11 Facts About Vic Firth

Vic Firth was born June 2,1930, in Winchester, Massachusetts.

Vic Firth was raised in Sanford, Maine by parents Everett E and Rosemary Firth, where he graduated from Sanford High School.

Vic Firth played a variety of percussion instruments such as vibraphone, timpani, and the drum set.

Vic Firth held a Bachelor's degree, as well as an Honorary Doctorate in Music from New England Conservatory in Boston.

Vic Firth was the orchestra's youngest member when music director Charles Munch hired him as a percussionist in 1952.

Vic Firth wrote The Solo Timpanist in 1963, followed by Marching Drums in 1964.

Vic Firth wrote for beginning snare drum with his Snare Drum Method Book I - Elementary and Snare Drum Method Book II - Intermediate, published in 1967 and 1968.

Vic Firth published the more advanced book The Solo Snare Drummer in 1968.

Vic Firth died at the age of 85 on July 26,2015, at his home in Boston, Massachusetts.

Vic Firth began when Firth, who had been performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 12 years, was asked to perform pieces which he felt required a higher-quality drumstick than those that were currently being manufactured.

Vic Firth produced a line of pepper mills, salt grinders, and rolling pins sold under the Vic Firth Gourmet brand for many years until those interests were sold to Maine Wood Concepts of New Vineyard, Maine in 2012 and re-branded under the name Fletchers' Mill.