About


Assistant principal timpani/section percussion with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Steve Hearn is the former principal timpanist of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and a founding member of the Lumos Percussion Group. He has appeared with the Strings in the Mountains, Grand Teton, and Cabrillo music festivals and has been a featured concerto soloist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, among others. He has performed at several Percussive Arts Society International Conventions as a featured soloist and chamber musician. Similarly, he was a percussionist in the Colorado premier of Academy Award-winning composer Tan Dun’s Water Passion after S. Matthew.

Hearn previously held the position as Percussionist/Timpanist in the U.S. Army Field Band, Washington, D.C. were he toured the 48 continental states performing concerts with the Concert Band and Chorus.  As an orchestral musician, he served as principal timpanist during the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s national tour with Amy Grant/Vince Gil and has appeared as principal timpanist of the Kamerorkest “Continuo” Rotterdam, Holland, the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra, and the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared as principal percussionist with the European Mozart Festival Orchestra in Krakow, Poland, and as a percussionist with the Dutch Theater Production of The West Side Story.  Similarly, he has performed with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra of Santa Fe. In addition, he worked in the Music Business Industry where he served for seven years as the Concert/Adams Percussion Marketing Manager at Pearl Drum Corporation. 

Active as an educator, chamber musician and drum set specialist, he was the assistant to Robert van Sice at Rotterdam’s Conservatory of Music and was the Director of Percussion Studies at New Mexico State University.  He has performed recitals and chamber music in Holland, Belgium, Illinois, Colorado, New Mexico, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. as well as given master classes in nearly all 50 states. As a drum set specialist, he has performed various styles of jazz and rock throughout the Chicago area with the Ramesdell Jazz Quintet and the pop/rock group The Others. 

Hearn received a Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion Performance from the University of New Mexico, a Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance from New Mexico State University, and the prestigious Artist Performing Diploma from Rotterdam’s Conservatory, The Netherlands.   

Hearn is an active artist/educator for Adams Musical Instruments, Zildjian Cymbals, Freer Percussion Products, and Evans Drumheads. www.hearndrum.com
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