Concordia Percussion Day

Sasha Berliner

Sasha Berliner is a musician, composer, producer, and band leader from San Francisco. A rock drummer turned vibraphonist, she was introduced to the instrument while attending Oakland School for the Arts. She moved to New York City in 2016 to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, studying under acclaimed vibraphonist Stefon Harris. Harris’ influence on Berliner, in particular with regard to harmony, directly aided the development of her unique style.

Berliner’s first marquee show on the New York scene was at the NYC Winter Jazz Fest in 2018, followed soon after by Atlanta Jazz Fest and Burlington Jazz Fest. She was the first U.S. recipient of the LetterOne Rising Stars Jazz Award in 2019, providing Berliner with an opportunity to tour as a band leader, while also facilitating the creation of her debut album, “Azalea,” in 2019.

“Azalea” was nominated for JazzTimes 2019 Readers’ Poll’s Best New Release and has been described as “shimmering and thoughtful” (Kassel, TIDAL) and “gleefully exploring various genres and headspaces” (Tremblay, CTEBCM). The record’s politically charged, style-blending, alternative jazz sound employs digital effects, synths, audio speech samples, and strings, bringing together Sasha’s diverse musical background and influences.

The following year, Berliner was named winner of the 2020 Downbeat Critics’ Poll Rising Star – Vibraphone category. She was both the first woman and, at 21, the youngest individual in the poll’s history to receive the award. She has been voted one of the top 10 vibraphonists in Downbeat Reader’s Polls every year since 2021. She commissioned works for Modern Marimba and the SWR NewJAZZ Meeting as artist-in-residence for fall 2021, which resulted in her suite of live music, “Tabula Rasa,” released on CD in May 2023.

Berliner’s second studio LP, “Onyx,” features all-star musicians Marcus Gilmore, Burniss Travis II, James Francies, Thana Alexa, and Jaleel Shaw, and was tracked entirely analog to tape. The album was No. 1 on Jazzwise’s Charting the Jazz Message chart and voted one of the best jazz albums of the year by UK Vibe, Textura, Jazz Vinyl Collector, and the 17th Annual Francis Davis Jazz Poll.

She has headlined international venues like the Newport Jazz Festival, the Blue Note, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Monterey Jazz Festival. In addition to performing with her own band, she has recorded and performed live with such renowned musicians as Tyshawn Sorey, Nicholas Payton, Christian McBride, and Cécile McLorin Salvant. She is an endorsing artist for Marimba One and Vater Drumsticks. Berliner has been a guest lecturer at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana; the University of California, San Diego; Stanford Jazz Workshop; and Berklee College of Music, and is currently a professor of jazz and jazz composition at UC, Irvine.

Her third studio album, “Fantôme,” was released in March 2025 on Outside in Music. The album features Taylor Eigsti, Harish Raghavan, Jongkuk Kim, and Lex Korten.

Iván Manzanilla

Mexican percussionist Iván Manzanilla is a specialist in contemporary percussion music. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Mexico’s Autonomous National University and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of California, San Diego.

Manzanilla’s work centers on the exploration and dissemination of newly created music and art. His teaching practice and commissions for new works that explore sound, language, and gesture reflect his commitment to new generations of percussionists, musicians, and contemporary forms of art. His work has been recognized by different institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation, the National University of Mexico, Mexico’s National Fine Arts Institute, the National Fund for Culture and Arts, and the Darmstadt Summer Course. He is the founder of Duplum with Mexican clarinetist Fernando Dominguez and a member of ONIX Ensemble. He is invited regularly to perform with a wide variety of ensembles and orchestras in México.

Manzanilla is the head of the percussion department at the University of Guanajuato, Mexico, and a recipient of the 2017-20 and 2023-26 National Fund for the Arts’ Established Artists Grant.

Mark DeMull

Dr. Mark DeMull is currently an assistant professor of music at North Dakota State University. He is active throughout the Upper Midwest as an orchestral player, chamber musician, soloist, and teaching artist.

His career began in Michigan, where he taught at Alma College and Saginaw Valley State University. During this time, he started performing as an orchestral percussionist and timpanist and has since played with the Grand Rapids Symphony, Richmond Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, and the Washington National Opera, among others.

DeMull is a passionate advocate of new music and has been involved in numerous commissions from composers such as Alejandro Viñao, James Wood, Cassie Wieland, Ian Power, Natalie Draper, Michael Laurello, and Justin Rito. His album “Last Dance” is the culmination of a large-scale commissioning project, and it contains seven new pieces for intermediate-level marimba.

His students have been accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music, New England Conservatory, Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and other quality programs across the United States. He earned degrees from Alma College and Michigan State University and holds his Doctor of Musical Arts from The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Robert van Sice.

