| W. Lee Vinson, percussion |
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Lee's Latest News:
| 5/10/13 - I was fortunate to have the opportunity recently to perform with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. The week included two programs at Carnegie Hall as part of the Spring for Music festival. |
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4/9/13 - The collection spreadsheet has been updated. How many snare drums are there? Too many. |
| 12/2/12 - Lee's Boston Drum Builders blog has seen regular updates throughout the Fall including posts on a 1922 George B. Stone & Son Separate Tension Drum, early 20th century drumsticks, and a Charles A. Stromberg & Son Rope Tension Field Drum. |
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9/30/12 - Lee has been named as a finalist for the Assistant Timpani position with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra! The trial process will stretch through the remainder of the Orchestra's season with a decision expected by the end of June. |
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8/15/12 - Lee has relocated to Kansas City, Missouri where he will be performing regularly with the Kansas City Symphony throughout the 2012 - 1013 season! |
| 7/29/12 - I recently had the opportunity to attend the "official unofficial retirement party" for National Symphony Orchestra Principal Percussionist Tony Ames hosted by Principal Timpanist Jauvon Gilliam. Tony has been a tremendous positive mentor for me during my three stints in the DC area going back to my days with the Navy Band. It was an honor for me to be there for the occasion and to see all of Tony's friends and colleagues send him out in style. |
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4/25/12 - A new website has launched! Head over to BostonDrumBuilders.com and see what all the fuss is about! Look for news related to Lee's drum projects at Blog.BostonDrumBuilders.com while this site will remain devoted to Lee's percussive endeavors. |
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3/1/12 - Whew, it's been a while . . . Lee's article Dodging the 'Curve Ball' at Orchestra Auditions is published in the March 2012 issue of Percussive Notes. Give it a read! |
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10/5/11 - Lee recently traveled to Lansing Michigan to work with the percussion studio at Michigan State University. It was a fantastic one-day whirlwind of teaching, coaching, and playing with Gwen Burgett Thrasher and all of her students! |
| 9/1/11 - After four seasons as a member of the Boston Symphony, Lee has left the Orchestra and relocated to Northern Virginia just outside of Washington, DC. What comes next? Stay tuned! |
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8/15/11 - It's a new xylophone! Fully refurbished by Gilberto Serna at Century Mallet Instrument Service in Chicago, Illinois, this 1920s Deagan 870 is ready for another 90 years of action. |
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8/15/11 - Lee had the amazing opportunity to serve on the percussion faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp for three weeks in July and August. One highlight of many highlights from the summer was a faculty recital featuring the music of composer Libby Larsen.
Pictured from left to right in the first photo below are Gwen Burgett Thrasher (Percussion, Michigan State University), |
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| 7/1/11 - July 1st marked the end of another successful percussion workshop at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. This year's two-week program included masterclasses by all five members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra percussion section, a full percussion ensemble recital during the second week, and a mock audition on the final day of the session. |
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| 5/24/11 - Lee's Summer schedule includes a masterclass at the Eastman Summer Percussion Institute directed by Michael Burritt in late June. Applications are currently still being accepted! |
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3/21/11 - Lee will be joining the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp for the second three weeks of the summer session from July 18th through August 6th. |
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1/23/11 - From an advertisement dated December of 1922: The Boston Symphony Orchestra uses a Stone Master-Model Drum!
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1/14/11 - Happy New Year! While the drum collecting has slowed in recent months, several old catalogs have shown up including the Ditson Wonder Book Number Four, circa 1910, from Boston's Oliver Ditson Company.
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11/14/10 - The Symphonic Panel Discussion at PASIC 2010 was a was a great success! The session, titled "Orchestral Percussion in the College Curriculum, was organized and moderated by Lee. The Panelists for this year's discussion were Jonathan Latta (Assistant Professor of Music at Fort Lewis College and chair of the PAS College Pedagogy Committee), William Moersch (Associate Professor and Chair of Percussion at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Michael Rosen (Professor of Percussion, Director of the Woodwinds, Brass and Percussion Division at Oberlin Conservatory), and Frank Epstein (Chair of Brass and Percussion, New England Conservatory). Thanks to all involved! |
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9/10/10 - Two of Lee's articles, Dodging the 'Curve Ball' at Orchestra Auditions and Connecting Your Head and Your Hands, have been republished with permission at the fantastic new online percussion resource drumchattr.com. Head on over, browse around, and get involved! |
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8/11/10 - After months of waiting, the comprehensive restoration of an antique Charles A. Stromberg snare drum is finally complete! The before and after comparison is truely amazing. The shell and hoops were restored using period techniques by Will Tillman of Stewartstown, PA. The hardware was fully restored, including the replication of several missing tension rods and claws, by Italian master craftsman Adrian Kirchler.
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7/3/10 - The 2010 Boston University Tanglewood Institute Percussion Workshop wraps up after two weeks of intense percussioning!
