Faculty Listing
Jamie V Ryan, Associate Professor of Percussion
Office: 1660 - Doudna Fine Arts Center
Phone: 217-581-7844
Fax: 217-581-7137
Email: jvryan@eiu.edu
Website: http://africawesttrio.com
Jamie Ryan's Vita
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 in 2010 and 2011, respectively. Galaxy returned to South Korea for a tour in the summer of 2013. He has also played with the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society, the Oakwood Chamber Players, and the Tool and Drum Ensemble.
In 1999, Jamie co-founded the Africa->West Percussion Trio, which plays its own music 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 was formerly a member and co-founder of El Clan Destino, a hyper-ecstatic Afro-Cuban quartet in which he played congas and the sacred bata drums. The group released one recording, Rukus. In addition, Jamie played timbales and drum set in the Tony Castaneda Latin Jazz Sextet.
Jamie is also in demand as a drum set artist across the Midwest. 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 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). He has recently started JVR3, a saxophone-bass-drums trio based in Urbana, IL.
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
Frequently Taught Courses
MUS 0240/5640 Percussion Ensemble
MUS 0040/1140/2240/3340/4440/5540 Applied Percussion
MUS 1311 Class Instruction In Percussion
Independent Studies in percussion pedagogy, repertoire, non-Western music
Education
Bachelor of Music (magna cum laude), 1998, Lawrence University
Master of Music (2002), Doctorate of Musical Arts (ABD), University of Wisconsin-Madison
Professional Organizations
Percussive Arts Society
Research
Music of Cuba and Brazil
Mixed Chamber Music
Intersection of Music and Culture
Selected Publications
Recordings with Africa->West Percussion Trio: Africa->West (2002), Togo Road (2005), Abure (2013), Loud Fossil (2016)
Valerie Naranjo with Africa->West: BataGyil (2017)
Daniel Levitan's Marimba Suite No. 2 (solo recording, 2012)
Freighter (2007)
El Clan Destino (2006)
Selected Conference Presentations
Percussive Arts Society (2003, 2017)
Illinois Music Educators Conference (2012)
Wisconsin Music Educators Conference (2019)
Funding & Grants
Community
