Dr.
James SnellDr. James Snell has performed as a percussionist with the Kansas City Symphony, the Kansas City Ballet, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Opera, the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and the Missouri Chamber Orchestra. He has performed as a timpanist with the Kansas City Symphony, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Kansas City Ballet, the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and Missouri Chamber Orchestra. He has recorded with the New Mexico and Dallas Symphonies as well as the Dallas Wind Symphony. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion Performance from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, the Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance from Southern Methodist University and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Dr. Snell has served on the faculty of the Department of Music at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Percussion at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and as a faculty member of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan. Dr. Snell maintains an active schedule as a free-lance timpanist and percussionist and is also a member of Marimba Yajalon, an ethnic marimba ensemble, performing the music of Mexico nationally and internationally. Snell also serves as an educational endorser/clinician for Innovative Percussion Inc. and Sabian cymbals.
Nick Petrella is the Director of Education for Sabian Ltd., where he is responsible for world-wide Sales and Marketing for the Band and Orchestral Division. He has many solo and chamber music performances to his credit and has performed with large ensembles that include the Kansas City Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Fort Worth/Dallas Ballet, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and Michigan Opera. In 2002, Nick and Diane Petrella formed the Petrella Ensemble, which is dedicated to commissioning and performing new works for piano and percussion.
He received a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Iowa, a Master of Music from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Penn State University. Nick was on the faculty of Oakland University from 2002 to 2006 and was the Director of Percussion Studies at Texas Christian University from 1996 to 2001. Committed to percussion education, Nick has published numerous articles in US and European music journals. He is the author of two Carl Fischer publications: The Ultimate Guide to Cymbals w/DVD and The Multiple-Percussion Book w/CD. Nick and Diane Petrella recently published The Musicians Toolbox, Thoughts on Teaching and Learning Music, which has been embraced by NAMM, supportmusic.com and other music advocacy organizations. Nick has been a consultant to many companies in the music industry and holds nine designs for sticks, mallets and percussion accessories currently on the market, most notably the Nick Petrella #5 and #10 snare drum sticks by Cooperman. Nick is a Yamaha performing artist and has appeared as a clinician, teacher and performer throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
Doug
Auwarter
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Drum Set (Winter Semester)
Doug Auwarter is a much sought-after drum-set artist doing performances, clinics, and private teaching. Besides performing with virtually every major jazz artist in the Kansas City area, he has played numerous shows and concerts with such people as George Burns, the Smothers Brothers, Joan Rivers, the Drifters, Ben E. King, Martha and the Vandellas, Little Anthony, the Shirelles, Paquito d'Rivera and many others.
In the last decade, he has become known as a source for information on Brazilian music. In his travels to Rio de Janeiro he has played with such notable musicians as Osmar Milito, Nico Assumpção and Luizão Maia. In 1998, he paraded at the Sambadrome in Rio during Carnaval. Articles he has written on this and other types of music may be found in Percussive Notes (the journal of the Percussive Arts Society), The Pitch Weekly (Kansas City's arts and entertainment newspaper), and The Brasilians (a newspaper for “Brazil watchers” living in the United States.) In 1996, Doug launched the Brazilian Jazz bulletin board on America Online, and numerous short articles by him can be found there. In Kansas City, he performs weekly with the Sons of Brasil as well as local jazz notables such as Joe Cartwright, Angela Hagenbach, and many others. His work may be heard on recent recordings by The Sons of Brasil, Musa Nova, Joe Cartwright, Angela Hagenbach, and Karrin Allyson, among others.
Doug has served as an adjunct-faculty member at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, Johnson County Community College, and currently at Missouri Western State College, the Conservatory of Music at UMKC, and Northwest Missouri State University. He has given numerous clinics on the music and drumming of Brazil, the Caribbean, as well as contemporary American styles to people of all ages, including primary and secondary schools, colleges, and professional master classes. He has taught professionally for over 25 years, and has had a studio at Explorers Percussion for the past thirteen years. He is a Paiste Cymbal artist.
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