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6/13/10 - Lee's Green Sparkle Gretsch and the Boston Pops' rendition of the National Anthem inspires the Boston Celtics to victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 5 of the 2010 NBA Finals!
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4/21/10 - Lee will be organizing and moderating the Symphonic Panel Discussion at PASIC 2010. The panel will be discussing "Orchestral Percussion in the College Curriculum". Stay tuned for details! |
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4/13/10 - New to the collection is a Nokes & Nicolai Separate Tension Orchestra Drum in Bird's-eye Maple. Check out the artwork from Catalog No. 6, "The American Drummer" published in 1922!
For more information about Nokes & Nicolai, read Lee's article Nokes & Nicolai: Boston, MA Drum Builders, 1912 - 1926. |
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4/5/10 - The Summer teaching schedule is getting busier! Lee will be serving as Assistant Director of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Percussion Workshop from June 20 - July 3rd.
Clinic appearances in July include the Eastman Summer Percussion Seminar and the Indiana University Summer Percussion Academy and Workshop. |
| 2/23/10 - And then there were three - Stone Master-Models that is. Click the pics for more info on each. |
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1/25/10 - Lee's article "Nokes & Nicolai: Boston, MA Drum Builders, 1912 - 1926" appears in the Winter 2010 Issue of Not So Modern Drummer Magazine! It will also remain available on Lee's articles page. |
| 1/3/10 - The New Year means new old drums! The latest clean-up project is a Harry A. Bower drum dating from late 1917 or early 1918 which comes to me through Boston timpanist John Grimes. |
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11/20/09 - Lee's session at PASIC 2009 was a huge success! Approximately 225 people were in attendance as Lee discussed how to "Stop Practicing the Excerpts"!
Pictured post-clinic are Keith Aleo, Lee Vinson, Glenn Paulson, and John Beck. |
 | 11/10/09 - Handouts for Lee's Symphonic Clinic at PASIC 2009 are now available at leevinson.com/pasic2009. Check it out! |
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9/23/09 - It's Opening Night 2009 at the Boston Symphony! Tonight's program consisted of Berlioz's Roman Carnival Overture, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 featuring Evgeny Kissin, the world premier of John Williams Harp Concerto "On Willows and Birches" featuring retired BSO principal harpist Ann Hobson Pilot, and Debussy's La Mer.
And for the first time since 2003 the BSO percussion section is back to a full complement of four members! Pictured from left to right are Lee Vinson, Dan Bauch, Frank Epstein, and Will Hudgins. |
 | 9/1/09 - A preview of Lee's Symphonic Clinic at PASIC 2009 appears in the latest edition of Percussive Notes. Check it out! |
| 8/26/09 - The coolest drum find of the summer is a George B. Stone Separate Tension Orchestra Drum from the mid-late 1920s! More information may be had on the gear page at the reader's discretion. |
| 8/10/09 - I recently had the opportunity to sit down for lunch with retired BSO percussionist Arthur Press. The stories flew fast as Press recounted his youth in New York City, his many years with the BSO, and decades worth of stories of Arthur Fiedler and the Pops! |
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| 8/3/09 - Lee's Symphonic Clinic at PASIC 2009 has been scheduled for Saturday, November the 14th at 3:00 PM in Room 105. Be there or be square! |
| 7/8/09 - This week marked the inaugural Eastman Summer Percussion Institute at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. This year's faculty included Bill Cahn, John Beck, Michael Burritt, and myself. A big thank you goes out to Vic Firth, Remo, and Zildjian for their support! |
| 6/26/09 - Today concluded the 2009 Boston University Tanglewood Institute Percussion Workshop, an intensive two week program for high school students. The seminar culminated in a mock orchestra audition and a percussion ensemble concert which I rehearsed and conducted. Congrats to all involved! |
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6/1/09 - Lee's most recent article "Nokes & Nicolai: Boston, MA Drum Builders, 1912 - 1926" is the second in a series about Boston's early 20th century drum makers. Follow the link or find it on Lee's articles page. |
| 5/25/09 - The two newest additions to the collection are 100 year old drums built by George W. Bemis and F. E. Dodge! For more, visit the gear page. |
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| 4/13/09 - Lee has been invited to present at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in November, 2009. This year's PASIC is being held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Stay tuned for details! |
| 4/3/09 - Lee's article "Refining Your Snare Drum Playing for Orchestra Auditions" appears in the latest issue of Percussive Notes. Give it a read! |
| 3/26/09 - It's the oldest metal shell drum by a Boston based manufacturer I have found to date! Check it out towards the bottom of the gear page! |
| 2/20/09 - Over the past three days I have had the pleasure of working with the percussion studio at Florida State University and Dr. John Parks. My three day residency there included clinics, masterclasses, and lessons covering a wide variety of topics including orchestral snare drum, crash cymbals, and mallet percussion. Special thanks goes to Vic Firth, Remo, and Zildjian for supporting these events! |
| 2/9/09 - A marginally useful question and answer page has been added. Have a question? Find an answer! |
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1/7/09 - Happy New Year! Read Lee's new article about early 20th century author, inventor, and BSO percussionist Harry A. Bower on Lee's articles page.
