Ensemble Concert Series

NIU Percussion Ensemble

Gregory Beyer and Ben Wahlund, Directors
Austyn Menk, piano

Winter Concert
Tuesday, December 2, 2025
7:00 pm
Boutell Memorial Concert Hall

Program

NIU Percussion Ensemble Personnel

NIU Steelpan Studio Members

2025 NIU Music Education Percussion Methods Class

The award-winning NIU Percussion Ensemble is the principal vehicle through which NIU percussionists gain critical chamber music experiences and cover a wide variety of genres and musical instruments. In addition to its NIU performances each semester, community engagement concerts include Transformation Through Rhythm, an annual fundraiser benefiting Give DeKalb County which in turn benefits the more than 140 organizations that make up our county’s non-profit sector. NIU has established a proud history of multiple PASIC performances: Percussion Ensemble Showcase (2003, 2009), Focus Day Performances (2009, 2013), World Percussion Showcase (2014), and the New Literature Session (2018). Additional notable performances include the International Festival of Percussion Ensembles in San José, Costa Rica (2008, 2017) and the PAS Illinois Chapter (2005, 2009, 2017).

Fulbright Scholar, composer, educator, and “prodigiously talented percussionist” (Chicago Classical Review), Gregory Beyer is a contemporary music specialist who blends the disciplines of orchestral, jazz, and world music into a singular artistic voice. He is the Artistic Director of Arcomusical, a non-profit organization spreading the joy of the Afro-Brazilian berimbau and related musical bows. To date, Arcomusical has released four albums of original music. Beyer is Professor and Director of Percussion Studies at Northern Illinois University School of Music, where he directs the New Music Festival and the Percussion Ensemble. He is a core member of the Chicago-based new music ensembles Dal Niente and the Grossman Ensemble at the University of Chicago’s Center for Contemporary Composition. Greg is proud to endorse Pearl/Adams drums and mallet instruments, Sabian Cymbals, Innovative Percussion mallets and sticks, and Evans drumheads.

Ben Wahlund is a Grammy-nominated music educator, composer, and performer who serves as full-time percussion instructor at Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL) where he was recently awarded the prestigious NIU Excellence in Undergraduate Instruction Award and serves as the Director of Percussion at the College of DuPage (Glen Ellyn, IL) where he was awarded the College-Wide Outstanding Faculty Award. Mr. Wahlund serves as the President of the Illinois Percussive Arts Society and has performed a number of times at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, state music educator association conferences, and schools across the country. He has been awarded and served long-term artist residencies on the island of Key West, Florida, Montello, Nevada, and Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Mr. Wahlund is a member of the Yamaha Performing Artist roster, the Zildjian Artist Program, and endorses Innovative Percussion Sticks and Mallets.