Erica Drake
Percussion

Erica Drake's musical interests hold no bounds . . . She is a percussionist, conductor, and teacher of all ages, and is well versed in classical, orchestral, chamber, and modern music. Her recent work has taken a turn towards experimental and improvisational percussive sounds. She actively performs as a soloist and as part of AE2 (a cross-genre contemporary duo with percussionist Aaron Jester), as well as in many local ensembles of the orchestral, chamber, and rock varieties. In most recent years, she has appeared with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Festival of American Music, Oregon Mozart Players, Eugene Symphony, Eugene Ballet, and the Eugene Concert Choir, as well as part of Music08 and the Grandin Festival.

Ms. Drake earned a Bachelors Degree in Music Education (2003), and an MM in Percussion Performance (2006) from the University of Oregon. While at Oregon, she held a Graduate Teaching Fellowship in Wind Conducting (under the tutelage of Robert Ponto) and was the musical director and conductor of the Oregon Campus Band for two years. During that time she also served as a guest conductor for the Oregon Percussion Ensemble, as a student of Charles Dowd. Ms. Drake also holds a Secondary Teaching License in the State of Oregon, and greatly enjoys working with children of ALL ages. She has visited numerous public schools throughout Oregon, Washington, and Ohio as a performer and clinician.

A native of the Pacific Northwest, Ms. Drake currently lives in Cincinnati, OH while pursuing a DMA in percussion performance at the College-Conservatory of Music, studying with the Percussion Group Cincinnati (Allen Otte, Jim Culley, and Rusty Burge). Throughout her percussive career, she has had the pleasure of coaching works with many great composers such as Steve Reich, Jennifer Higdon, Michael Daugherty, Frank Ticheli, David Maslanka, Eric Lundborg and Annea Lockwood.

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