Hello blogosphere. I have very generously been offered a discount to present to all my readers from a local internet percussion store; California Percussion.
The intent of my blog is education, information and entertainment. However I also believe in supporting local businesses and artists, so I am taking this opportunity to promote California Percussion as a local company, and also California Percussion's proprietor; James Lee "Trey" Wyatt III.I find it very pleasing and reassuring that a professional percussionist of Trey's caliber has extended his passion as a percussionist and a performer to being a provider and promoter of percussion instruments as well.
Let me paste the biographical information I have found here:
James Lee Wyatt III, also known as "Trey", joined the San Francisco Symphony in 2001 after having served as Principal Percussionist of the Honolulu Symphony from 1997-2001. A native of Princeton, Kentucky, Trey began playing percussion at age 10 and was primarily interested in the high school marching band drum line. With Trey as section leader, the Caldwell County High School Drum Line won first place in the Kentucky State Drum Line Competition.Anyways, back to the discount. I have been provided with the discount coupon code of: RUMBA. It is a discount for Congas and Bongos and Accessory Percussion (which includes claves, bells, etc.) for my blog's readers. At the checkout page, just use this coupon and click on the 'Apply Discount' button. I can say that California Percussion's reperesentatives have been very professional and a pleasure to deal with.
The summer before his senior year in high school he attended the Interlochen Arts Camp where he played with a full size orchestra for the first time. He remembers, “The first piece we rehearsed was Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 and the string entrance after the opening brass fanfare was like nothing I’d ever heard before. From that point on, I knew I wanted to play in a professional orchestra.” Working toward his goal, Trey received his Bachelors of Music from The University of Michigan under Michael W. Udow, Principal Percussionist, Santa Fe Opera and Salvatore Rabbio, retired Timpanist, Detroit Symphony. He received his Masters of Music from Temple University under Alan Abel, retired Associate Principal Percussion, Philadelphia Orchestra.
Trey has performed at The Santa Fe Opera, the Ojai Festival with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Britt Festival as Principal Percussionist, the National Repertory Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center, Pacific Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute, the US and Italian Spoleto Festivals, and with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony in Sun Valley Idaho. He performed Joseph Schwantner’s Concerto for Percussion with the Honolulu Symphony in March 2002 and the Stanford University Symphony in May 2003. Trey enjoys playing occasional concerts with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and exploring the percussion ensemble repertoire. He has recently started taking Taiko classes with the San Francisco Taiko Dojo and finds it to be a diverse musical experience.
He is Co-owner of California Percussion, LLC Rental/Sales/Service with his San Francisco Symphony colleague David Herbert. “It’s great having a warehouse housing a huge collection of standard and exotic instruments that David and I have found all over the world!”
I think the most interesting product the company has is the "Gon Bops" 55th aniversary model. This is the only company I know that offers this model. I can recommend Gon Bops, having one of their California Series drums myself, and also having experience with Akbar Moghaddam, a past San Francisco resident and master drum builder.
Maybe we'll be seeing Trey and California Percussion at the rumbas soon!