Glenn Schaft

Education

• 1993 

  D.M.A., Percussion Performance
  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
   

• 1983

  M.A., Percussion Performance
  Eastern Illinois University
   

• 1982 

  B.M., Percussion Performance
  Baldwin Wallace University

About

Glenn Schaft is a percussionist, drummer, and educator.



Schaft (D.M.A.) is Professor of Music and Director of Drumset and Percussion Studies at Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music in Youngstown, Ohio, where he coordinates the percussion faculty and curriculum, teaches applied percussion lesson, and directs the Percussion Ensemble. He is artist in-residence with YSU’s Dana Ensemble, a faculty chamber music collective that performs eclectic contemporary music. Schaft is also the co-founder and faculty advisor of the Youngstown Percussion Collective, a YSU student organization.



Schaft earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, majoring in percussion performance and literature with Tom Siwe and minoring in ethnomusicology; a Master of Arts from Eastern Illinois University, majoring in music performance with Johnny Lee Lane; and a Bachelor of Music from the Baldwin-Wallace College Conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio, majoring in music performance with George Kiteley. Schaft pursued post-doctoral studies and served as a graduate assistant/manager of the New Music Associates at Cleveland State University and studied contemporary music with Edwin London. He has studied with Tom Freer and Jay Burnham of The Cleveland Orchestra; drumset with John Riley, Lewis Nash, John Hollenbeck, and Harold Damas; Afro-Cuban percussion with Roberto Vizcaino, Fermin Nani, and Santiago Nani at the National School of the Arts in Havana, Cuba through an Ohio Arts Council Grant; with Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio Hernandez, Glen Velez, Jamie Haddad, and Trichi Sankaran at the Berklee College of Music World Percussion Festival; and drum circle facilitation with Christine Stevens at the Remo Health Rhythms Workshop. Schaft earned a D.M.A. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, M.A. at Eastern Illinois University, B.M. at Baldwin Wallace University, completed post-doctoral studies at Cleveland State University, Berklee School of Music World Percussion Festival, and Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana, Cuba.



Schaft is an artist endorser with Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks & mallets, Remo drumheads and world percussion, an educational consultant with Black Swamp Percussion, and an active member of the Percussive Arts Society. A longstanding member of the Percussive Arts Society, the premiere percussion organization in the world, he serves on the Drumset Committee, and previously the University Pedagogy Committee, Membership Committee, and PASIC Planning Committee. Schaft has presented lectures, panel discussions, and performed at PAS International Conventions (PASIC) throughout the United States. He is also a member of the Ohio Music Education Association, where he has presented lectures, clinics, and concerts at numerous state Professional Development Conferences.



Schaft's performance credits include Beijing, Nanjing, and Hangzhou, China, “1940's Radio Hour Show” 25-state tour, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony at Harvard University, the Youngstown Percussion Collective with John Hollenbeck at the Whitney Museum of American Art in N.Y.C., and BATTU world percussion group - "Artists In Residence" at Baldwin-Wallace University. His recording credits include the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Air Force Band of Mid-America, the Youngstown Percussion Collective, and Dave Morgan’s concerto "Reactions for Drumset and Wind Ensemble" with the Youngstown State University Wind Ensemble on Made In Youngstown.Additional performance credits include the American Jazz Orchestra, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Branford Marsalis, Paquito D’Rivera, Sean Jones, Dan Wilson, Peter Bernstein, Chuck Berry, Alison Krauss, Robert Lockwood Jr., Women of the Phantom, Billy Porter, Chita Rivera, Trichy Sankaran, The Texas Tenors, Engelbert Humperdink, Dance Theater of Harlem, the Cleveland Dance Collective, the Colorado Music Festival, the Skaneateles Chamber Music Festival, the Pittsburgh Symphony Percussion Section, the Cleveland Ballet, the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, the Cleveland Opera, Robert Page Singers, the Akron Symphony, the Youngstown Symphony, and conductors Anton Coppola, Gunther Schuller, Edwin London, and Peter Schickele a.k.a. P.D.Q. Bach.

Schaft's recording of Dave Morgan's concerto "Reactions 2017 for Drumset and Wind Ensemble" with the Youngstown State University Wind Ensemble appears on the 2019 disc Made In Youngstown.He recorded for Dave Morgan's large jazz ensemble project Blue Is More Than A Color,which was released in 2019. Glenn has recorded and served as executive producer with the Youngstown Percussion Collective, and recorded with Dave Morgan, Ron Coulter, John Hollenbeck, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Scott Wyatt, Amanda Powell, Steve Cipriano, Joe Augustine, Dominic Reto, Kent Engelhardt, United States Air Force Band of Mid-America, the Youngstown State University Wind Ensemble, Ludwig Masters Publications, and myriad jingles.

Schaft's university teaching credits include Youngstown State University, Eastern Illinois University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Parkland College, Baldwin-Wallace University, University of Minnesota Duluth, Concordia College, Minnesota State University Moorhead, North Dakota State University, and Cuyahoga Community College.

As a guest artist Schaft has presented concerts, clinics, masterclasses, and lectures at the University of Michigan, Indiana University, the University of Colorado Boulder, Purdue University, Eastern Illinois University, the University of Akron, Ashland University, Kent State University, Kent State University Stark Campus, Southern Illinois University, Slippery Rock University, Denison University, Casper College, Ohio Music Education Association Professional Development Conferences, and the Interlochen School of the Arts. He has adjudicated State Solo and Ensemble Events and Collegiate and High School Jazz Festivals throughout the Midwest and has taught at the Youngstown State University Summer Music Camps, the United States Percussion Camp at Eastern Illinois University, the Illinois Summer Youth Music Camp at the University of Illinois, the Richland Academy Summer Jazz Camp in Mansfield, Ohio, and the Baldwin Wallace University Summer Music Clinic.



Schaft was raised in Berea, Ohio, near Cleveland and lives in Poland, Ohio, with his wife Sara, a violinist, and their twins Lewis and Karl.