Blake Tyson

Assistant Professor of Music

office: SFAC 118
phone: 501-450-5263
email: btyson@uca.edu
Personal web: www.blaketyson.com
Teaching specialty: Percussion

DMA Eastman School of Music
MM Kent State University
BM University of Alabama

Blake Tyson is recognized as one of the outstanding percussionists of his generation. Although known primarily as a marimbist, he is committed to the creation and performance of new music for all types of percussion by commissioning, composing, and premiering new works. Currently on the faculty of the University of Central Arkansas, he believes that teaching is an important aspect of being a creative musician. For him, teaching is not only a way to share knowledge and experience, but also to create excitement for the percussive arts in a new generation of musicians.

Blake Tyson received the DMA degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. The faculty of the Eastman School also awarded Tyson the prestigious Performer's Certificate. He received the Master of Music degree from Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Alabama. His teachers include John Beck, Michael Burritt, Larry Mathis, and Peggy Benkeser. He has also studied derabucca with Halim El-Dabh and has devoted intensive study to El-Dabh's unique notational system for the instrument.

Blake Tyson has given recitals as both a solo and chamber artist throughout the United States. He has performed and taught in Ecuador as a guest of the National Conservatory and performed in Egypt at the Ministry of Culture in Cairo and as a soloist with the Orchestra de Biblioteca Alexandrina in Alexandria. He recently traveled to South Africa for a masterclass and performance in Johannesburg, and to China for performances at the Beijing Central Conservatory. He has performed as a percussionist with many orchestras throughout the United States, and is currently principal percussionist with the Conway Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the Northwest Percussion Festival, the Leigh Howard Stevens Summer Marimba Seminar, and at numerous Days of Percussion throughout the country. His compositions Anubis and Vertical River are published by Keyboard Percussion Publications.