Youth Performing Arts School Percussion Ensemble

Performer Details

Performer Bio Synopsis

Music at the Youth Performing Arts School: The YPAS Instrumental Winds and Percussion Program offers a wide variety of classes to prepare students to continue their music studies at the university level. The class offerings include: Music Theory I, AP Music Theory,  Conducting, Applied Piano, Piano Lab, Intermediate Band, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Full Orchestra, Pit Orchestra, Jazz Improvisation and Jazz Ensemble. Students are enrolled in a minimum of two classes per semester and may schedule additional courses as more opportunities develop throughout their upperclassmen years. In addition, students may also enroll in the volunteer based duPont Manual Marching Band and Basketball Pep Band which rehearse after school. The duPont Manual/YPAS campus as a whole is on an A/B block schedule. Classes meet for 90 minutes every other day. Upon acceptance into the YPAS Band program, each student receives an Individualized Curriculum Packet containing four years of specific reading assignments, etudes, solo repertoire and special project (Arts & Humanities) based assignments. The curriculum packets are customized by instrument and year in school. Over the course of four years, students will complete 24 etudes of progressive difficulty, 8 solo convocations, 24 reading/writing assignments and 24 special projects. In addition, students will perform over 100 different concert band compositions focusing on grade 5 and 6 literature. On the average, more than 100 students are selected annually for All-District Band and more than 40 are selected for All-State Ensembles. Nearly 70% of YPAS students continue their study of music after high school.  YPAS students have gone on to many of the finest universities and conservatories in the nation including Indiana University, Eastman, Juiliard, New England Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Cleveland Institute, Cincinnati Conservatory, Oberlin, Northwestern University and many more including local universities. The YPAS Band Program, founded in 1978, have earned Distinguished ratings from each prepared-music and sight-reading judge at every local, state, and national festival since the school opened 1978. The band program travels annually and have most recently participated in festivals in Indianapolis, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Chattanooga, and Toronto and Montreal Canada. Most recently, YPAS ensembles have had the opportunity to perform at the Percy Grainger Music Festival, the BOA/MFA National Concert Band Festival, Heritage Music Festivals, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Chicago Symphony Hall. YPAS ensembles have also had the pleasure of collaborating with composers David Maslanka, Dr. Brant Karrick, and Dr. Frederick Speck. Most recently the Symphonic Band had the opportunity to work with First Lieutenant Ryan J. Nowlin, the assistant conductor of the “President’s Own Marine Band. Percussion at the Youth Performing Arts School: The YPAS Percussion Ensemble meets every other day for 90 minutes and for select weekly after school rehearsals when needed. The ensemble performs on an average of 3-4 band concerts a year and one Showcase Concert in mid-March that includes 5 to 6 selections of grade 5-6 works. All members of the ensemble perform etudes in all areas of percussion including marimba, vibraphone, timpani, snare drum and drum set. All students are expected to audition for All-District and All-State Band in all three areas (mallets, timpani and snare drum). In addition, each member will perform 8 solo convocation performance throughout their high school career. Convocation solos usually focus on multiple percussion, marimba, vibraphone, timpani, and xylophone solos. YPAS percussionists are also expected to perform at least one solo at the KMEA District 12 Solo & Ensemble festival each year. Lastly, all senior percussionists perform a full one hour recital in the spring semester.  The YPAS Percussion Ensemble has had the opportunity to perform at the KMEA Music conference, at 3 BOA/MFA Sandy Feldstein National Percussion Festivals, the Percussive Arts Society International Conference and commissioned and premiered Hurtling through Space at an Unimaginable Speed by composer David Maslanka in 2012. In recent years, the YPAS Percussion Ensemble was again selected to perform at the KMEA state music conference (2014) with guest artist Michael Burritt of the Eastman School of Music, won the large ensemble division of the Black Swamp HS Percussion Ensemble competition (2015), was a featured ensemble at the Music for All Sandy Feldstein National Percussion Festival (2016) and was selected to perform at the International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic (2017). In addition, the YPAS percussion program averages 4-6 percussionists in KY All-State Ensembles and 14-16 percussionists in All-District Bands and Symphony Orchestra each year. Many YPAS percussionists have moved on to successful careers in music including composer/percussionist Owen Clayton Condon who was a founding member of the well know chamber ensemble "Third Cost Percussion".  

Youth Performing Arts School Percussion Ensemble

Conductor's Bio

Jason Gregory is in is 17th year of teaching and 10th year at duPont Manual HS and the Youth Performing Arts School in Louisville, KY. Mr.Gregory currently serves as the Assistant Director of Bands and the Director of Percussion Studies for the Youth Performing Arts School. He also serves as the Director of Athletic Bands for duPont Manual High School which includes a competitive marching band, basketball pep band and a newly formed winter color guard training program. His teaching responsibilities at YPAS include or have included Percussion Ensemble, Chamber Ensemble, Intermediate Woodwinds, Symphonic Band, Wind Ensemble, Conductor of the Pit Orchestra and Music Theory I. Mr. Gregory oversees all aspects of the woodwind and percussion curriculum at YPAS. In addition, he has taught AP Music Theory and Jazz Ensemble at previous schools. Since taking over the YPAS Percussion Ensemble full time in 2013, the ensemble was selected to perform at the KMEA state music conference (2014) with guest artist Michael Burritt of the Eastman School of Music, won the large ensemble division of the Black Swamp HS Percussion Ensemble competition (2015), was a featured ensemble at the Music for All/Sandy Feldstein National Percussion Festival (2016) and was selected to perform at the International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic (2017). In addition, the YPAS percussion program averages 4-6 percussionists in KY All-State Ensembles each year. Mr. Gregory also serves as freelance percussionist, arranger and adjudicator throughout the state of Kentucky and Indiana. Over the years, he has performed with the Louisville Orchestra, the Owensboro Symphony and the Evansville Symphony.  While with the Louisville Orchestra, he performed with numerous artists including Luciano Pavarotti, Martina McBride, Frank Sinatra Jr, the Spinners and David Clayton Thomas of Blood Sweat & Tears. He is currently a member of the Chamber Winds of Louisville Concert Band, a community ensemble conducted by Dr. Frederick Speck, the Director of Bands at the University of Louisville.The ensemble recently performed at the 2013 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic and at the KMEA Music Conference in 2012. Prior to becoming a band director, Mr. Gregory served as a clinician for Yamaha “Sounds of Summer” Camps, taught percussion for numerous high school percussion programs and served as a Percussion Caption Head for a Senior Drum & Bugle Corps. Currently, he serves as a music, visual and percussion adjudicator for various KMEA sanctioned marching band festivals, concert band festival and Solo and Ensemble festivals throughout the state of Kentucky and Southern Indiana. As a percussion arranger, he has written for two Senior Drum & Bugle Corps, the University of Louisville and for numerous high school programs in the Kentuckiana area including his own band program. Mr. Gregory is a graduate of the University of Louisville School of Music (BME 2001) where his principal percussion teachers were Chad Stoltenberg, James Rago, Greg Byrne and Michael Ferraracio.  He earned his Master Degree in Education from Indiana Wesleyan University (MED 2008).  His professional affiliations include the Kentucky Music Educators Association, the Percussive Arts Society, the Jefferson County Teachers Association and NAfME, the national association for music education. Jason Gregory currently resides in Louisville, KY with his wife Nikki, 19 year old son Cole and 12 year old daughter Hope.