Percussionist Jamie V. Ryan thrives on playing and teaching many types of music. He performs regularly with the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra and Heartland Festival Orchestra. An active solo and chamber musician, Jamie is a member of the Galaxy Percussion Group, with Michael Udow, Anthony DiSanza, and Roger Braun, which toured South Korea and the United States between 2010 and 2013. He teaches percussion at Eastern Illinois University.

In 1999, Jamie co-founded the Africa->West Percussion Trio, which plays original works influenced by the African Diaspora and the Western tradition. The trio performs and presents workshops throughout the country, and is in residence at Baldwin-Wallace University in Berea, Ohio. Africa->West has released four recordings under its own name, all of which can be found at www.africawesttrio.com. In the fall of 2017, AW recorded BataGyil, an album of Ghanain gyil music with Valerie Naranjo.

Jamie is also in demand as a drum set and artist across the Midwest, most notably as the drummer in Sun Stereo and drummer/timbalero in the Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective. He has played with Tim Whalen’s Trio, Nonet, and Tribute to Art Blakey bands, avant-metal group Freighter (www.freighterband.com), and numerous other groups in the jazz, rock, and Latin music genres. He has toured Europe and the United States with the Leo Sidran band, and recorded for the GoJazz and Stellar Records labels. Currently, he plays drums and percussion regularly for Los Guapos (chichi/cumbia), Timbalú (salsa), Derrick Cordoba (jazz), Chip McNeill (jazz), Elis Artz (samba/bossa nova), and Sojourn Rocks and Champaign Freight (rock/pop).

Jamie has taught at Mansfield University, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and Lawrence University. Jamie received his B.M. from Lawrence University (magna cum laude), and did his graduate work at the University of Wisconsin. 

Please visit: http://www.africawesttrio.com