| Active as a performer, scholar, and pedagogue, Dr. Andrew M. Bliss is currently on the music faculty at the University of Tennessee at Martin where among other responsibilities, he is the Coordinator of Marching Percussion and the Director of the Basketball Pep Band. Prior to his appointment at UTM, Bliss served as the Adjunct Percussion Professor at Centre College. As a performing artist, Bliss has experience in a wide variety of musical ensembles and genres, while specializing in contemporary solo and chamber performance. For almost a decade, he was a member of the Base4 Percussion Quartet, with whom he recorded a critically acclaimed album, [one]. Currently, Bliss is artistic director of the new music collective, the nief-norf project, and is a member of Nothing in Common, a piano/percussion duo with Chicago-based pianist Mabel Kwan. Bliss has also been a featured artist at the SEAMUS National Conference, the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), the College Music Societyâs International Conference (Croatia), and at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions. Passionate about commissioning new repertoire for percussion, Bliss has collaborated with composers such as Kyle Gann, John Supko, Christopher Deane, and Ben Wahlund.
Equally interested in scholarship and pedagogy, Dr. Bliss has presented at the Society for Music and Minimalismâs [SfMM] International Conference, at the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy (NCPP), and at the Association for Technology in Music Instructionâs (ATMI) National Conference. He regularly appears on the faculty for the Music for All National Percussion Symposium, as a clinician for Yamahaâs Sounds of Summer programs, and at a variety of universities and high schools in the U.S. In August 2008, he adjudicated the Fourth Annual Thailand National Drumline Contest in Bangkok and gave several masterclasses in and around Stockholm, Sweden the following October. In 2007 & 2008, Bliss served as the Front Ensemble Caption Head for the Madison Scouts Drum & Bugle Corps. He has been published in Percussive Notes and has served as the Vice President for the Kentucky Chapter of PAS, where he co-hosted four annual state-wide Days of Percussion. As a committed supporter of the Percussive Arts Society, he is currently a member of the PAS Scholarly Research and Music Technology Committees and was a founding member of the PAS Collegiate Committee. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts and Masterâs degrees in percussion performance from the University of Kentucky and a Bachelorâs degree from Northern Illinois University.
Dr. Bliss is proud to be a Yamaha Performing Artist and an artist endorser/clinician for Innovative Percussion, Evans Drumheads, and Black Swamp Percussion Instruments and Accessories. Blissâs primary teachers include James Campbell, Rich Holly, Robert Chappell, Orlando Cotto, and Liam Teague. He enjoys spending his free time with his wife Erin andwatching baseball with their dog and three cats.
|
|
|
BSP on Facebook 
Follow us on Twitter 
BSP on YouTube 
