This week’s guest is Dennis J. Arcano. Dennis is a multi-instrumentalist who excels at many different genres with a passion for both live performance and music technology. In addition to a Master of Music in Studio Composition from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music, he also earned a Bachelor of Science in Music Education and Percussion from Western Connecticut State University. Dennis has spent the last 25 years honing his craft to become a highly sought-after musician, studio engineer, and educator.

Dennis has an extensive resume in musical theater, having performed as a substitute drummer and percussionist in several Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, including Kimberly Akimbo, Almost Famous, Mr. Saturday Night, Jagged Little Pill, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Altar Boyz, tick, tick...BOOM! and Follies (2001 Revival). He has held the drums and percussion chair for numerous regional theaters, including Goodspeed’s Norma Terris Theater, Gateway’s Candlewood Playhouse, and Barrington Stage Company. Since its opening in 2018, the award-winning ACT of CT (A Contemporary Theater of Connecticut) has employed Dennis as their resident music contractor, synth programmer, and house drummer for all of their productions, including the Grammy Award-nominated World Premiere Recording of Stephen Schwartz's Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook. He appeared on Clayton Craddock's Broadway Drumming 101 podcast, was the assistant musical director for Jonathan Larson's tick, tick...BOOM! (1st National Tour), and has performed on stage with a number of well-known performers, including Billy Crystal, Molly Ringwald, Joey McIntyre, Wilson Cruz, Lauren Patten, Jesse-Tyler Ferguson, Josh Gad, Linda Eder, Marni Nixon, Mario Cantone, Harvey Fierstein, Peter Cetera, Debby Boone, Tom Kitt, Jerry Herman, and Frank Wildhorn.

In addition to his work in musical theater, Dennis has also served as the Principal Percussionist for the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra and performed with the New Haven, Waterbury, and Bridgeport Symphony Orchestras. He has also worked with a variety of original folk, rock, and pop acts, including Emily Asen’s full-length LP To the Marrow, and has even been featured in the official music video for Por Debajo De La Mesa by Grammy Award-winning artist, Luis Miguel.

When he's not performing, Dennis is busy sharing his knowledge and passion for music with others. He currently teaches General Music for the Bethel Public Schools using the Quaver Music curriculum and was an award-winning drum instructor and arranger for the Brien McMahon High School Marching Band for over a decade. He has also studied drums and percussion with David Smith and Roger Post, composition and theory with Kevin J. Isaacs, Ryan Homsey, and Jim McElwaine, and conducting and arranging with Arnie Gross. He even runs his own home recording and production studio and is a proud member of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 802.

Whether he's performing in a Broadway show, recording a self-produced album, or teaching music to students, Dennis brings his passion and expertise to everything he does musically.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to friend of the show Jason Koontz! Dr. Jason Koontz has served as director of percussion studies at Eastern Kentucky University since 2000. He currently teaches applied percussion, percussion ensemble, percussion methods, music appreciation, world music, and directs both the EKU Percussion Ensemble and the EKU Steel Band.

He has traveled to perform and study world music/percussion in Europe (England, Holland, and Switzerland), Japan, Taiwan, Trinidad, Africa, India, Indonesia, and Brazil. Koontz has also performed with groups such as Global Rhythms, Blast, Birdsong Steel Orchestra, Silver Stars Steel Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops and Ballet Orchestras, Lexington Philharmonic, Richmond Symphony, Lexington Theater, the Art of Rice Traveling Theater (Indonesia), Tonus Percussion Trio, Resonance Percussion Sextet, Star of Indiana drum and bugle corps, Brass Theater, and the Southwind drum and bugle corps.

Happy Birthday to friend of the show Tommy Diehl! Tommy Diehl is a Fairfield County, Connecticut-based drummer who has worked in many genres including jazz, classical, theater, singer-songwriter, folk, rock, country, blues, hard rock, ska. He has toured, performed or recorded with Ryan Montbleau, Yes Darling, InAshton, Spookie Daly Pride, Acoustic Junction (Fool’s Progress), Jamie McLean Band, Chad Hollister Band, Stephanie Ryann, Helmet, Moriah Formica, Queen V, Jamey Aebersold, David Baker, Andrew Jones & SpiritHouse, Frank Migliorelli & The Dirt Nappers, Kim Fox, Skamikaze, Vinny Nobile & The Trummytones, The Cherry Bluestorms, Frank Manzi, Barry Kingston, Todd Thibaud, Jeffrey Mitchell-Ross, Zo Tobi, Jeff Tuohy, and many others.

Happy birthday to friend of the show Neil Grover! Neil W. Grover holds the distinction of performing with one of the world’s foremost orchestras (Boston Symphony) on the soundtrack for one of the most successful blockbuster movies of all time (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) and with the iconic rock band, Aerosmith.

Neil is a renowned percussionist, accomplished music educator, imaginative product innovator, and successful entrepreneur. He is the founder and president of Grover Pro Percussion Inc., a market leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of world-class percussion instruments.

