Playroom Percussion is a contemporary ensemble from Bowling Green, Ohio that takes inspiration from finding music in familiar surroundings, performing in public spaces, and supporting emerging composers.
Playroom embraces the eclectic nature of its members’ experiences by interweaving their styles through play and invites the audience to reimagine their role in our shared artistic space.
PLAYROOM PERCUSSION
Percussionist Cahaya Drucilla [cha-hai-uh dru-sil-uh], a Balinese-American artist, specializes in musical storytelling in Western Classical and Balinese Gamelan tradition. Born in Graham, Washington, she began her artistic journey transcribing rock and jazz songs on piano and drums, quickly falling in love and starting her journey in percussion study. Cahaya holds a degree from Central Washington University and has performed at venues worldwide in Japan, Spain, and across the United States. She spent the last four years in Los Angeles specializing in marching percussion education, show design, Balinese Gamelan, and chamber percussion. Cahaya is currently working towards a M.M. in Percussion Performance with a graduate assistantship at Bowling Green State University. Cahaya’s artistry is characterized by passionate dualistic energy and thought-provoking emotional exploration, with hopes to inspire authenticity and intention in listeners.
Dean Kyle is a composer, music technologist, and percussionist who loves to find music in everything. In response to his works, audiences have said they “can’t tell where his art stops and the world begins,” and that he has “taught them something about stillness they still don’t understand.” He likes to write music for both computers and human musicians, often exploring connections between music, narrative, theater, and performance art using found objects and familiar human experiences. From the SPLICE Institute, Klingler ElectroAcoustic Residency, Oregon Fringe Festival, Britt Music & Arts Festival, Northwest Percussion Festival, and beyond, his chamber compositions, interactive installations, and electronic music have reached audiences of all kinds. Dean Kyle is currently working towards a Composition MM and has received an assistantship in Music Technology at Bowling Green State University under Dr. Piyawat Louilarpprasert and Dr. Elanie Lillios, and earned his BA in Percussion and Emerging Media & Digital Arts at Southern Oregon University under Dr. Terry Longshore and Dr. David Bithell. His work indulges the world in its own musical sensory delights by basking in the wonder of everyday things. One of his most important guiding principles goes as follows: The word that connects people to music is “play.”
Jacob Koch is a percussionist with a passion for sharing musical experiences by performing, composing, and collaborating with other artists. Jacob is currently a member of the Contemporary Music D.M.A. Cohort at Bowling Green State University where he teaches applied percussion, coaches percussion ensemble, and assists with music classes. He has performed with the Firelands Symphony Orchestra, the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Choir, the Toledo Choral Society and has shared the stage with musicians from Bang on Can All-Stars, Third Coast Percussion, and Heartland Marimba Quartet. As a soloist, Jacob’s music has been heard in recitals and public concerts throughout the Eastern U.S. and abroad in Spain. Jacob is an alum of the Phantom Regiment and Matrix Performing Arts and is the percussion director at Rhythm in Blue, a program of the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps. He is also a Program and Community Associate at Nief-Norf; a summer contemporary music festival and arts organization.
Chris Harris is a Percussionist, Composer and Educator from Fairfield, California. He currently lives in Bowling Green, Ohio where he is a member of the Bowling Green State University D.M.A. in contemporary music program. With contemporary music at the forefront of his degree, commissioning and performing new works are important to Chris. Chris likes to focus on the intersection of inclusive cultural programming and electro-acoustic music. Many of his commissions are from composers with roots in Colombia, Germany, Japan, Italy, and Iran. Often, his commissions include electronics, with works using concepts such as fixed media, live processing of sounds, and live looping. As a collaborative musician, Harris has performed for 3 years in Sacramento, California and now currently in Northeastern Ohio and Southeast Michigan. Some of the ensembles include Detroit Youth Symphony, Modesto Opera, Sacramento Mastersingers, and Auburn Symphony. Alongside his ensemble playing, he also has won awards as a soloist for his performances at the Regional Day of Percussion hosted at Fresno State University from 2021 - 2023 and was invited to perform at the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy in May of 2023. Outside of performing he is an active educator and committee member working in Percussive Arts Society University Student Committee. He has served on the PASUSC committee since 2022.
BACKPACK MUSIC
featuring
program to be chosen from:
(Un)Wandering Souls - Vivian Fung
Topsy Turvy - Micheal Udow
micromusics - Dean Kyle
i own no leaf - Cahaya Drucilla
PolArIty - Chris Harris
Moon Gate - Jacob Koch
only instruments that can fit in a backpack