Also, a complete listing of Lee's snare drum collection is now available at http://leevinson.com/drums. |
| 12/2/08 - The latest acquisition is a drum by Boston drum builder Charles A. Stromberg from the 1920s! For more, visit Lee's gear page. |
| 11/12/08 - Three new additions to Lee's ever expanding vintage and antique drum collection have been added to Lee's gear page including an unusual single headed snare drum possibly built by early 20th century Boston drum builder Nokes & Nicolai. |
| 10/19/08 - The Massachusetts Day of Percussion was held on Sunday October the 19th and was a great success. The Day included a solo snare drum competition for high school and college students, a recital of snare drum etudes commissioned and published especially for the event, and masterclasses by Thom Hannum (University of Massachusetts), Mark Walker (Berklee College of Music), and myself. Read more about the event on the PAS Massachusetts Chapter's website. |
| 9/28/08 - Tons of new excerpt exercises added to Lee's Music page. Check it out! |
| 9/21/08 - In the week leading up to opening night of the BSO's 2008 - 2009 season, the Pops was busy recording a PBS television special with jazz trumpeter Chris Bottti. The evening's star studded cast included Yo-Yo Ma, Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, Josh Groban, John Mayer, and Sting. Read the Boston Globe's amusing account of the evening's festivities here: Botti and Sting party with the Pops. |
| 8/19/08 - Etudes for the 2008 Massachusetts Day of Percussion Snare Drum Competition are availible on Lee's Music page. |
| 8/15/08 - Percussionist John Beder, a recent graduate from Boston University with a double degree in music and film, has produced a short documentary called "Behing the Curtain" which focuses on what it takes to become an orchestral percussionist. Featured in the film are BSO Timpanist Tim Genis, Boston University graduate student Jeb Kulevich, and myself. You can find it on youtube in three parts. |
| 7/21/08 - Read Lee's newly published interview by Omar Carmenates from the August 2008 issue of Percussive Notes! |
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6/30/08 - Former Boston Symphony Orchestra percussionist Charlie Smith has passed away just shy of his 89th birthday. Charlie was a member of the BSO from 1943 until his retirement in 1990. He was the elder statesman of the orchestra's percussion section which remained unchanged for 22 years from 1968 through 1990. While I never had the opportunity to meet Charlie, listening to some of the great BSO recordings of decades past gives me a glimpse into how he played and what he sounded like behind the orchestra. I occasionally receive parts in my folder with his name on them. I usually point it out to my colleague Frank Epstein who will often recall "how Charlie used to do it". In this small way I feel like I knew Charlie Smith just a little bit. |
| 6/28/08 - For the past two weeks I've had the privelage of working with the students at Boston University's Tanglewood Institute. The intensive two week percussion workshop consisted of clinics, masterclasses, private lessons, a percussion ensemble concert, and a mock orchestral audition. |
| 6/8/08 - Members of the Boston Pops, myself included, were invited to perform the National Anthem at Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers. It was quite a rush standing in the middle of TD Banknorth Garden with the players lining the court and nearly 20,000 fans looking on. We were treated to an exciting game as well. The Celtics won 108 - 102. |
| 6/1/08 - John Beck, professor of percussion at the Eastman School of Music and one of my biggest mentors in music, is retiring after 49 years of teaching at the school. I will always remember my time studying with JB as being my crucial to my development as a musician. Read more about his career and the transition over to new percussion professor Michael Burritt in an article by the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. |
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5/25/08 - Fresh from 1921 comes a drum built by Harry Bower. This drum was donated to a nearby school where a friend of mine teaches. I talked the school into selling it to me since it's not a practical instrument for playing purposes any longer. These are really fascinating instruments to me not only because Bower was a distant predecessor of mine with the BSO, but also because his instruments represent an interesting period of drum building where manufacturers were still transitioning between single tension designs and the more modern separate tension systems which finally became widespread by the mid to late 1920s. See more of this drum on Lee's gear page. |
| 5/1/08 - This is old news but William Ludwig II passed away on March 22nd at the age of 91. The percussion industry has lost one of its founding fathers and living legends. I had the opportunity to meet Bill on two occasions and it was an honor and a privilege. Read more about his life at PAS.org |
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4/17/08 - The latest addition to Lee's snare drum arsenal - an early 1930s Ludwig and Ludwig 5" x 14" nickel over brass Super-Sensitive. The original snappy wire snares are individually adjustable! Check it out on Lee's gear page.
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BSO newcomer talks about his first season
Boston Globe, September 30, 2007
CFA Student Wins "Dream Job" with Boston Symphony
BU Today, April 10, 2007