Steiner, Gitta,  8 Miniatures for Vibraphone, I-VI.

Steiner, Gitta,  Night Music for Solo Marimba.

Steiner, Gitta,  Percussion Fantasy.

Steiner, Gitta, Sonata for Vibraphone

Steiner, Gitta, String Quartet

Steiner, Gitta, Trio for Piano and Two Percussionists

Steiner, Gitta, Quartet for Percussion

Tagawa, Rickey.  Inspirations Diabolique.

Performance Experience

Albany State University Faculty Recital, GA, 11-18-07

     This recital includes the first semi-conducted performance of the new and growing ASU Percussion ensemble.  I performed the marimba solo Gate to Heaven:  Journey of the Soul by David Gillingham  with my students in accompaniment.

Albany Symphony Orchestra, GA, section percussion, 2006-2008

Rock of Ages Big Band, Davison, MI, drumset, 2004-2006

Hohner Institute of Percussion, based in Alma,  MI, steel drums and percussion, 2003-2006

The Hohner Institute of Percussion is a professional percussion group comprised of former students

of Robert Hohner who are living in the mid-Michigan area.

Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra, TX, Percussionist, 2000-03

American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Timpanist/Percussionist, 2000

Graz Symphony Orchestra, Percussionist, Graz, Austria,  February 1999

Afro Drums, Percussionist, Graz, Austria, 1998-1999, Conductor Fred Ohenhen

Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble, Percussionist, Mt. Pleasant, MI, 1991-1998

Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble, Pianist, Mt. Pleasant, MI, 1992-1994

      RHPE went on tour to many public schools.  Our day included clinics for the students during the day and an evening concert.  Our Ensemble performed an average of eight off-campus concerts per semester.  In addition, we played four or five concerts (usually festivals around the state of Michigan) every summer and occasionally went on a week-long tour to various high schools, community colleges and performance halls on Long Island, NY.  These performances kept our energy for the music healthy because we could directly experience the impact our music had on people.  The RHPE is no longer active due to the untimely passing of Robert Hohner in October, 2000.

BayView Theatre Association West Side Story, Percussionist, Petoskey, MI, July, 1998

West Shore Symphony Orchestra, Percussionist, Muskegon, MI, 1994-98 (section), 2004 (substitute)

Midland Symphony Orchestra, Percussionist, MI,  1997-98, 2004-05

      Every member of the percussion section for WSSO and MSO were members of Robert Hohner’s studio at Central Michigan University.  These two regional orchestras provided us with an important laboratory for learning orchestral repertoire. Interested students met every summer in an orchestral repertoire class organized by Mr. Hohner in preparation for the above orchestra auditions (everyone had to re-audition every year).  In later years, Mr. Hohner was able to hold a weekly repertoire class (not a part of CMU’s regular curricula) for interested students during the school year which included mock auditions.

Recording Experience

World Music Tour,  The Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble, DMP Records, 1996

This CD is a multi-cultural collage of music from the following sources:  Nigeria, Cuba, Japan,

West Africa, Trinidad, and Haiti.  An alumni of our studio, James Armstrong, had done an

exchange program in Nigeria in which he learned the West African songs from a Nigerian master
            drummer. 

Stained Glass: Music for Percussion, David Gillingham, C. Alan Publications, Greensboro, NC,   1997

Our studio has enjoyed a long history of collaboration with Dr. David Gillingham.  
           Paschal Dances is dedicated to Robert Hohner and Sacrificial Rite was written exclusively 
           for Mr. Hohner and the Central Michigan University Percussion Ensemble.  I can remember many 
           times when “Doc” would run down the hallway and say “Hey, is this possible?  How about this 
           sound?  What would it sound like if. . .”

Percussion Music of David Maslanka, Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble, Albany Records, 
            1996 David Maslanka is another person who is very special to us.  In 1994 he wrote 
            Montana Music:  Three Dances for Percussion for RHPE.  Both Montana Music and 
            Crown of Thorns were recorded in the Heritage Center for Performing Arts in Alma, MI.   

