#5 Randy Gloss- Co-Founder of the Hands On'Semble & CalArts Percussion Faculty
Hands On’Semble (which is the music that leads into the interview with Randy) also garnered the attention of acclaimed film composer Harry Gregson-Williams, who recruited the group to provide percussion for his soundtrack to the Disney film Prince of Persia: Sands of Time. The following year, he brought Hands On’Semble back to provide the percussion for the Universal/ Dreamworks film Cowboys and Aliens.
In addition to Hands On’Semble, Randy has also worked with an extensive array of artists including: reggae superstar Ziggy Marley (on the Grammy winning album Fly Rasta); pianist Larry Karush; The Lian Ensemble (including the Pangea Project with Djivan Gasparyan and Swapan Chaudhuri; and the 2009 UCLALive production of Medea starring Annette Bening); percussionist Adam Rudolph’s “Go: Organic Orchestra” and world percussion group Vashti; projects with Indian slide veena virtuoso Chitravina Ravikiran (including a concert tour of India that also featured Brazilian pianist Jovino Santos Neto and master African drummer Alfred Ladzekpo); a Balkan/Indian collaboration with maestros Aashish Khan, Swapan Chaudhuri, Miroslav Tadic, Vlatko Stefanovski; Romanian pan flute virtuoso Damian Draghici; overtone singer David Hykes; Turkish musician Latif Bolat; Vinny Golia’s Large Ensemble; Persian pianist Ardeshir Rohani; pianist Dan Siegel; and South Indian percussionist Poovalur Sriji to name only some. Randy has also contributed percussion for film soundtracks by composers Danny Elfman, Harry Gregson-Williams, and Gary Chang; for television series’ such as Fear Factor; video games such as Uncharted 3 for Sony Play Station; recorded music for the American Conservatory Theater; Southwest Chamber Music (Lou Harrison); and has recorded several extensive percussion sample libraries for software companies such as: Apple (Garage Band), Ilio, and Native Instruments.
Gloss has performed worldwide at international music festivals such as: International Oud festival of Jerusalem; Tahiti Guitar Festival; PercPan, Ritmos de Terra, the International Music Festival of Belo Horizonte, and Encontro Internacional de Percussão in Brazil; World Drum Festival in Hamburg Germany; The Taiwan International Drum Festival, the Tainan Chi-Hsi Int’l Arts Festival – Int’l Drummers Gala and the Hsin Chu International Folk Drum Festival in Taiwan; Percussive Arts Society International Conventions (PASIC); Angel City Jazz Festival; Seattle World Rhythm Festival; Watts Tower Day of the Drum Festival; the Different Drummer Festival, and numerous PAS “Days of Percussion” including New York City, Southern California, Central California, Northern California, Southern Oregon, Utah, Nebraska, Wisconsin, and Nevada. As well as performances at venues such as: Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco; Royce Hall, Skirball Cultural Center, Getty Center, and Ford Amphitheater in Los Angeles; Siri Fort Auditorium and National Center for Performing Arts in India; SESC Sao Paulo and Sergio Magnani Music Hall Fundação de Educação Artística in Brazil; and in Canada at Outremont Theatre in Montreal and Convocation Hall in Toronto.
Randy Gloss has been on the faculty at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Valencia California since 1999, where he oversees the M.F.A. World Percussion Program and is the current Chairman of the World Music Program. Randy has also taught at UCLA and LA Music Academy (LAMA), and has been a visiting artist/lecturer/clinician at many universities, music schools and conservatories in the U.S. and abroad.
Randy Gloss endorses Remo world percussion and drumheads; Innovative Percussion drumsticks, brushes and mallets; Paiste cymbals and gongs; and Cooperman frame drums.
You can follow Randy on his website & Facebook or check out the Hands On'semble or reach out to him at CalArts (rgloss@calarts.edu).
If you want to help save the NEA, NEH, NPR & PBS, you can sign this petition here This is what the NEA does. This is what the NEH does. This is one of the NPR pages that focuses on music. And this is a part of PBS that focuses on Afro-Latin Music.
The music you heard on this episode was Half Past Kandam by the Hands On'semble and Whipping Post by the Allman Brothers (Live at Fillmore East Version).
