#98 Ed Choi- Principal Percussionist for the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra!
Marcos Torres and Marcos Lopez are giving a masterclass at the Academia de Arte in Mexico. If you’re around, go see them!
You can still register for PAS (Percussive Arts Society) at the door, and attend PASIC (Percussive Arts Society International Conference) this coming week November 14-17th in Indianapolis, IN.
The iconic recording is “Coyote” by Joni Mitchell from the Shadows and Light tour/album featuring Don Alias on congas and drums.
Music News for this week……
Shazam now lets you share songs directly to your Instagram story. 5 things to keep with you in a travel bag so you don’t get sick on tour. A bunch of people have been losing their homes to the California wild fires. Shoutout to all the firefighters and others trying to help keep everyone safe. The Beatles’ White album and Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland album both turn 50! British musicians launch a “Save the Music” campaign to try and keep touring smooth with the impending Brexit.
The song leading into the interview is: La Valse by Ravel.
Ed grew up during his formative years in Canada and first started drum corps in Calgary before heading to the Boston Crusaders to not only play, but also teach!
Ed attended the University of Toronto for undergrad, studying with Russell Hartenberger and Robin Engleman. For his Masters degree, he went to Northwestern University where he studied under Michael Burritt and James Ross. When pursuing his doctorate, he went to Rutgers University and studied under She-e Wu and Alan Abel. He also did a stint at Umass in 1989, studying under Thom Hannum as well.
After Ed aged out of Drum Corps, he taught and then was able to march his dream show, by becoming a member of Star of Indiana when they did their collaboration with the Canadian Brass in the show Brass Theater.
One of the many places you can find orchestral gigs is on a site called Musical Chairs (dot) info.
The Morris Goldenberg book Damon refers to is the “Modern School for Xylophone, Marimba and Vibraphone” which has some standard orchestral excerpts in the back. Raynor Carroll has orchestral repertoire books for all instruments.
Ed used to listen to a lot of the drum corps tapes from the 1980s (especially from the Santa Clara Vanguard and Garfield Cadets). Also from the 80s, synth-pop and even Phillip Glass or film scores.
Nexus being one of the premier percussion ensembles, was a big inspiration for Ed.
Mahler’s 6th Symphony. Photo by Kim Wolf
If you aren’t aware what K-Pop is, it is Korean Pop, usually based around a boy band or a girl group.
Ed uses Malletech Mallets, & Sabian Cymbals.
You can follow Ed at the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and on Facebook.