Third Wind, Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble, DMP Records, 2001

            Third Wind is a jazz recording featuring the Robert Hohner Jazz and Steel Band Ensemble.           
      Recorded in 1997 at Presbyterian Hall, Heritage Center for the Performing Arts, Alma,

            Michigan;  it is comprised of both traditional tunes such as Joy Spring and Donna Lee for a

            smaller jazz set (keyboards, piano, bass, and drums) and arrangements of Third Wind (by Pat

            Metheny), Birdland (by Josef Zawinul), and Palmas (by Eddie Palmieri) for large Steel Drum

            Ensemble.

Harvey Pittel with The University of Texas Wind Ensemble, Jerry Junkin, Conductor, Mark Custom                     Recording Service, Inc., 2001

          Participated as section percussionist.  This is a recording of music for Alto Saxophone and Wind

            Ensemble, featuring Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble by David Maslanka.  
      Of the Concerto Maslanka writes, “There is a strong spiritual overtone with quotes from Bach chorales,
      and from my own works ‘Hell’s Gate’ and ‘Mass.’  A story is being hinted at which has the Crucifixion
      right smack in the middle. . . I don’t know what the story is, only that it wants to be music and not
      words.”

Participant in the following Conference/Festival Performances

*Denotes performances by  The Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble

          
            Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival with the Legacy Percussion Orchestra, University of Idaho, 2011
            Georgia Music Educators Association District II Honors Band Clinic, soloist with the Albany

            State University Symphonic Band, 2007

Dowagiac Dogwood Fine Arts Festival, Hohner Institute of Percussion, 2005

Montreaux Detroit Jazz Festival, Detroit Michigan, Hohner Institute of Percussion, 2004

Texas Music Educators Association, San Antonio, TX, University of Texas Wind

            Ensemble, 2002

          Southwestern Division Conference of the College Band Directors National  
                      Association, Houston, TX,  The University of Texas Chamber Winds, 2002

          The Fourth Annual Russell Horn Young Composers Competition Concert                                                  presented by The Voices of Change Modern Music Ensemble at the Dallas

                        Museum of Art, 2001

            Texas Music Educator Association, San Antonio, TX, University of Texas at 
                        Austin Symphony Orchestra, 2001

          *Central Michigan University Percussion Workshop Gala Concert, featuring guest 
                         performing artists, 1991-1999

             *Grand Rapids Arts Festival, Grand Rapids, MI, 1998-1999

             *Montreaux Detroit Jazz Festival, Detroit, MI, 1993-1998

             *Aquinas Jazz Festival, Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, MI, 1991-1997

             *Notre Dame Jazz Festival, Notre Dame University, Indiana, 1993-1997

              *National Music Educators National Conference, Kansas City, MO, 1996

              Michigan Music Educators National Conference, CMU Wind Ensemble, Ann Arbor, MI, 1996

              College Band Directors National Association Conference, CMU Wind Ensemble, Green Bay,                         WI, 1996

               *Midwest Regional Band and Orchestra Conference, 1996

               *Traverse City Cherry Festival, Traverse City, Michigan, 1993-1995

               *Second National Symposium, National Association of College Wind and 
                         Percussion Instructors, Chicago, Illinois, 1995

               *International Association of Jazz Educators, Boston, 1994

               *Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic, Chicago, Illinois, 1993

               *Michigan Percussive Arts Society, Michigan, 1993

Teaching Experience

Albany State University, Albany, Georgia, Asst Professor of Music, Percussion instructor, 2006-2008

            Applied for and received a grant under Title III in the State of Georgia to start a Steel/Pan Band in 2006.  Responsibilities included advising and retention of percussion students, teaching applied lessons, organizing percussion ensemble and steel band, and teaching class piano.  Other duties have included teaching Music Appreciation, Music Theory, Sight-Singing and ear-training.  During my time at ASU, the percussion studio had one of the highest retention and graduation rates of the music department.

Carman-Ainsworth High School, Flint, Michigan, Drumline instructor, 2004-2006

Central Michigan University Percussion Workshop, 1995, 1996, 1998, 1999

            The annual CMU Percussion Workshop was organized entirely by the students of Robert Hohner.   In 1990 our studio began a weekend percussion workshop. In 1994 the percussion workshop was extended to a two week camp for high school students.  In 1999 we brought in over two hundred students and offered a multifaceted curriculum.  Our curriculum included experience on every marching percussion instrument; classes in theory, orchestral repertoire, snare drum, and marimba techniques; steel drum band; and classical percussion ensembles which culminated in a student concert at the end of each week.  In addition to bringing in performing artists to give masterclasses, the workshop also included a two-week graduate course taught by Mr. Hohner.  The focus for this class was teaching techniques for band directors  and included percussion ensemble conducting experience as part of the class.

