is going to nominate friend of the show, Giovanni Hidalgo.
The deadline to submit as an artist for PASIC 2026 is January 26th.
Friend of the show, Count Eric C. Hughes has posted a “Do’s and Don’t’s” guideline for submitting.
Iconic Recording
Vivienne chose the iconic recording, “Take Me Home” by Phil Collins from the album, ‘No Jacket Required’.
Damon mentions the documentary on Phil as well.
Music News
Spotify has ended running ads for ICE (for now), but it’s not because of a change of heart.
Friend of the show, Jeff Queen has written a book.
The Washington National Opera is parting ways with the Kennedy Center in a so-called amicable split after being partnered since 1971. -Article
Damon has a forthcoming book. It’s on how to be a better sideperson and/or session musician. You can sign up for the email list to be notified as to when it will be released.
Vivienne Shippy Interview
The song leading into the interview is, “Coloring Sheet” by Josh Gottry.
Vivienne is from Ocean Sptings, Mississippi doing choir before joining band and playing percussion.
She moved to Florida’s panhandle and did marching drumline. Both indoor and outdoor.
She attended the University of West Florida and studied with Laura Noah where she got her undergrad.
She got her masters and graduate certificate from the University of Central Arkansas, studying with Dr. Blake Tyson.
After that, she attended the University of Oklahoma where she got her doctorate and studied with Dr. Andrew Richardson.
Shout-out to her husband and duo partner, Dr. Jordan Shippy.
Vivienne’s family is Cajun and from Louisiana. At the time of the interview, she was in Centerville, LA.
Damon mentions Lousiana vocalist Marc Broussard.
Growing up on the gulf coast, Vivienne ate a lot of, and loves seafood.
Here’s a basic gumbo recipe.
Vivienne is the California Chapter President for the Percussive Arts Society. Damon asks about some of the challenges of being in charge of such a large state.
Shout-out to Matthew Darling at CSU Fresno.
Vivienne is currently teaching at Cosumnes River College in the Sacremento, CA area.
Vivienne is close to making it to all 50 states before she hits 40.
Vivienne and her husband Jordan have a percussion duo called Metaphor Percussion Duo.
Damon and Vivienne talk about percussion methods and her doctoral thesis.
Damon mentions the book Teaching Rhythm by David Newell. Damon also mentions friend of the show, Thom Hannum’s book on Check Patterns.
Vivienne won a grant for a new project called “Sounding Out”
In addition to teaching at the collegiate level, Vivienne teaches at a couple of high schools, some drumline, and private lessons.
Vivienne picks the iconic recording for the week.
Metaphor Percussion uses Salyers Percussion implements.
She shouts-out her teachers that were mentioned previously in the episode.
You can follow Vivienne on her Website, Facebook, and Instagram.
The song leading out of the interview is, “Debris Field” by Jessica Flannigan, performed by the OU Percussion Orchestra
