Adjunct Instructor of Music
Applied Percussion, Applied Audio Production

Percussionist/improviser Doug Perry blurs the lines of genre and allows musics of all styles and backgrounds to share the same stage. Originally a jazz drummer and vibraphonist, Doug has expanded his activities to include classical percussion, electronic music, rock and popular music. His creativity and versatility has allowed him to participate in a wide range of musical settings, whether it be playing timpani in an orchestra, vibraphone in a jazz combo, or providing original music for multimedia collaborations.

Doug performs as an orchestral, solo, jazz, rock, and chamber percussionist all over the USA, and as far as Ghana and Germany. Doug has appeared as a marimba soloist with the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, and the Neue Eutiner Festspiele Orchestra in Eutin, Germany. Of a performance of Schubert’s “Du Bist die Ruh” with tenor Hugo Vera, the Ostholsteiner Anzeiger remarks that it was “accompanied excellently by Doug Perry on marimba, which came very close to the spherical sound of the glass harp of earlier times.” He was also featured as a soloist in the popular touring video game music concert Video Games Live, performing an original arrangement alongside vocalist Jillian Aversa. Doug was also the instrumental division winner of the 2012 Naftzger Young Artist Auditions, in which he competed as a marimbist against many other instrumentalists, vocalists, and pianists. Doug has appeared on television a number of times, having appeared on Ghanaian television, PBS, and NBC’s “America’s Got Talent”.

As a jazz musician, Doug has performed with many of the most respected musicians in the industry today, including Christian McBride, Randy Brecker, Dave Samuels, Gary Thomas, and Joel Frahm. He has performed as a guest soloist in Hall High School’s Pops ‘n’ Jazz a number of times, and can be heard on Brian Scarborough’s album titled “Second Storm.” In 2010, he began recording and performing with the Baltimore-based rock band, Medicine Lake. As a composer, Doug has received commissions from as far afield as Germany, where he premiered his Concerto-Improvisation for Vibraphone (2014). A frequent collaborator with other composers, he has premiered many new works in various ensembles, and has recorded and produced music for both video games and film—most recently performing on the soundtrack of Crystal Dynamic’s Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (2014). Through all of these activities, Doug envisions a future in which all of these styles and traditions of music blend to become the representative sound of his generation. Currently an adjunct professor of percussion at Western Connecticut State University, he has had experience teaching percussion privately and in a classroom setting, teaching jazz ear training and improvisation, and coaching jazz, rock, and chamber ensembles.

Doug holds degrees from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the University of Kansas, as well as an artist diploma from the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded the Horatio Parker Memorial Prize. In addition to Medicine Lake, Doug is a founding member of the New Haven-based group Triplepoint Trio (formerly Department of Jazz), and a core member of the mixed chamber ensemble Cantata Profana.

Contact: perryd@wcsu.educreate new email