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Garwood Whaley began his study of drums and percussion with Juilliard graduateBruce Tucker in Tarrytown, New York. At Tucker’s suggestion, he auditioned and wasaccepted at the Juilliard School where he studied for two years with Morris (Moe)Goldenberg and three years as a scholarship student with Saul Goodman. Goodman hadrecently sent Anthony Cirone to the San Francisco Symphony and promised Whaley thenext position Goodman was asked to fill. Goodman referred to Whaley as “one of hismost talented students.” While at Juilliard, he free lanced in New York and began givingprivate lessons at the White Plains Academy of Music and Art in White Plains, NY.Upon graduation, Gar performed with Paul Lavalle and The World’s Fair Band ofAmerica during the 1965 World’s Fair. In October of 1965 he received a draft notice andauditioned for the United States Army Band at the West Point Military Academy. Nopositions were available there but Captain Eugene Allen, the auditioning officer,immediately called the Army Band in Washington, DC and procured a position forWhaley with that band. During his six years as percussionist with the United States ArmyBand “Pershing’s Own”, Gar “gigged” and began teaching, building a studio of aroundfifty students at all performance levels. It was during this period that he began writinginstructional books to fill what he perceived as a void in the pedagogical percussionliterature.PositionsGarwood Whaley received degrees from the Juilliard School and The CatholicUniversity of America where he earned a doctor of musical arts degree while performingwith the United States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own.” While a member of the ArmyBand, he performed several times as soloist including a performance of Milhaud’sConcerto for Percussion and Orchestra (band arrangement). He is conductor emeritus ofthe Bishop Ireton Symphonic Wind Ensemble in Alexandria, Virginia, former adjunctprofessor of music at The Catholic University of America, past president of thePercussive Arts Society, former curriculum coordinator of instrumental music for theDiocese of Arlington Schools, former chief editor for Music for Percussion, Inc., andpresident and founder of Meredith Music Publications (1979). As director of MeredithMusic, he has been responsible for the publication of some of the most exceptionalperformance and educational materials available today. More than 400 composers andauthors are included in the Meredith catalog. While serving for thirty years as CurriculumCoordinator of Instrumental Music for the Diocese of Arlington Schools (VA), he wasresponsible for the administration of instrumental music in twenty-nine schools. Duringhis tenure, he established a yearly honor band, an annual band festival and wasresponsible for providing instrumental music education to thousands of students inCatholic Schools in the Northern Virginia area. While in the Army Band he taughtpercussion at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia and later servedas adjunct professor of music at Catholic University teaching private lessons, percussionmethods and courses in music education. As a percussion instructor at CatholicUniversity, he organized the first percussion ensemble, whose members included DougHoward, John Rudolph, Dick Ecton, Frank Cocuzzi and Randy Eyles.Publications

Gar wrote his first book in 1965 and since then has become one of the best knownand best selling writers of percussion method books of all time with more than 300,000copies of his books sold worldwide. His first book (co authored) written in 1965 was laterpublished in 1974 by JR Publications titled Rhythmic Patterns of Contemporary Music; acollection of original etudes based on rhythms of composers Bartok, Stravinsky, Carterand others. It became the first book of its kind to explore contemporary compositionaldevices written specifically for percussionists as an instructional text. A series of booksfor beginning and intermediate percussionists followed including Fundamental Studiesfor Snare Drum, Fundamental Studies for Mallets, Fundamental Studies for Timpani,Musical Studies for the Intermediate Timpanist, Recital Pieces for Mallets, IntermediateDuets for Snare Drum, Four-Mallet Technical Studies and the best selling title MusicalStudies for the Intermediate Snare Drummer. In 1979, Whaley founded Meredith MusicPublications and continued writing for percussion instruments. These new titles includedmethod and solo collections: Primary Handbook for Snare Drum, Primary Handbookfor Mallets, Primary Handbook for Timpani, Recital Duets for Snare Drum, Recital Solosfor Snare Drum, Solos and Duets for Snare Drum, Solos and Duets for Timpani, ConcertSolos for the Intermediate Snare Drummer, Rhythm Reading For Drums (books 1 & 2),Musical Studies for the Intermediate Mallet Player, 4 Mallet Exercises, Audition Etudes,Basics in Rhythm, More Basics in Rhythm and More Audition Etudes. His works for soloand ensembles include: Dialogue for Snare Drum and Timpani, Scherzo for Timpani,Statement for Timpani, Essay for Snare Drum, Etude in 32nd’s, 3 Movements for 2Drums, Introduction and March and Etude for Percussion Quartet. In all, he has writtenmore than thirty works for percussion instruments that have become standardinternational repertoire and helped to train thousands of students worldwide.Meredith Music PublicationsAs president and founder of Meredith Music Publications, Whaley has beenresponsible for the publication of some of the most exceptional performance andeducational materials available today. Percussion author/composers included in theMeredith Catalog include: Ronald Horner, Charles Dowd, Morris Lang, Bill Cahn,Anthony Cirone, Gerald Carlyss, John Beck, Roland Kohloff, Fred Begun, Brad Stirtz,Guy Gauthreaux, Dominick Cuccia, Al Payson, John Pratt, James Campbell, GeorgeHamilton Green, Dick Sisto, Lynn Glassock, Randy Eyles, Neil Grover, Jack Van Geem,Harry Breuer, Bart Quartier, Paul Henley, Paul Buyer, Michael Colgrass, Tim Huesgan,Bob Becker, Willis Rapp, Clair Omar Musser, Tim Genis, Ed Soph, Michael Udow, JoeSinai, Paul Henley, David Herbert, Dean Borghesani, Patrick Roulet, Russ Girsberger,Robert Snider, Steve Grimo, Warren Benson, Rick Mattingly, William James andGarwood Whaley. In addition, there are fifty-seven authors contained in The Drum andPercussion Cookbook with royalties from this publication going directly to the PercussiveArts Society.Percussive Arts SocietyDuring the late 1960’s Gar wrote a feature article for PAS while a member of theUnited States Army Band, “Pershing’s Own” that included a photo of the band’s2

