Glenn Schaft (DMA) has performed and recorded in diverse musical idioms including jazz, popular, rock, blues, funk, fusion, Afro-Caribbean, Brazilian, West African, musicals, classical, ballet, opera, new music, and modern dance. Presently, Glenn is an active freelance drumset artist who performs with Lori Russo & Key Factor and numerous others.
Glenn 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. https://academics.ysu.edu/percussion He is artist in-residence with YSU’s Dana Ensemble, a faculty chamber music collective who perform an eclectic variety of contemporary music. Glenn is also the co-founder and faculty advisor of the Youngstown Percussion Collective, a YSU student organization.
Glenn is an artist endorser with the Zildjian cymbal company, Vic Firth sticks & mallets, Remo drumheads & world percussion, an educational consultant with Black Swamp Percussion, and a member of the Percussive Arts Society where he serves on the Drumset Committee.
Glenn has performed with the YSU Faculty Jazz Group, with whom he twice toured China, performing and teaching at acclaimed conservatories in Beijing, Nanjing, and Hangzhou.
Glenn's recording of Dave Morgan concerto "Reactions 2017 for Drumset and Wind Ensemble" with the Youngstown State University Wind Ensemble appears on the 2019 disc Made In Youngstown. Glenn 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, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Scott Wyatt, Amanda Powell, Steve Cipriano, Joe Augustine, Dominic Reto, Kent Engelhardt, United States Air Force Band of Mid-America, Youngstown State University Wind Ensemble, Ludwig Masters Publications, and myriad jingles.
A longstanding member of the Percussive Arts Society, Glenn serves on the Drumset Committee, and previously on the University Pedagogy Committee, Membership Committee, PASIC Planning Committee, and has presented lectures, panel discussions, and performed at PAS international conventions (PASIC) throughout the United States.
Glenn earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance and Literature at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana where he studied with Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame member Tom Siwe, the Master of Arts in Performance at Eastern Illinois University where he studied with PAS Hall of Fame member Johnny Lee Lane, the Bachelor of Music in Performance at Baldwin-Wallace University where he studied with George Kiteley, and completed post-doctoral studies in contemporary music and orchestral percussion at Cleveland State University where he studied contemporary music with Edwin London and orchestral percussion with Jay Burnham of the Cleveland Orchestra. His principal teachers include Harold Damas, George Kiteley, Johnny Lee Lane, Tom Siwe, and Jay Burnham.
Glenn's private studies also include orchestral percussion with Tom Freer, drumset with John Riley, Lewis Nash, and John Hollenbeck, Afro-Cuban percussion with Roberto Vizciano, Fermin Nani, and Santiago Nani at the National School of the Arts in Havana, Cuba, Giovanni Hidalgo, Horacio Hernandez, Glen Velez, Jamie Haddad, and Trichy Sankaran at the Berklee College of Music World Percussion Festival, drum circle facilitation with Christine Stevens, ethnomusicology with Bruno Nettl, Charles Capwell, Tom Torino, and Larry Gushee, and jazz composition with Alan Horney.
Glenn’s symphonic and contemporary music credits include conductors such as Giora Bernstein, Jeffery Siegel, Anton Coppola, Edwin London, Gunther Schuller, Paul Martin Zonn, Peter Schickele, aka P.D.Q. Bach, ensembles such as Colorado Music Festival, Skaneateles Chamber Music Festival, “Artist In Residence” at Baldwin-Wallace University with the contemporary/world percussion group BATTU, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Cleveland Ballet, Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Opera, Pittsburgh Symphony Percussion Section, Robert Page Singers, Akron Symphony, Richmond (IN) Symphony, Springfield (IL) Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, Duluth-Superior Symphony, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Dance Theater of Harlem, Cleveland Dance Collective, and artists such as Paul Sperry, Julie Newell, Robert Weirich, Robert Van Sice, and Ben Toth.
Glenn’s drumset and world music credits include Ruben Alvarez, American Jazz Orchestra, Joe Augustine, Clifford Barnes, Peter Bernstein, Chuck Berry, Sam Blakeslee, Theron Brown, Nick Brignola, Freddie Bryant, Ndugu Chancellor, Sarah Jane Cion, Todd Coolman, Stewart Copeland, Anthony Cox, 1940’s Radio Hour Show-U.S. Tour, Todd Coolman, Harold Danko, Peter Dominguez, Paquito D’Rivera, Larry Elgart, Raul Esparza, Dominic Farinacchi, John Fedchock, Five By Design, Brad Goode, Reynaldo Gonzales, Jeff Grubbs, Chris Hemmingway, Taku Hirano, Laurence Hobgood, Engelbert Humperdink, Randy Johnston, Sean Jones, Mike Kocour, Alison Krauss, Victor Krauss, Jason Kush, Ralph Lalama, Mike Lee, Tony Leonardi, Robert Lockwood Jr., Bryan Lynch, Branford Marsalis, Jim McNeely, Hank Marr, Alton Merrell, Tim Miller, Ben Monder, Michael Pagan, Phil Palombi, Ken Peplowski, Billy Porter, Doug Richeson, Chita Rivera, Trichy Sankaran, Jack Shantz, Howie Smith, Michael Spiro, Marvin Stamm, Chip Stephens, Dave Stryker, Michael Stryker, The Texas Tenors, Zvonimir Tot, Alan Vizzutti, Dan Wall, James Weidman, Michael Weiss, Helen Welch, Mark Whitfield, Dan Wilson, Mike Wofford, Women of the Phantom, Andrea Zonn, and Youngstown State University Faculty Jazz Group, and many others.
Glenn’s university teaching credits include Youngstown State University, Eastern Illinois University, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, 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 teaching artist Glenn has presented concerts, clinics, masterclasses, and lectures at the University of Michigan, Indiana University, University of Colorado Boulder, Purdue University, Eastern Illinois University, 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 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. He has taught at the Youngstown State University Summer Music Camps, United States Percussion Camp at Eastern Illinois University, Illinois Summer Youth Music Camp at the University of Illinois, Richland Academy Summer Jazz Camp in Mansfield Ohio, and the Baldwin Wallace University Summer Music Clinic.
Glenn lives in Poland, Ohio with his wife Sara, a professional violinist and their twins Lewis and Karl.
