1. Michael Waldrop is an American drummer, percussionist, composer and music educator.
24 Facts About Michael Waldrop
1. 2.
Michael Waldrop is notable as a virtuoso percussionist in both jazz and classical idioms, with equal focus on drumset and keyboard percussion.
3.
Michael Waldrop grew up in Atlanta, Georgia listening to the radio and popular music.
4.
Michael Waldrop showed an aptitude for drumming along with music which lead to parents purchasing him a small drum-set at age 4.
5.
Michael Waldrop later moved to Ithaca, New York in 1970.
6.
Michael Waldrop studied with Robert Schietroma, Ron Fink, Ed Soph, Henry Okstel, Kal Cherry, Michael Carney, and Gregg Bissonette.
7.
Michael Waldrop played in Caprice Fox's group for almost a year and freelanced with a long list of others.
8.
In 1987, Michael Waldrop started to take his master's degree in jazz performance at the University of Memphis where he studied with jazz pianist Gene Rush.
9.
In 1989, Michael Waldrop recorded the movie soundtrack of Christmas Vacation.
10.
Michael Waldrop later taught jazz percussion and jazz theory at the University of Memphis.
11.
Michael Waldrop played on ads for the likes of Pillsbury and other companies.
12.
Michael Waldrop performed with a long list of prominent jazz artists in Chicago, which included saxophonist Mike Smith and jazz violinist Johnny Frigo.
13.
In early 1992, Michael Waldrop accepted a position with the international touring company of 42nd Street.
14.
Michael Waldrop spent much of 1992 and 1993 performing in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands with that show.
15.
Michael Waldrop accepted a Doctoral fellowship to the University of North Texas College of Music in 1993 and completed the coursework for the Doctor of Musical Arts in 1996.
16.
Michael Waldrop's degree was completed in 1999 with a specialization on marimba.
17.
Michael Waldrop can be heard on the recordings Lab 94, Standard Time and Fifty Years.
18.
Since 1993 Michael Waldrop has performed on drum set and multiple percussion instruments with a lengthy roster of artists including Jon Hendricks, Tim Ries, Rich Perry, Greg Gisbert and Wayne Horvitz.
19.
Since 2014 Michael Waldrop has been a recording artist for Origin Records.
20.
Michael Waldrop plays drum set and vibraphone on the two releases.
21.
Michael Waldrop has been teaching at the collegiate level for over the past 20 years.
22.
In 2004 Michael Waldrop accepted a position as Professor of Percussion at the University of Toledo and was there until 2006.
23.
Since 2006 Michael Waldrop has held the position of Director of Percussion Studies at Eastern Washington University.
24.
Michael Waldrop's compositions are published by Drop6 Media through Row-loff Publishing.