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Part 2 of Ted Atkatz and Will Hudgins' PASIC 2011 symphonic clinic entitled, "Achieving Optimum Performance".

ABOUT TED ATKATZ
A former principal percussionist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Edward Atkatz has performed with the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, and the New World Symphony. Mr. Atkatz holds bachelor's degrees in Percussion Performance and Music Education, magna cum laude, from Boston University. While in graduate school at the New England Conservatory of Music, he was invited to participate in the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra for two summers. Mr. Atkatz earned a professional studies degree at Temple University, where he studied with Alan Abel. Over the past two years, he has played on several movie scores, including those for The Day the Earth Stood Still and Up. He has also participated in the St. Bart's Music Festival since 2000. He is currently a faculty member at Lynn Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, Florida, and at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.

ABOUT WILL HUDGINS
A native Texan, Will Hudgins attended The Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins, where he studied with John Soroka and Fred Begun. After receiving a master's from Temple University studying with Alan Abel, Hudgins won a percussion appointment in the Florida Symphony Orchestra, where he also served as assistant conductor for four seasons. During his time in Florida, he co-founded the jazz group Kiwi Guru, playing vibes and occasionally kit. In 1990, he won a percussion position with the Boston Symphony and is now in his 22nd year with the BSO. Hudgins has been a soloist with orchestras in the U.S. and beyond, and in 1996 he premiered the Maurice Wright Concertpiece for Marimba and Orchestra, with Seiji Ozawa conducting the BSO. A faculty member at New England Conservatory since 1992, Hudgins students have won auditions for such orchestras as Chicago, St. Louis, San Diego, Hong Kong, Ft. Worth, Chicago Lyric Opera, Dallas, Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, Portland and others.

Part 4 of Michael Spiro's PASIC 2011 World Clinic/Performance entitled "It's Not a Waltz - Understanding the Triplet Feel in Afro-Centric Music". You can view the entire clinic and download the clinic handout at:
http://www.vicfirth.com/education/cli...

About Michael Spiro:

Michael Spiro is an internationally recognized percussionist, recording artist, and educator, known specifically for his work in the Latin music field. He has performed on thousands of records, co-produced and played on several instructional videos for Warner Bros. Publications, inlducing ones by Talking Drums, Changuito, Giovanni hidalgo, and Ignacio Berroa, and produced seminal recordings in the Latin music genre, including Orquesta Batachanga, BataKetu with Mark Lamson, Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, Grupo Ilu-Ana and BataMbira.

He currently resides in San Francisco, California where he is an integral part of the Bay Area music scene. He records and produces with groups throughout the West Coast, and still tours world-wide with the percussion trio "Talking-Drums," which he co-leads with David Garibaldi and Jesus Diaz. In June of 1996, his recoding with Mark Lamson, BataKetu was released to international critical acclaim, and was voted one of the top 50 drum records of all time by Drum Magazine, they debuted that material on the stage in 2002 with a performance grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in that same year he performed with his own group "Ara Meji" at the Monterey Jazz Festival, where he received the Distinguished Achievement Award in Percussion. In 2004 he received a Grammy nomination for his work as bothproducer and artist on Mark Levine's Latin/Jazz release "Isla." In 2005 he released his maost recent recording "BataMbira" which is quickly received rave reviews, and was he was voted runner up as best percussionist in the jazz/fusion category in the 2005 Drum Magazine's Reader's Poll Awards.

Michael's recording and performing credits include such diverse artists as David Byrne, Cachao, The Caribbean Jazz Project, Dori Caymmi, Changuito, Richard Egues, Frank Emilio Flynn, Ella Fitzgerald, David Garibaldi, Gilberto Gil, Giovanni Hidalgo, Ray Holman, Toninho Horta, Bobby Hutcherson, Dr. John, Mark Levine and the Latin Tinge, Machete Ensemble, Bobby McFerrin, Andy Narell, Ray Obiedo, Chico O'Farrill, Eddie Palmieri, Lazaro Ros, David Rudder, Carlos Santana, Grace Slick, Omar Sosa, Talking Drums, Clark Terry, McCoy Tyner and Charilie Watts. In addition, he has recorded soundtracks to such major motion picutres as Soapdish, Henry and June, True stories, Sworn To The Drum, Walker, Eddie Macon's Run, and Dragon-The Life of Bruce Lee, and wrote several arrangements for the Tony Award winning Broadway show BLAST! which was released on video by PBS in 2002

Michael's books and recordings can be purchased on Amazon.com.