Student Teaching, Heritage High School, Saginaw,  Michigan, 1997

            This class A school’s program included two concert bands, a jazz band, jazz combo, orchestra, and a full corps-style marching band.  The marching band, jazz band and top concert band received top marks at our state festivals.  My specific assignments included teaching the seventh grade band, orchestra, string quartets, accompanying for solo and ensemble, second band (high school), and participation in a midi-computer arranging/theory class for independent study students.

Percussion instructor for jazz and general program at Chesaning High School, 1995-1996

            My duties at Chesaning (class B) included private lesson instruction, coaching the drumline for

Winterguard competitions, coaching the drumline during the regular marching band season for competition, coaching sectionals with the jazz band’s rhythm section, preparing percussion ensemble pieces for various performances (concerts, Solo and Ensemble, etc), working with individual students on their Solo and Ensemble repertoire, basic maintenance of the percussion equipment, and coaching concert band sectionals when necessary.

Marching and pit percussion instructor at Band Camps for the following Michigan schools:

                Farwell High School, 1998;  Heritage High School, 1993-1995;  Chesaning High School, 1994-1995;  Muskegon High School, 1995;  Northwest Jackson High School, 1994;  Grant High School, 1994;  Andover High School, 1993;  Tawas High School, 1993;  Cadillac High School, 1993

Arts Administration Experience with The Robert Hohner Percussion Ensemble     

Stage Manager, 1993-1994

               Every one of our shows were carefully choreographed so that the “moves” between pieces happened in well under one minute, yet each set up is arranged to compliment the musical and aesthetic needs of each composition.  The stage manager’s duties are to take a drawing of each set-up and a list of each player’s equipment needs and figure out how the equipment should move around the stage.  Each

person in the ensemble had a “stage move” assignment and these moves were rehearsed until everyone

could perform the move and get off stage quickly and quietly.  The “moves” are made possible by taping each set-up much like a stage has tape marks when a play is in the early rehearsal process for the actors learning their blocking moves. 

Workshop Committee, 1995-1999

               While my role in the committee was primarily Workshop Program Editor, there was always something extra to do!  Odd jobs included making phone calls, attending budget meetings, copying, faxing, filling out forms, getting t-shirts made, etc.  Our committee met regularly to prepare for the next summer’s workshop  from January until the workshop’s conclusion in July.

Percussion Workshop Program Editor, 1995-1999

               My duties included the following:  generating program advertising, creating and following a program budget (the program was a separate entity from the workshop itself), lay-out and formatting the actual program, writing/revising Mr. Hohner’s and the ensemble’s biography, careful editing of the artist’s biographies, and writing the necessary thank-you notes to sponsors/advertisers.

Mr. Hohner’s personal office assistant via work-study financial aid, 1997-1998

               This was the year the CMU School of Music moved into their new music building.  I assisted in helping Mr. Hohner set-up and organize his new office.  After the actual move-in, I continued to do the following tasks:  wrote program notes for concerts and CD covers, formatted specialized performance programs, filled out conference forms, wrote specialized thank-you letters, maintained our biographical information for concert programs, and organized his library of percussion music into an easily referenced format.

Honors and Awards

            Ameritech/Institute for International Education Award 1998

            CMU Fulbright Nomination 1997

            CMU Honors List 1991-96

            CMU Department of Music Scholarship for Percussion 1991-1996

            CMU Academic Honors Scholarship 1991-1995

            Golden Key National Honor Society 1993-1997

            Max Brant Memorial Scholarship 1993

            Michigan recipient of Itzhak Perlman Young Soloists National Competition 1991-2

Professional Memberships

               College Music Society

            Percussive Arts Society

Related Skills

            Fluent in German

               Background in piano, including experience as a soloist and as accompanist

Computer Skills

            Hardware:  Macintosh, Kurzweil K2000s, PC

               Software:  Finale, ClarisWorks, Microsoft Office, Printshop, Netscape, Explorer, Photoshop

References available upon request