About Me
I am a percussionist and educator based in the Hudson Valley. My musical interests include performing contemporary chamber music, playing in orchestras, and bridging the gap between learning research and musical practice.
Currently, I serve as a teaching fellow at Bard College’s Conservatory of Music where I teach applied lessons, coach chamber music, and handle administrative duties under the advisement of Eric Cha Beach and Jason Treuting of Sō Percussion. I also am active in a number of chamber music projects, including my percussion quartet BANYAN.
As a performer and educator, I value:
encouraging students to develop percussive excellence across a variety of musical contexts, including chamber music, orchestral music, and solo playing.
developing an active presence in my local community and encouraging my students to do the same
developing meaningful long-term collaborations with other performers and with composers
sharing strategies to learn and practice more effectively through the interpretation and application of relevant research from cognitive psychology and neuroscience
I completed my D.M.A. at Arizona State University, studying with Dr. Michael Compitello. My doctoral research focused on the interpretation and application of research-based learning strategies to musical practice and my primary research interest.
Biography
Tony Kirk is a versatile percussionist and avid performer of contemporary solo and chamber music. He has participated in festivals and masterclasses with influential contemporary music groups such as Sō Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, JACK Quartet, and the Cortona Collective. As an orchestral musician, he regularly plays with The Orchestra Now and in the past has also played with The Phoenix Symphony and the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in Kuopio, Finland.
He completed his undergraduate degree at Vanderbilt University studying with Ji Hye Jung and Lee Vinson. While at Vanderbilt, Tony co-founded the Eschaton New Music Ensemble in 2017. He and six other members of Eschaton were in residence at the 2018 Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy. In 2021, Tony completed his master’s degree at the University of Miami studying with Svet Stoyanov, Matthew Strauss, and Joseph Petrasek.
Tony completed his doctoral degree at Arizona State University in May 2024, having studied with Michael Compitello and Matthew Prendergast. His doctoral project interpreted research-based learning strategies and applied them to musical practice. He currently plays in a violin-percussion duo with violinist Haley Gillia, and in BANYAN Percussion, a percussion quartet he founded with colleagues from his time at the University of Miami. In Fall 2024, BANYAN traveled to Bogotá, Colombia for a residency as part of the festival Encuentro Internacional de Percusión Resonancias: Contempo 30 años. In Bogotá, BANYAN held performances of percussion chamber works and coached student chamber groups. Other recent engagements include trips to Yunnan and Shanghai to work with composer and conductor Tan Dun.
Tony’s primary interests as a performer include collaborating with other instrumentalists, developing long-term composer-performer collaborations, and performing new and emerging repertoire. As a pedagogue, he is interested in applying evidence-based learning strategies to musical practice. Currently, he is a teaching fellow at Bard College and lives in Red Hook, NY.
