Andy Bliss is a solo artist, conductor, curator, and educator who maintains a dynamic career of musical collaboration. Residing in Knoxville, TN, his performances have been heard locally at the Tennessee Theatre and the Square Room, and abroad in locations such as the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music (Germany), the Banff Centre for the Arts (Canada), the Patagonia Percussion Festival (Argentina), the LiveWire Festival in Baltimore, and Stanford’s Cantor Center for Visual Arts.

His repertoire ranges from 20th-century masterworks by John Cage, Iannis Xenakis, and Steve Reich, to the performance and advocacy of contemporary composers such as John Luther Adams, David Lang, and Mark Applebaum. His passion for new music has propelled Andy to collaborate on new works with a wide range of today’s leading composers and musicians such as Christopher Adler, Christopher Burns, Evan Chapman, David Crowell, Nicholas Deyoe, Marc Mellits, Lewis Nielson, and Anna Thorvaldsdottir, among many others.

Last season, Andy returned to Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival, revisiting John Luther Adams’ Four Thousand Holes with the nief-norf Project and performing Become Ocean with the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra; joined Atlanta’s Chamber Cartel for an evening-length performance of Iannis Xenakis’ Pleaides at the Goat Farm Arts Center; presented the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) International Convention’s New Literature Showcase Concert; appeared in solo recitals at the McCormick Marimba Festival in Tampa, FL and the statewide PAS Day of Percussion in Illinois; and collaborated in Lexington, KY with Dieter Hennings and an all-star cast on a performance of Pierre Boulez’s Le Marteau sans maître.

In the 2016-17 season, Andy will perform on double tenors in Brooklyn’s Panorama with the Crossfire Steel Orchestra; curates the PASIC Focus Day “Celebrating the European Avant-Garde,” a 6-concert event over two days; performs Jennifer Higdon’s percussion concerto under the composer’s baton; conducts the Eastern United States premiere of Mark Applebaum’s Rabbit Hole; directs a performance of Michael Pisaro’s Hearing Metal 3; and performs the world premiere of Constellations by Christopher Burns, an evening-length work for solo percussion and multimedia, written for Bliss.

Andy has made a practice of regularly working with younger composers, performers, and scholars, encouraging inquisitive modes of musical questioning and sustained collaboration with future generations. He is the Artistic Director of nief-norf, whose summer festival is now in its seventh year; there he performs, teaches, and conducts while curating a dozen concerts annually. The festival serves as a yearly contemporary music retreat, where more than fifty international participants enjoy an immersive environment of collaboration, experimentation, and support. Additionally, since 2011, Andy has served as the Director of Percussion Studies at the University of Tennessee, where he founded the Ensemble Knox (resident chamber percussion group), the UT Contemporary Music Ensemble, and the UT Contemporary Music Festival.

A devoted music educator, Andy has presented recitals, lectures, and master classes at the Northern Illinois University New Music Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy (NCPP), Association for Technology in Music Instruction’s (ATMI) National Conference, and the Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic, and has held residencies at the Universities of Alabama, Arizona, Kentucky, South Carolina, and many others.  He currently serves the Percussive Arts Society as a member of the New Music Research committee and is Past President of the PAS Tennessee Chapter. Bliss has served on the adjudication jury for both the Music for All National Percussion Festival and the PAS International Percussion Ensemble Competition, and his method book Multitudes (Innovative Percussion) is a widely used pedagogical resource nationally. As a member of the Knoxville community, Bliss spends two weeks annually touring his Steelband and Brazilian Ensemble to Knox County public schools, fusing live performance with cultural and historical community engagement.

A native of Milan, IL, Andy’s percussion studies were mentored by James Campbell, Rich Holly, Robert Chappell, Orlando Cotto, Liam Teague, Cliff Alexis, and the Madison Scouts Drum & Bugle Corps. He is proud to be a Yamaha Performing Artist and thanks Zildjian, Innovative Percussion, Evans, Black Swamp, and Meinl Percussion for their generous support and sponsorships. When not performing or with his students, Andy can be found consuming as much baseball as possible––either watching the Chicago Cubs on television, or playing a game of backyard catch with his wife Erin, and their son, Donovan.

Kevin Zetina is a passionate performer, composer, and arranger of all things contemporary whether it be performing seminal works of the last century, premiering or writing brand new works, or arranging heavy metal music for contemporary classical ensembles. He has performed with members of Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Signal, the JACK Quartet, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. As a performer, Kevin is a percussionist with multitudes of experience in contemporary music. Having grown up as a guitarist focused on various sorts of death metal, Kevin has always been drawn to music that is experimental in nature. In this effort to push experimentation in music Kevin started the first student-run new music ensemble at the Yale School of Music: Versicolor. The group champions composers who would otherwise be underrepresented and provides a space for contemporary music at Yale. Kevin has played frequently with the Austin based contemporary chamber music group, Density 512. Currently he champions a diverse array of contemporary music through his direction of the University of Tennessee Percussion Ensemble.

