Ji Hye Jung

Associate Professor of Percussion; Director of the Percussion Program

Percussionist Ji Hye Jung has been praised as “spectacular” by the Los Angeles Times and “extraordinary” by the Ventura County Star, with the Times further describing her as “a centered player who can give the impression of being very still yet at all places at once.”

Jung began concertizing in her native South Korea at the age of 9, going on to perform more than 100 concerts, including solo appearances with every major orchestra in Korea. Soon after coming to the United States in 2004, Jung garnered consecutive first prizes at the 2006 Linz International Marimba Competition and the 2007 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition.

With percussion repertoire still in its formative stages, Jung feels strongly about collaborating with composers to further the creation of a new voice for the art form. She has commissioned and premiered works by several important composers, including Kevin Puts, Alejandro Viñao, Paul Lansky, John Serry, Lukas Ligeti, and Jason Treuting. In 2013, she made the premiere recording of Michael Torke’s marimba concerto Mojave, and in 2014 recorded Phillip Glass’ Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra for the Naxos label.

Jung frequently performs with many of today’s most important conductors and instrumentalists. For six years she has served as principal percussionist with West Coast chamber ensemble Camerata Pacifica, with whom she has premiered works by Bright Sheng and Huang Ruo. She has also recorded Stravinsky’s Les Noceswith JoAnn Falletta at the Virginia Arts Festival, performed as soloist with David Robertson conducting an all-Messiaen program at Carnegie Hall, and made her concerto debut with the Houston Symphony under the baton of Hans Graf in 2005.

Other performance credits include appearances at Portugal’s Tomarimbando Festival, the West Cork Chamber Music Festival in Ireland, The Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and the Grachtenfestival in Holland.

In 2015, Jung was named Associate Professor of Percussion at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. She previously served as Associate Professor of Percussion at the University of Kansas for six years. An active educator and clinician, Jung has presented master classes at the Curtis Institute, the Peabody Conservatory, Rice University, Beijing’s Central Conservatory, and the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland.

Jung completed a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, both under the tutelage of Robert van Sice. As an artist endorser, she proudly represents Pearl/Adams instruments, Vic Firth sticks and mallets, and Zildjian cymbals.

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 W. Lee Vinson

Adjunct Assistant Professor of Percussion

W. Lee Vinson is a multifaceted classical percussionist, music educator, and snare drum historian with an extensive background in symphony orchestra performance. From 2007 through 2011 he was a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and from 2000 to 2004 served as a member of the United States Navy Band in Washington, D.C. In 2012, Vinson performed as assistant timpanist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra on its tour of Ontario and Quebec, and in 2013 performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall as part of the Spring for Music festival. He has also appeared as an extra percussionist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Nashville Symphony, and the Alabama Symphony.

A dedicated music educator, Vinson was a guest lecturer at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. during the 2014-15 academic year and also served on the music faculty of the University of Kansas in an adjunct capacity. He was previously a faculty member at Boston University and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and in the summer of 2011 taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp.

As a clinician and guest artist, Vinson has appeared at colleges and universities across the United States, including the Eastman School of Music, Florida State University, Indiana University, Michigan State University, the Hartt School, the Boston Conservatory, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. In 2015 he presented a masterclass in Seoul, South Korea, and gave a series of clinics across southern Poland, including classes at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice, the Academy of Music in Krakow, and the Karol Lipinski Academy in Wroclaw.

A versitle chamber musician, Vinson has performed with the southern California-based chamber music ensemble Camerata Pacifica, at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy, and with Nashville’s new music ensemble Intersection.

Vinson is active within the Percussive Arts Society as a two-term member of the Symphonic Committee and was formerly Vice President of the Massachusetts Chapter. He has appeared at the PAS Day of Percussion in Maryland, Massachusetts and Kansas, and in the Fall of 2009 was a featured symphonic clinician at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana. At the 2010 Convention, he organized and moderated a Symphonic Panel Discussion titled “Orchestral Percussion in the College Curriculum” and at PASIC 2016 will present a snare drum masterclass titled “The Etudes That Make Us.”

An avid vintage and antique snare drum collector and historian, Vinson has contributed articles to Not So Modern Drummer Magazine and Percussive Notes. His personal snare drum collection numbers more than 60 instruments, more than 40 of which were manufactured in Boston from the 1860s to the 1930s. In 2011 he authored and designed BostonDrumBuilders.com, a website dedicated to researching and preserving the instruments produced by early 20th century Boston-based drum makers.

Vinson holds a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music, where he was a student of John Beck, and did graduate study at Boston University. He also attended summer music festivals at Interlochen, Tanglewood, and the Brevard Music Center.

W. Lee Vinson is a performing artist and clinician for Zildjian cymbals, Remo drumheads, and Malletech LLC.