There’s magic in the music at Birch Creek Music Performance Center and the Percussion and Steel Band session gets underway July 12. Birch Creek continues to provide a unique, exciting musical experience for its students, faculty and audiences alike. With the Birch Creek Percussion and Steel Band students settling in to the vigorous schedule of the summer music program, Birch Creek is pleased to feature returning faculty members Dan Moore and Orlando Cotto.
Moore was born and raised in Texas. In 2005 he was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus of Texas A&M University – Commerce, where he studied percussion. He earned his master’s in music education from Wichita State University and his doctor of musical arts degree from the University of Kentucky.
Dr. Moore, professor of music and director of percussion at the University of Iowa, is an internationally known performer, composer, and educator. He is highly regarded as a marimba and vibraphone artist and performs as a soloist throughout the United States. He has also performed in Japan, China, and Argentina. He is a national performing artist for the Yamaha Corporation of America, a signature mallet artist for Innovative Percussion, and the educational board member for the Latin Percussion Music Group. In 2005 he was elected to the Percussive Arts Society Board of Directors.
Known for his expertise in combining electronic and acoustic elements into his percussion performances, Dan Moore brings his distinctive performance style, playing bass lines and harmonies while improvising and playing melodies simultaneously, to Birch Creek once again this summer.
Raised in the traditions of Afro-Cuban and Puerto Rican music, Orlando Cotto learned to play the conga drums when he was five years old. He has developed a successful career as a marimbist and percussionist and has the dual distinction as the first marimbist to receive the Artist Diploma from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and to win the Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. He also studied at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico where he was recognized as the most outstanding student.
Cotto is an artist of musical sensitivity and accomplished technique. He combines his solid classical training and Latin American background to create a powerful combination of rhythm and music. Birch Creek is honored to welcome Orlando Cotto back as a treasured faculty member.
Visitors can see both Dan Moore and Orlando Cotto in performance during one of Birch Creek's Percussion and Steel Band concerts scheduled from July 12 through July 21 in the Dutton Concert Barn at Birch Creek, located 3 miles east of Egg Harbor on Hwy. E.
Visit http://www.birchcreek.org/ or call the Birch Creek office at (920) 868-3763 for more information or to reserve tickets.
