Garden State Percussion demonstrates a variety of percussion instruments including drums that play rhythms to xylophones that play melodies. Children discover that anything you can hit, shake or scrape can be a percussion instrument. They learn that they can create sound on unusual household objects and well as traditional instruments, even playing opera on pots and pans!
William Trigg is well known as a specialist in 20th & 21st Century music. He has premiered solo works by Babbitt, Bouchard, Dlugoszewski, Kupferman, & Shapey, and was solo marimbist in the New York City Ballet’s premiere production of Michael Torke’s “Echo”. Mr. Trigg has performed and recorded with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Steve Reich & Musicians, the Philip Glass Ensemble, the Group for Contemporary Music, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the Hamburg Symphony, the NJ Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke & #39;s, the American Composers Orchestra, the Manhattan Marimba Quartet, the New Music Consort, The Car Music Project, Newband, Parnassus, and numerous others. He has premiered over 100 solo, chamber, and orchestral works. William Trigg is Head of Percussion Studies at The College of New Jersey.
Jason O’Brien holds a Bachelors and Masters in Music Performance from The College of New Jersey and New Jersey City University. While there he won The College of New Jersey concerto competition and was a featured soloist with the orchestras and ensembles at both schools
He has been an adjunct faculty member of Passaic County Community College since 2007. In 2020 and 2021 he won the DCI Performers Showcase all age division on marimba. Since 2018 he has been a member of the Charu Suri Group. He has performed at numerous venues and festivals including Carnegie Hall, The St Croix Jazz Festival and Birdland.
The members of the Garden State Percussion Trio believe that music education should include a demonstration of the traditional four families of instruments found in school bands and orchestras. From our presentation, children come away with a basic understanding of pitched and non-pitched (melodic) percussion instruments, and the importance of the basic rudiments of rhythm. During our entertaining presentation, children will see how much fun it can be to play an instrument.
Grade Levels: Kindergarten–6th
The virtuosic Garden State Percussion Trio literally marches in with drum loads of fun, humor, and information about the art, acoustics, and history of percussion instruments.
Program Type: Assembly Performances
Lower School Assistant Director
Lower School Assistant Director
“Engaging, funny, informative, age-appropriate”
Torey J. Sabatini School
Torey J. Sabatini School
“Garden State Percussion was wonderful! The children thoroughly enjoyed the presentation this morning. The assembly was interesting, informative, and engaged the kids. They seemed to enjoy the music and all the percussion instruments. The artists were very accomplished musicians who encouraged the students to persevere in their musical studies. They showed that hard work was necessary to play well but could produce wonderful results.”
