Dr. Glenn Schaft is Associate Professor and has served as Director of Percussion Studies at Youngstown State University since 1996. He directs the Percussion Ensemble, advises the YSU Percussion Federation – a student organization, and is founder of the Youngstown Percussion Collective, YSU Latin Arts Festival, and SMARTS Drum Circle Outreach Program. He is an educational endorser with Zildjian, ProMark, Remo, Dynasty, Black Swamp Percussion, and Trick Drums. He is an active freelance drumset artist with the YSU Faculty Jazz Group, Teddy Pantelas, Steve Cipriano, Frank Castelllano, Rudy and the Professionals, and others.
His performance credits include over 30 years of orchestral percussion, contemporary music, world music, and diverse drumset experience. He has toured the United States, Cuba, and China and has performed with the Colorado Music Festival, Youngstown Percussion Collective, Battu World Percussion Group, Akron Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Ballet, Cleveland Opera, Chuck Berry, Stewart Copeland, Paquito Dâ€Rivera, Jim McNeely, Sean Jones, Chip Stephens, Dan Wall, Allison Krauss, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Marvin Stamm, and numerous others. He appears as soloist on Dave Morgan’s Reactions for drumset and wind band recorded with the YSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble on their 2005 release Spin Cycle, which won the Downbeat Magazine award for Outstanding College Wind Ensemble Recording. He also served as producer of the YSU Percussion Ensemble and Youngstown Percussion Collective CD Dark Wood released fall 2006.
Mr. Schaft earned the Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana with Tom Siwe, the Master of Arts from Eastern Illinois University with Johnny Lee Lane, and the Bachelor of Music from the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio with George Kiteley. He pursued post-doctoral studies and served as a graduate assistant/manager of the New Music Associates at Cleveland State University and studied contemporary music with Edwin London. He has studied with Tom Freer and Jay Burnham of the Cleveland Orchestra, drumset with John Riley, Lewis Nash, John Hollenbeck, and Harold Damas, Afro-Cuban percussion with Roberto Vizcaino, Fermin Nani, and Santiago Nani at the National School of the Arts in Havana, Cuba through an Ohio Arts Council Grant, with Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio Hernandez, Glen Velez, Jamie Haddad, and Trichi Sankaran at the Berklee College of Music World Percussion Festival, and drum circle facilitation with Christine Stevens at the Remo Health Rhythms Workshop.
He is an active member of the Percussive Arts Society and has participated in PAS International Conventions (PASIC) since 1982, where he has performed and served on the College Pedagogy, Drumset Educators, Membership, and PASIC Planning Committees, chaired panel discussions, and lectured on his doctoral research “Jazz Drumming 1960-65; Transcriptions and Analysisâ€.
He has presented clinics and masterclasses at the Nanjing Institute of the Arts and other renowned Chinese universities, University of Michigan, Purdue University, Indiana University, Eastern Illinois University, University of Akron, Ashland University, Kent State University, Southern Illinois University, Interlochen School of the Arts, and Three Rivers Music Showcase in Pittsburgh. He has adjudicated numerous State Music Educators Solo and Ensemble Events, High School Jazz Festivals, and at the Percussive Arts Society Days of Percussion in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Indiana. He has appeared at MENC conventions in Ohio and Minnesota, and at the International Association of Jazz Educators Convention.
Dr. Schaft's teaching experience includes: University of Minnesota-Duluth, the University of Illinois, Baldwin-Wallace College, Moorhead State University, North Dakota State University, Concordia College, Eastern Illinois University.