Kevin currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Percussion at the University of Tennessee Knoxville where he teaches applied lessons to percussion majors and directs the UT Percussion Ensemble. Outside of collegiate teaching he has worked with students at all levels on instruments including drum-set, percussion, guitar, and piano. He has taught private percussion lessons for undergraduate students at Yale College and high school students at the Cheshire Academy, a private college preparatory boarding school in Connecticut. His students at Yale College, all of whom were non-music majors, have excelled comparably to conservatory students through winning spots at summer music festivals as well as the College Band Director's National Association's Intercollegiate Band. Kevin has also worked with high school students in Texas as a Marching Percussion Instructor and has guided many young percussionists as a private lesson teacher throughout the Round Rock/Leander area. While there, he coached the Walsh MS Honor Band as they were invited to perform at the Midwest Clinic.

Kevin holds a BM from the Eastman School of Music with the Howard Hanson Scholarship where he studied with Michael Burritt, and he earned his MM and MMA degrees from Yale University as a Havemeyer Scholarship recipient under Robert van Sice.

Josh Torres currently serves as the Director of Percussion at Center Grove High School in Greenwood, IN. He also serves as the Adjunct Lecturer of Percussion at Franklin College in Franklin, IN. Josh earned his Bachelor's Degree in Music Performance from The University of North Texas and his Master’s Degree in Percussion Performance from Butler University.

Center Grove Indoor Percussion is a consistent WGI Scholastic World Finalist and a four-time medalist. The Center Grove High School Marching Band is a perennial BOA Grand National Finalist, the 2009 BOA Class AAA National Champion, and a participant in the 2014 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Center Grove High School Percussion Ensemble has also received several awards and honors including performances at the 2010 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, IL and a Percussive Arts Society Percussion Ensemble Showcase Concert at PASIC 2011 in Indianapolis, IN.

Josh currently serves as the director of the Indianapolis Colts (NFL) Drumline. In 2012, he served as the coordinator for the Super Bowl XLVI Drumline which performed the National Anthem with Kelly Clarkson and the Halftime Show with Madonna to over 113 million viewers. Josh serves on the WGI Advisory Board and is a Past-President of the Indiana Percussion Association and the Indiana Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. He is proud to be an Innovative Percussion Artist, Pearl Educational Artist, Zildjian Artist, and a Remo Artist. Josh frequently travels across the country as a percussion adjudicator and clinician and previously served on the percussion staff of the Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps.

In 2012, Josh had the honor of being named Center Grove School Corporation’s “Teacher of the Year.” Josh was also named a “Top 10 Finalist” for the 2013 Indiana Teacher of the Year Award. In 2014, Josh was selected to receive a Teacher Creativity Fellowship from the Eli Lilly Foundation. Josh currently resides in Indianapolis, IN with his wonderfully supportive wife Audrey, head band director at Hamilton Southeastern High School, and their two sons Cameron and Alden.

Michael Mixtacki is a percussionist, vocalist and educator based out of Lubbock, TX. He is currently on faculty at Texas Tech University, and teaches percussion and drum set lessons and co-directs the TTU Percussion Ensemble. Prior to his move to West Texas, Michael taught percussion and drum set at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and was the founder and director of the UTSA Summer Percussion Camp. While living in San Antonio, Michael enjoyed performing with a wide variety of ensembles including the San Antonio Symphony, Mid-Texas Symphony, the UTSA Faculty Jazz Quintet, the South Texas Jazz Quartet, and the Katchie Cartwright Brazilian Jazz Trio to name a few.

Prior to his appointment at UTSA, Michael taught at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, IL. While living in the Midwest, Michael performed with a variety of different groups, including Ire Elese Abure in Chicago, IL, Ritmos Unidos in Bloomington, IN, and Grupo Balança and the Madison Symphony Orchestra in Madison, WI. He had the honor of participating on two Grammy nominated recordings with Wayne Wallace and Michael Spiro, and recorded on drum set, lead vocals and percussion on two albums with Ritmos Unidos. Michael continues to be a guest artist at many colleges, high schools and summer workshops across the country, and has participated in numerous clinics and performances at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, the Jazz Education Network Convention, and TMEA.

Michael earned a Bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master's degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and a DMA from Texas Tech University. He is an official clinician for the Latin Percussion Department of Education and is a Yamaha Performing artist. Michael also endorses Sabian cymbals, Remo drumheads, and Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets.