Our Team
is comprised of artists and mentors that are highly regarded performers and educators, passionate arts advocates and leaders in their respective communities.
Dr. Mark Joseph Ramírez is Professor of Percussion and Area Coordinator at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Associate Dean for Research and Outreach for the College of Fine Arts, is the Founder and Executive Director of the International Percussion Institute, and Founder of the TIERRAS South Texas Percussion Competition (a consortium collaboration between the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, South Texas College, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Texas A&M International University-Laredo, and Texas A&M Kingsville. As an artist, Mark has performed and collaborated under the direction of some of the leading musical authorities in the field of composition, including Pulitzer Prize-winning composers John Corigliano, David Del Tredici and William Bolcom and Prix de Rome recipient Kevin Puts. He has performed with internationally acclaimed jazz and classical artists Ernie Watts, Eddie Daniels, Greg Abate, Jeff Jarvis, Dick Oats, Steve Wiest, Gordon Stout, Phil Smith, and performed as a guest Soloist with the Rio Grande Valley Symphony Orchestra.
As a scholar, Mark has received invitations to present and perform at the International Conference on Caribbean Studies, the Southwestern Conference on Latin American Studies, the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education. In addition, Mark presented a lecture-recital tour of the Pacific Northwest which included performances at Portland State University, University of Oregon, and Western Washington University; served as a Resident Faculty at the International Percussion Institute in Aberdeen, Scotland; and given performances at the IPI Faculty Concert at King's College Chapel in Aberdeen, Scotland. Mark has been a member of the IPI Marimba Competition review panel and a panel member for the IPI Call for Scores. These competitions have developed outreach in composition and performance that included participants from Sweden, Austria, Copenhagen, Belgium, Russian, Portugal, Italy, England, Scotland, Israel, Taiwan, Argentina and the United States.
Mark has also been the recipient of an Emerging Leader Fellowship from the American Association of State Colleges and University, a faculty fellowship American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education, a faculty fellowship for Student Academic Success from University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and the Kerspit Gent (X, Y)-honor Artist in Residency Fellowship awarded by the Kerspit Foundation. Mark’s Kerspit Gent (X, Y)-honor Artist in Residency included a three month stay in Gent, Belgium where he collaborated with other Kerspit Artists in Residence, faculty of The Royal Conservatory of Music, the Kunstencentrum Vooruit, and the Academie de Kunstbrug Gent. During that time, he composed and gave international premiere performances of five new compositions entitled: Ganda, Tabula Rasa, Versplinteren Verhalen, Binnen du Tuin, and Klokken van Begijnhof. Dr. Mark Joseph Ramírez is a native of Brownsville, Texas.
Lisa Nicol is the visiting tutor for percussion at the University of Aberdeen and is a Founding Member of the International Percussion Institute (IPI). As an advocate for the arts and new music for percussion, Lisa has commissioned pieces for percussion by composers David Lang and Martin Bresnick. Lisa has performed extensively throughout the Europe, Asia, and the United States. Prior to her appointment at Aberdeen, Dr. Nicol was head of the percussion department at Del Mar College, Corpus Christi, Texas. Lisa received degrees from the Royal Conservatoire Scotland (BA Music) and The University of Texas at Austin (MM & DMA Music Performance). and is an educational artist for Vic Firth mallets and sticks and Zildjian cymbals.
Percussionist Christopher Whyte has emerged as one of the Pacific Northwest’s most engaging performers and educators. He is currently Acting Head of Percussion Studies at Portland State University where he oversees all aspects of the percussion program. He is co-founder of the Portland Percussion Group, a contemporary percussion quartet based in Portland, Oregon which strives to foster and promote percussion performance through engaging concerts and educational outreach. The Portland Percussion Group is active in developing relationships with emerging composers and the commissioning of new works throughout the Northwest region. To date, the PPG has fostered the creation of over sixty new works for chamber percussion ensemble.
Dr. Whyte is also co-director of the Portland Summer Percussion Academy, a residential summer camp for high school percussionists focusing on a broad range of western and non-western percussion styles, as well as a founding member of the International Percussion Institute which takes place each summer at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland.
