Indiana Wesleyan University alum Staff Sgt. Timothy Perry will be featured at the 2018 Midwest Clinic, an international band and orchestra conference, as a soloist with The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” on Dec. 19.
The performance, which is one of the conference’s featured concerts, will take place at 6:00-7:30 p.m. on Dec. 19 in Chicago, Illinois. The Midwest Clinic is the world’s largest instrumental music education conference attended yearly by over 17,000 participants.
Perry is a percussionist who joined “Pershing’s Own” in 2017. According to its website, the Band was founded in 1922 by Army Chief of Staff General of the Armies John J. “Black Jack” Pershing to emulate European military bands he heard during World War I. The U.S. Army Band continues to play an important role in events of national and international significance.
Perry, the son of IWU Communications Professor Mark Perry, graduated in 2012 with a degree in Music Education. He continued his studies at Indiana University and was recently chosen to be in the Army’s top ensemble.
Prior to joining the band, Perry was an active freelance musician and educator. He was especially prominent in the marching arts, marching four years of drum corps with the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps, and instructing and writing for many high schools around the country. Perry held an adjunct professor of percussion position at Southeastern University, where he also was the assistant director for the University’s drumline. Perry performed consistently, as well, serving as the percussionist for the touring brass ensemble, “Tim Zimmerman and the King’s Brass” for three years.
“Tim Perry is one of the most talented percussionists I have had the privilege of working with in 26 years of collegiate teaching,” said Marc Wooldridge, professor of percussion and music theory. “I am very proud of the many honors Tim has earned for his work in the field of percussion.”