Kenyon Williams

Dr. Kenyon Williams has worked throughout the United States as a professional performer, educator, arranger, and clinician. A graduate of Abilene Christian University, the Hartt School of Music, and the University of Kentucky, he has performed as a guest soloist and section member for numerous orchestras, including the Abilene Philharmonic (Texas), the Louisville Symphony (Kentucky), the Lexington Philharmonic (Kentucky), and currently serves as principal percussionist for the Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Orchestra. As an educator, he has taught at the secondary school level as well as at Abilene Christian University (Texas), Transylvania University (Texas), and Hardin Simmons University (Texas).

Williams is currently the director of percussion studies at Minnesota State University Moorhead, where he maintains an active teaching and performing schedule and directs the acclaimed “Fuego Tropical” Steel Drum and Salsa Ensemble, as well as hands-on world music ensembles in Javanese gamelan, African drumming, and Brazilian samba. His interests have taken him abroad for extended studies in Ghana, Cuba, Brazil, Indonesia, and Trinidad, where he has performed with the legendary Invaders and Birdsong Steel Orchestras in Panorama. In the United States, he has taken his love for the music of the Caribbean to new levels by establishing, arranging, and performing for steel bands and Afro-Cuban ensembles in Kentucky, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Texas. Williams is a Yamaha Performing Artist and endorses Yamaha and Latin Percussion instruments, Innovative sticks and mallets, and Coyle Steel Drums, through which he has published numerous original arrangements and transcriptions.

Aside from his duties at MSUM and with the F-M Symphony, he also performs in and directs the popular professional MSUM-based steel drum quintet Poco Fuego and is the timbalero and director of the only professional salsa band in the Red River Valley region, Soulsa de Fargo. As a percussion soloist, he has presented solo recitals and concerto appearances across the country and was recently honored with a highly competitive Minnesota State Arts Board Artist’s Development Grant to aid in the commissioning and recording of original works for percussion. Williams is currently serving as treasurer of the Minnesota Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society and has been appointed chair of the World Percussion Committee of PAS, the largest body of professional percussionists in the world, with more than 9,000 members in over 75 chapters around the world.

Roberto Palomeque

Dr. Roberto Palomeque has been the assistant professor of percussion at Concordia College since 2023, serving as director of percussion studies, percussion ensemble, and marimba choir. He has been an active musician and performer. His repertoire embraces the traditions of Mexican music and unites his roots with academic training in a powerful combination of elements, including popular music and jazz, with contemporary and concert repertoires.

During his career, Palomeque has received several awards, including the first prize in Belgium’s Universal Marimba Duo Competition in 2013, the first prize at the first Keiko Abe Latin-America Marimba Solo Competition with Ms. Keiko Abe as jury president, and the absolute winner of the sixth National Marimba Solo Contest in 2010 in Mexico. In addition, he was awarded the Young Talent Artistic Award by the Mexican government in 2013 and the prestigious scholarship for the arts in Mexico given by FONCA (the National Endowment for Culture and Arts) with the project The Marimba Development into the 21st Century, which toured universities and schools of music throughout Mexico in 2018.

Palomeque has collaborated with world-class musicians such as Keiko Abe (Japan), Emmanuel Sejourné (France), Dave Samuels (USA), Ney Rosauro (Brazil), Nanae Nimura (Japan), Ludwig Albert (Belgium), David Friedman, (USA), Zeferino Nandayapa (Mexico), Takayoshi Yoshioka (Japan), John Wooton (USA), Aly Keita (Senegal), Eriko Daimo (Japan), Victor Mendoza (USA-Mexico), and many more, performing concerts, recitals, and workshops as a soloist or member of prestigious chamber groups throughout Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Guatemala, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Portugal, Qatar, Spain, the United States, and Mexico.

Palomeque holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance from UNICACH University, a master’s degree from the Royal Conservatory of Music of Antwerp (Belgium), and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in percussion performance at the University of Southern Mississippi. He is sponsored by Zildjian and Innovative Percussion.

TIME	EVENT
8:30 a.m.	REGISTRATION OPEN
9 a.m.	WELCOME / OPENING
9:05 a.m.	Drumline Performance
9:45 a.m.	Kenyon Williams / Afro-Cuban Fundamentals Clinic
10:30 a.m.	Iván Manzanilla / Clinic
11:30 a.m.-1 p.m.	LUNCH (on your own)
1 p.m.	Sasha Berliner and Concordia College Jazz Ensemble / Jazz Vibraphone Performance
2 p.m.	Sasha Berliner / Clinic
3 p.m.	Mark DeMull / Clinic — Performance
4 p.m.	Concordia Percussion Ensemble, Viva Marimba / Performance
5:15 p.m.	Final Concert: Roberto Palomeque Trio & Iván Manzanilla / Performance
Door prizes distributed at closing

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