joseph gramley, percussion
Fast Facts
Faculty and chair of the Percussion Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
Founding member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble
Performs regularly with broad cross section of artists from Elton John to Renee Fleming to Keiko Abe
Joseph Gramley is professor of music in percussion and chair of the Percussion Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
A Grammy Award-winning multi-percussionist, Gramley has performed and taught internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in addition to playing with major symphony orchestras. Gramley is principal percussionist and timpanist with The Knights, played on Broadway for 20 years, and also performs regularly with Orpheus and American Ballet Theatre.
He released eight albums as a founding member of the Silkroad Ensemble and served as the group’s first associate artistic director, working directly with Yo-Yo Ma. Gramley’s two solo recordings, American Deconstruction and Global Percussion, represent definitive, milestone works in the modern multi-percussion canon. With Yo-Yo Ma and Silk Road Ensemble, Gramley premiered over 50 new compositions.
Joseph Gramley, Percussion
Gramley came to the Jacobs School of Music after 12 years of leading the percussion program at the University of Michigan, where he successfully placed a generation of percussionists in varied posts worldwide—from symphony orchestras to Broadway, and top-tier universities and conservatories to world stages with pop artists and chamber musicians alike.
His versatility as a percussionist has found him performing alongside a broad cross section of artists, including Ma, Elton John, Michael Stern, Renee Fleming, Wu Man, Glen Velez, and Keiko Abe. Gramley’s cross-genre collaborations have seen him involved with more than 100 new commissions from the leading composers of our time. His duo, Organized Rhythm, with Clive Driskill-Smith, is the world’s premier and most active organ/percussion collaboration.
Born in 1970, Gramley grew up in Oregon and was named a presidential scholar in the arts in 1988. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan where he won the Stanley Medal. Festival experience includes Tanglewood, Salzburg Mozarteum, Spoleto Festival, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, and 15 summers at the Marlboro Music Festival.
He made his concerto debut with the Houston Symphony and his solo debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Gramley earned his master’s degree from Juilliard and directed its Summer Percussion Seminar for 17 years.