He performs frequently in the Portland area as a freelance percussionist and timpanist with The Oregon Symphony, the Portland Opera Orchestra, Oregon Ballet Theater, Third Angle New Music, FearNoMusic, The Bach Cantata Choir, The Portland Symphonic Choir and the Portland Gay Men’s Chorus. Additional performance credits include the Vancouver Symphony, Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, Atlantic Symphony, the New Bedford Symphony, the Eugene Symphony, the Newport Symphony, ALEA III contemporary music ensemble and the Boston Civic Symphony. He has performed at the New York International Fringe Festival, as part of the Makrokosmos Project, Astoria Music Festival, Oregon Music Festival, the Oregon Coast Music Festival, and the Northwest Percussion Festival. He has worked closely with composers William Kraft, Pauline Oliveros, Allen Strange, Stephen Taylor, Michael Johanson, Mendel Lee, Sarah Hennies, and Gabriela Lena Frank, among others and is personally active in the commissioning of new music for percussion. Chris has works published through Tapspace, Matrix, and Bachovich publishing companies, and his compositions have been performed at the Midwest Clinic and the Music for All National Chamber Music Festival. He has performed live broadcasts on All-Classical Portland’s 89.9 radio station and was a featured performer for All-Classical’s 2017 Solar Eclipse broadcast of Desmond Earley’s Body of the Moon. Chris can also be heard on Grammy-nominated recordings by the Oregon Symphony from Pentatone Classics.
Whyte is active in the Percussive Arts Society, having served as a member of the Percussion Ensemble Committee since 2015. He has also presented or performed at CMS, and the Northwest regional NAfME conference.
Chris has performed solo recitals and given masterclasses throughout the United States, Canada, the UK and China, and has a true love of sharing his knowledge of the percussion field with students at all levels. Whyte earned degrees at the University of Oregon as a student of the late Charles Dowd and completed the Doctor of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance from Boston University, where he was a student of Boston Symphony Principal Timpanist Timothy Genis. He is a Yamaha Performing Artist, and proudly endorses Vic Firth Drumsticks, Remo Drum Heads, Zildjian Cymbals, and Black Swamp Percussion Instruments. Chris lives in Newberg, Oregon with his wife Charlotte, their son Forrest, and their Akita, Decan.
There are storied educators, and there are dynamic performers, and then there are those who are destined to be both. Always in search of new music and new ways to share it with others, Thomas Burritt is today's percussionist. He has received degrees from Ithaca College School of Music (BM – Education and Performance), Kent State University (MM), and Northwestern University (DMA). Active in the creation and performance of new music for percussion Burritt has built a reputation in chamber music, as a percussion soloist and a concert marimbist. He has performed regularly at the Leigh Howard Stevens International Marimba Seminar and was a featured faculty performer at the 2007 and 2009 Zeltsman Marimba Festival. In April 2004 Burritt performed in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as member of the Hammers and Sticks Ensemble. Later the same year the Hammers and Sticks Ensemble released a CD on the Innova label featuring works by Steven Mackey, Zhou Long, Alvin Singleton, Alex Shapiro, Joseph Harchanko and Belinda Reynolds.
As Percussion Soloist Burritt has been active performing percussion concertos by Maki Ishii, Steve Mackey, Joseph Schwantner, Michael Dougherty, David Maslanka, John Mackey, and James MacMillan. Burritt has recorded for guitarist Eric Johnson and recording artist David Byrne. Burritt's first solo CD recording: "All Times Identical - New American Music for Marimba" was released in November 2006. His 2nd solo marimba recording "Groundlines" is available in iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, Rdio and Spotify. In August of 2015, Burritt released his latest recording via YouTube, featuring a video album of J. S. Bach's 5th Cello Suite performed on the Marimba. In 2009 and 2016, Burritt performed on two Grammy nominated recordings: "Conspirare in Concert" and "Pablo Neruda: The Poet Sings", both distributed world wide on the harmonia mundi label. In the spring of 2012, Burritt was cited as being one of "The most influential Music Professors on Twitter”(follow @tburritt). He is currently Professor of Percussion and Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Texas at Austin and is a clinician/endorser for Majestic Percussion, Innovative Percussion, Zildjian, Remo, Beetle Percussion, and Grover Pro Percussion.
