Music

Mr. Jeremy Craycraft is Visiting Instructor in the music department at the College of St. Scholastica. He directs the college's new Hand Drum Ensemble, Drum Line, and Steel Band. Most recently his composition Etude Vicarious was chosen for inclusion in a Snare Drum compendium as a result of a composition contest sponsored by the Massachusetts Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. The piece will be published in October by Buchovich Publications. In February, an article entitled Bix Beiderbecke's In a Mist for Marimba and String Bass was published by the PAS's journal Percussive Notes. In addition, Mr. Craycraft's Percussion Research Bibliography is now published online through the PAS website and is available to all PAS members.

Mr. Craycraft performs regularly with the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as both substitute Principal Percussionist and Principal Timpanist. He has performed with other arts organizations in the area including the Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Lyric Opera of the North, the Duluth Festival Opera, Twin Ports Wind Ensemble, and The Big Time Jazz Orchestra. Mr. Craycraft has been a frequent visitor, as a soloist and with various university ensembles, to area schools where he performs and provides clinics. Mr. Craycraft has been the featured soloist at the UWS Tri-State Honors Band and the Northland Youth Music Program. He recently served as Percussion Instructor for the University of Minnesota Duluth's Honor Band Festival and its Northshore Music Festival.

Mr. Craycraft is currently serving as Principal Timpanist of the Lakeside Symphony Orchestra in Lakeside, Ohio (near Toledo). He was a percussionist in the Richmond Symphony Orchestra in Richmond, Indiana from 1999-2004 and also performed with several regional ensembles including the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Craycraft has performed in variety of musical contexts: as a pit musician for musical theater productions, as a former member of the Bluecoats Drum & Bugle Corps, and as a regular performer at new music festivals in the Midwest. He has had the fortune to play under the direction of modern composers such as Steve Reich, Martin Bresnick, Michael Colgrass, John Corigliano, Lukas Foss, and David Del Tredici, et al… Mr. Craycraft performed at the 1999 and 2002 Percussive Arts Society International Conventions at a member of the CCM Percussion Ensemble.

As a current Doctoral candidate at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music (CCM), Mr. Craycraft has studied with and performed alongside members of the internationally acclaimed percussion trio Percussion Group Cincinnati with members Allen Otte, Jim Culley, and Rusty Burge. During his residency, Mr. Craycraft performed as soloist with the CCM Wind Symphony and CCM Chamber Players. He is currently at work on a dissertation concerning the percussion Music of William "Bill" Russell. 

Prior to his arrival at St. Scholastica, Mr. Craycraft was a Senior Lecturer and Percussion Instructor at the University of Wisconsin-Superior where he directed the Percussion program and various jazz combos. Mr. Craycraft received his Bachelor's degree from the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory in Berea, Ohio.