B i o g r a p h y
Patrick Roulet’s multi-faceted career as a teacher, performer, composer, and arranger has given him opportunities to collaborate with an array of artists from composers and choreographers to world musicians and percussion soloists and chamber musicians. His past projects have included the landmark recording of the early percussion music of American composer Michael Colgrass, and the musical score to The Traveling Feet with the Deep Vision Dance Company in Baltimore.
His emphasis on the core skills within the larger field of percussion has enabled his students to excel as performers and teachers in a wide range of musical pursuits from solo and chamber percussion to jazz, world, and popular music. Many of his students have earned scholarship awards and performance honors and have gone on to professional careers in music.
His extensive background and training as a classical percussionist have enabled him to perform with the leading professional symphonic organizations in the Northwest including five seasons as the principal timpanist of the Bellingham Festival of Music and performances at Benaroya Hall and McCaw Hall in Seattle, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and Lincoln Center in New York.
Email: Patrick.roulet@wwu.edu
Website: http://www.prpercussion.com
As a freelance percussionist he has performed with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera Orchestras, the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra, the Seattle Chamber Orchestra, Opera Lafayette (Washington D.C.), and the Pacific Rims Percussion Quartet in Seattle. His performances as the principal timpanist of the American Sinfonietta and the Bellingham Festival Orchestra have frequently been heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and his performance of Joseph Schwantner’s Concerto for Percussion was praised by critics as “utterly in control and inspiring.”
His research on the life and music of jazz vibraphonist Milt Jackson has been referenced by jazz scholars and was featured as the cover story for Percussive Notes, the official journal of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS). Other research interests include the music and culture of the traditional xylophone of Ghana and its application to the pedagogy of the western marimba. His article, “Teaching the Marimba through West African Gyil Methodologies” (Percussive Notes, (July 2010): 16-21.) was based on his studies with Aaron Bebe Sukura at the University of Ghana in 2006.
He has arranged several collections of music for keyboard percussion including Church Hymns for Marimba, Folk Songs for Marimba, Christmas Carols for Marimba, Wedding Music for Marimba, and Johann Sebastian Bach: Music for Marimba published by Meredith Music and the Beatles for Vibraphone, the Beatles for Marimba, and Christmas Songs for Vibraphone published by Hal Leonard.
He earned degrees in percussion performance from the University of Washington (DMA), Boston University (MM) and the University of Michigan (BM). His teachers have included many of the leading percussion performers and educators in the United States including: Michael Crusoe (Seattle Symphony), Tom Collier (University of Washington), Charles Smith (Boston Symphony), Tom Gauger (Boston Symphony) Michael Udow (University of Michigan), Laurence Kaptain (University of Michigan), Salvatore Rabbio (Detroit Symphony, PAS Hall of Fame), Randall Eyles (US Air Force Band), Ken Harbison (National Symphony), and Garwood Whaley (Author/Educator).
Patrick has performed and presented at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. He is a Yamaha Performing Artist and endorser of Grover Pro Percussion and Vic Firth.
For more info: http://www.prpercussion.com
A dedicated percussion pedagogue and the Percussion Area Coordinator at Western Washington University, he is passionate about helping students realize their potential and achieve their musical and career goals.