Jonathan Ovalle (b.1976 Mexico City) is a Mexican-American percussionist, drummer, pianist, composer, improviser, collaborator, and creative thinker. Musically versatile and artistically curious, he is motivated through the performance and study of contemporary solo/chamber music, jazz, pop, global music, as well as deeply inspired by design, architecture, and visual art. He engages in seeking creative intersections and the collaborative potential between elements in his work as a performer, creator, and teacher.
Whether boldly performing on the concert stage, in the rock or jazz club, or freely improvising in a gallery space, he has performed internationally in Asia, Europe, Canada, as well as throughout the United States including: the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), Thailand Brass and Percussion Conference, The Midwest Clinic, North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA), Green Box Arts Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Texas Bandmasters Convention (TBA), Detroit International Jazz Festival, Jazz Educators Network Convention (JEN), Lansing Jazz Festival, Art Tatum Jazz and Heritage Festival, Jazzloop, and New Music Detroit's annual Strange Beautiful Music marathon including a recent performance of Steve Reich's iconic Music for 18 Musicians. His experience also includes performances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Brass Band of Battle Creek, Sarasota Opera (FL), concerts and collaborations with jazz artists Tim Whalen, Bobby Streng, Gunnar Mossblad, Jon Hendricks, Vic Juris, Ellen Rowe, Andrew Bishop, Roland Vazquez, and Pepe Espinosa, as well as a tour of concerts and workshops for students in Pune and Mumbai, India with Neeraj Mehta as the percussion duo, Percunova.
A dedicated teacher and mentor, he is inspired by the unique puzzle each student presents, working to help remove barriers to success on their chosen paths. With developing freedom, creative thinking, listening, analysis, organization, exploration, adaptation, communication, and process as his teaching foundation, he desires to help each student unlock their full potential by challenging them to critically examine their work, their process, and themselves. Individually and with collaborative projects, he has presented workshops and clinics at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Baylor University, University of Wisconsin, Queens College, University of Oregon, Colorado State University, University of Denver, Bowling Green State University, Ohio University, Capital University, George Mason University, University of Tennessee, Queensboro Community College, William Patterson University, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, North Carolina School For The Arts, among others. Former students have pursued studies at the Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory, Juilliard School, University of Michigan, Boston University, Northwestern University, Peabody Conservatory, Mannes College of Music, University of Iowa, University of Arizona, Bowling Green State University, University of Southern California, University of Kentucky, and hold a variety of professional positions in symphony orchestras, military bands, as university percussion teachers, freelancers, chamber musicians, entrepreneurs, and public-school educators.
He currently serves as a resident faculty member of the International Percussion Institute, a percussion performance and research seminar held annually in Aberdeen, Scotland. In addition to faculty performances and hands-on sessions with percussionists, recent projects of the Institute include hosting a new program for young composers collaborating with institute percussionists on new chamber works for percussion in conjunction with British composer Joe Duddell and the Sound Festival. He has served on the faculty of the Sewanee Summer Music Festival in Sewanee, Tennessee, the Idyllwild Arts Summer Chamber Festival Intensive in Idyllwild, California, and has been featured as a guest artist at the Juilliard Summer Percussion Symposium, University of Central Florida Summer Percussion Symposium, as well as the Ohio, Tennessee, Ontario, Michigan, Idaho, Quebec, and Emory University Days of Percussion.
Since 2018, he has served on the International Artistic Advisory Board of Musikal Husky Publications in Graz, Austria and served as an editor for their first publication, Rhythm Keeper. He is currently collaborating as a co-author for the follow-up publication, Rhythm Keeper II along with drummer/percussionist Steve Aho and pianist/pedagogue, Samantha Steitz.
Ovalle is an artist/endorser with Pearl/Adams, Zildjian, Remo, Tapspace, and Innovative Percussion.