Earl Yowell is emeritus professor of music at Shenandoah Conservatory, in Winchester, Virginia. He was director of percussion Studies from 2007 to 2021. He was the director of the (SU)PERcussion Ensemble, and co-founder in 2008 of the Ear Candy new music series. He was also a regular member of the new music EDGE Ensemble. He was formerly on the percussion faculty at the University of Minnesota.

Prior to his appointment at Shenandoah, he performed for twenty seasons as principal timpanist and principal percussionist of The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO), Saint Paul, Minnesota. He toured extensively with the SPCO throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He was a featured soloist with internationally acclaimed percussionist Evelyn Glennie in the SPCO performances of Andrzej Panufnik’s Concertino for Timpani, Percussion and Strings and was timpani soloist in the Chamber Orchestra’s premier performances of Johann Carl Christian Fischer’s Symphony for Eight Obbligato Timpani. In addition to performing on over twenty-five recordings and numerous live broadcasts with the SPCO, Yowell has also performed on two Grammy Award-winning albums.

He has served on the Symphonic and the College Pedagogy Committees of the Percussive Arts Society. He was featured timpani clinician in 2011 at the 50th Anniversary Convention of the International Percussive Arts Society held in Indianapolis, Indiana. He was invited in 2011 to be a guest artist/clinician at the 9th International Patagonia Percussion Festival in Argentina. In 2010 he was the guest artist/lecturer for the Atlanta International Timpani Seminar.

Yowell regularly gives clinics and masterclasses at colleges and universities throughout the United States. He holds degrees from Northwestern University and the Cleveland Institute of Music. His principal teachers include former Cleveland Orchestra members Cloyd Duff, and Richard Weiner, as well as Northwestern University faculty, Terry Applebaum and Glenn Steele.

Yowell endorses Sabian Cymbals, and Evans Drumheads.