Columbus Student Bangs Way To Drum Title

STARKVILLE, Miss.–A Mississippi State junior from Columbus is this year’s winner in the upper division of the Mississippi Percussive Arts Society’s solo percussion competition.

Trenton Brown

Trenton N. Brown is a music education major specializing in percussion instruments including snare drum, keyboard percussion, timpani, drum set, multiple percussion and marching percussion. He also is a member of the MSU Percussion Ensemble.

Sponsored by the Indiana-based national Percussive Arts Society, the annual Mississippi Day of Percussion held recently at Hinds Community College featured clinics and performances by guest artists and student ensembles from the state’s institutions of higher learning and community colleges.

The non-profit society works to promote percussion pedagogy and performance. Jason Baker, MSU associate music professor currently, is president of the Magnolia State chapter. For more, see http://community.pas.org/mississippi/home and bit.ly/MSUPercussiveArt.

Baker praised Brown’s decision “to register for this competition on his own, outside of his requirements as a music student. This involved arriving at our practice facility very early in the morning, sometimes at 6 a.m., and staying late at night.”

The music department’s percussion studies director, Baker also emphasized how Brown’s work ethic and commitment to music “clearly go above and beyond what is expected of a student and speaks to his passion for the subjects that he is studying.”

Information about the MSU Percussion Studio may be found at www.msstateperc.info, facebook.com/msstatepercussion and youtube.com/msstatepercussion.