Happy Birthday to friend of the show Shawn Mativetsky! Dynamic performer Shawn Mativetsky is considered one of Canada's leading ambassadors of the tabla, and is a pioneer in bridging the worlds of Western and Indian classical music. Acclaimed as an exceptional soloist and a leading disciple of the renowned Pandit Sharda Sahai, Shawn Mativetsky is highly sought-after as both performer and educator, and is active in the promotion of the tabla and North Indian classical music through lectures, workshops, and performances across Canada and internationally. Based in Montreal, Shawn teaches tabla and percussion at McGill University. His most recent solo tabla album, Rivers, is rooted in the rich traditions of the Benares style of tabla playing. Shawn's new book, RUDIMENTAAL, features compositions for snare drum, inspired by the tabla drumming of North India.

Happy Birthday to friend of the show Kaoru Watanabe! Composer and musician Kaoru Watanabe grounds his performance in traditional Japanese music while inhabiting a startling combination of musical worlds. He is renowned for his ability to collaborate with a diverse array of visionary international artists: Jason Moran, Yo-Yo Ma and Silkroad, Spanish flamenco dancer Eva Yerbabuena, visual artists Simone Leigh and Alyson Shotz, calligrapher Koji Kakinuma, Japanese National Living Treasure Bando Tamasaburo, vocalists Alicia Hall Moran and Imani Uzuri, tap dancers Tamango and Kazunori Kumagai, Galician bagpiper Carlos Nuñez, So Percussion, Semba Kiyohiko, Reigakusha, Brooklyn Raga Massive, Adam Rudolph and Go:Organic Orchestra, the Aizuri and Parker String Quartets and pipa virtuoso Wu Man. In 2018, Watanabe debuted as an orchestral soloist and composer with the Sydney Symphony at the Sydney Opera House. He is an advisor, composer and featured musician on the Oscar-nominated score of Wes Anderson’s film Isle of Dogs and was a guest artist on the Silkroad's Grammy Award-winning album Sing Me Home.

Gig Alerts

Friend of the show Drew McKeon is on tour with Seal! Check out the international tour schedule to secure your tickets. The U.S. leg kicks off at the Hollywood Bowl, Aug 9th.

The Music City Drum Show will be happening July 20-21st in Nashville TN. Tickets and booths are available on the website. The event is focused on drum displays, sales, networking, and clinics.

Cuban pianist, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés will lead a world tour to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Irakere, the Cuban band he founded. Roberto Vizcaino Jr. and friend of the show Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez will join him on drums and percussion. More info here.

The Group Scary Pockets will be starting their European tour July 11th. Friend of the show James Williams will be playing drums with them throughout Europe and the UK. More info and tickets on the Scary Pockets Instagram.

Educational Spotlight

You can compete at Pasic 2024 in the Individual and Ensemble competition. The Individual & Ensemble Competition provides a competitive avenue for collegiate and high school-level individuals during PASIC. If you’d like to do so you can register here.

Iconic Recording

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is this week’s Iconic Recording. Chosen by Dennis Arcano for the special significance it played in his own life and on his musical style. “Thriller” was produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Jackson, and writen by Rod Temperton. It was released by Epic Records on November 11, 1983 in the UK and on January 23, 1984. The bassline was performed on an ARP 2600 synthesizer, and the verse pads were performed on a Roland Jupiter-8 layered with a Sequential Circuits Prophet 5. The percussion was created with a LinnDrum drum machine modified with sound chips from two other drum machines: a snare, hi-hat and congas from an LM-1 and a clap from a TR-808.

Michael Jackson "Thriller" Background Vocals Deconstructed

How To Play Michael Jackson's Thriller

Deconstructing Thriller (Isolated Tracks)

Music News

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Dennis J. Arcano Interview

The song leading into the interview is BOWS (from the musical "Jagged Little Pill") by Alanis Morissette.

Dennis J. Arcano went to Brien McMahon High School and Damon went to near by competing school Norwalk High School (Marching Band). They have known each other almost 30 years, since their early days growing up in CT, through various high school band competitions.

Shout-out to Tom Miner and Brian Muller, Dennis’ high school band directors.

Dennis talks about his time at WestConn.

Dennis talks about subbing for various Broadway musicals. You can find more information on his facebook page.

Shout-out to Simon Matthews and Stephen Oremus.

Some of his other recordings are available on Soundcloud.

Dennis talks about doing a clinic for the Connecticut Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society.

Dennis was on Clayton Craddock’s Broadway Drumming podcast which you can listen to Part 1 & Part 2

Dennis talks about his meticulous preparation when subbing on a show.

Dennis got a masters degree in Studio Composition at SUNY Purchase.

Dennis plays drums/does musical contracting for this theatre in CT.

His home studio is the Darc Room Studios. You can email him here if you need his services at: darcroomstudio@gmail.com

Dennis talks about The Westchester Broadway Theater (now closed)

Dennis chooses the iconic recording.

Dennis delves into his experience coming to terms with hearing loss and gives some helpful tips to other drummers about how to preserve their hearing and the app he’s using with his hearing aids when using in-ear monitors and studio cans. Dennis uses Open Fit hearing aids.

Dennis and Damon talked about the company Sensaphonics and the game changing ASI Audio 3dME In-Ear Monitor System as well as the musician ear plugs.

You can follow Dennis on Facebook and YouTube.

Shoutouts to David Smith, Bill Lanham (Les Miserables), Arnie Gross, Dave Brush, and Steve St. Mary!

The song leading out of the interview is from the musical “Snapshots” by Stephen Schwartz the song title is “Moving in with Susan” Released 09-30-2021.