Our Team
Conrad Alexander
Southern Methodist University, MM and Performer’s Certificate-Eastman School of Music.
Studies with John Beck, Don Liuzzi, Kalman Cherry, Doug Howard, John Bannon, Charles Owen.
Instructor at Ithaca College, Mansfield University (PA) and has taught at Interlochen Center for the Arts, James Madison University, University of Virginia, the Odessa/Midland (TX) school system and the Blue Lake (MI) Fine Arts Camp.
He has performed with the New York City Opera Touring Orchestra, the Albany and Harrisburg (PA) Symphonies, as well as the Dallas, Richmond (VA), Greensboro (NC), Knoxville (TN), Oklahoma, and Anchorage Symphonies. He is the owner of DAY Percussion Repair, www.daypercussionrepair.com, specializing in all facets of keyboard modification and percussion instrument repair.
Greg Evans
I am pleased that you have taken an interest in Ithaca College and presumably jazz studies and/or drum set studies.
As you browse this page, I hope that you will learn that being a student at Ithaca College and a drum set major can open doors to many great experiences, distinctive to Ithaca College. Our jazz program fosters a very tight knit community among students, as well as close connection to the faculty. Students have access to many performing opportunities, on campus and off. The city of Ithaca has a vibrant community full of music and art, so what better place to study music!
Enjoy your visit to my page and if you have any questions, please feel free to email me.
Sincerely,
Gregory Evans
Mike Truesdell
Percussionist Mike Truesdell is thrilled to be a part of the Ithaca College faculty! As a performer, he explores both the music of living composers as well as music steeped in past traditions. As a soloist, he is a 2nd-prize winner of the TROMP International Percussion Competition in the Netherlands, and continues to maintain an active performing schedule around the world. Additionally he has performed with numerous ensembles, including the New York City Ballet, International Contemporary Ensemble, Lucerne Festival Ensemble conducted by Pierre Boulez, and with members of the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, Chamber Music Society (New York), and Alarm Will Sound, among others. He has recorded with Renée Fleming, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (Grammy® nominated), Charles Wuorinen, Gil Evans Project (Grammy® nominated), in addition to co-producing the Zeltsman Marimba Festival double-disc recording of the commissioned Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba.
Mike’s interest in music from around the world nurtured the formation of Spectrum Trio, a group that drew upon influences of rock, jazz, R&B, soul, electronica, John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, among others, and integrated the styles with music of Ghana, Mali, Guinea, Brazil, Cuba, and the Middle East. Spectrum Trio presented a full-length clinic/performance at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention on ways to approach the fusing of musical styles.
As an educator, Mike has previously been on the faculties of University of Northern Colorado, Rutgers University and Columbia University. During the summer months, he can be found at the Zeltsman Marimba Festival, the nief-norf Summer Festival, the Composer’s Conference and Interlochen Arts Academy, among others. Also engaged with mentoring the next generation, Mike has taught in the acclaimed Music Advancement Program at The Juilliard School, and founded Wildcat Percussion Camp, a summer percussion program to introduce aspiring percussionists to the spectrum of percussive sounds and techniques. He has been featured in concerts and master classes around the United States, Europe and Asia.
His interest in collaborations led him to explore the early collaborative work of Igor Stravinsky, Histoire du Soldat (Soldier’s Tale) as the subject of his doctoral dissertation. As a recipient of a Presser Award, Mike investigated the sketches, manuscripts, letters, original drawings and other primary sources affiliated with this work in Basel, Winterthur and Morges, Switzerland in the summer of 2015.
A native of Wisconsin, he attended Lawrence University (his teacher Dane Richeson is an Ithaca College graduate!) and moved to New York to study at The Juilliard School (Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts), where his primary teachers were Dan Druckman, Greg Zuber, Markus Rhoten and Gordon Gottlieb.