percussion section that became the issues cover. He organized and became the firstpresident of the Virginia chapter of PAS and assisted host Randy Eyles with theWashington PASIC in 1986. Gar became chairman of the PAS Education Committeeand produced the first “commercial” educational publication for PAS entitled PercussionEducation: A Source Book of Concepts and Information. He was later elected to the PASexecutive board where he served for ten years as second vice president, vice presidentand president where his popularity as president led to a second term. During his four-yearterm he introduced the President’s Industry Award, the Outstanding PAS Service Awardand by calling on all major sustaining members, developed a membership campaign thatbrought PAS membership to over eight thousand. For the past several years, he provideda 1,000 PAS/Meredith Music Publications Grant for a Non-Percussionist Band Directorto attend PASIC.AwardsDuring his career, Gar has received numerous awards including: Outstanding SecondaryEducators of America Award, Outstanding National Catholic Bandmaster, TheNational Band Association’s Citation of Excellence, The National FederationInterscholastic Music Association Outstanding Music Educator Award, Bandworld’sLegion of Honor administered by the John Philip Sousa Foundation and has beenincluded in Who’s Who in American Music, Who’s Who in America and theInternational Who’s Who in Music. In 1993 he was inducted in Kappa Delta Pi and in1994 received the Alumni Achievement Award in the field of Education from TheCatholic University of America. This annual award presented by the Board of GovernorsAlumni Association, recognized his accomplishments and honored him for his life’s workin education. In 2002, he was inducted as an associate member into the AmericanBandmasters Association. For five years he received a Grant in the Arts from theWashington Post Newspaper’s Educational Foundation for his "Commissioned Work andComposer-In-The School Project." In 1998, Bishop Ireton High School named its newperformance hall the "Garwood Whaley Auditorium" in recognition of his long-termcontributions to the fine arts. He is the recipient of the 2011 Midwest Clinic’s prestigiousMusic Industry Award.StudentsA number of Dr. Whaley’s students have gone on to successful careers in musicand the arts including: Dean Borghesani, principal timpanist, Milwaukee SymphonyOrchestra; Patrick Roulet, director of percussion studies, Western WashingtonUniversity: Jake Odmark, “Flash” in the Broadway production of Spiderman; BrendonCaldwell, director of bands, Baldwin Wallace; Juan M. Ponciano, Vice President,PostHaste Music; Claire Walker MacHenry, music therapist, Capital Music TherapyServices; et al.Bishop Ireton Wind Ensemble3

Achieving international recognition under his direction, The Bishop Ireton WindEnsemble performed concert tours for twenty-seven years in Canada, Germany, France,Switzerland, Finland, Wales, Austria, Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium, England,Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark. For a quarter of a century, he commissioned a new workeach year. Composers include: Michael Djupstrom, Frederick Speck, James Syler, SteveRouse, David Froom, Tom Duffy, Warren Benson, Michael Weinstein, MarkCamphouse, Stephen Melillo, David Maslanka, Ron Nelson Elliot Del Borgo, WilliamSchaefer, Robert Jager, Floyd Werle, Barney Childs, David-Ward Steinman, ElliottSchwartz and Robert Washburn. In addition, the ensemble performed twenty-nine(annual) combined concerts with university and professional bands including the U.S.Army, U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army Field Band, U.S. Naval Academy Band,U.S. Air Force Ceremonial Brass, U.S. Army Brass Band, The National Concert Band ofAmerica, the Eternal Winds of Washington, and band/ensembles from James MadisonUniversity, Radford University, Virginia Commonwealth University, VillanovaUniversity, Shenandoah Conservatory, Catholic University, Old Dominion University,University of Georgia, Harvard University, Yale University and George MasonUniversity. The Ensemble and its conductor were featured in the June 1991 BD Guidearticle "More than Just Performance” and in the May 2000 Instrumentalist article "FromStruggling Ensemble to a Band of Distinction.”ClinicsGar’s popular clinics, Solving Rhythm Problems in the Instrumental and ChoralEnsemble and The Rehearsal: Teaching More Than Notes have been presentedthroughout the United States including: “A Balanced Mind Conference” (New York)Arizona Music Educators Association ConferenceCalifornia Music Educators Association ConferenceDelaware Music Educators ClinicGeorgia Music Educators ConferenceIllinois Music Educators All-State ConferenceIowa Music Educators ConventionJim Swearingen Band Directors Clinic (Columbus, Ohio)The Juilliard School Conducting Workshop for Music EducatorsKansas Music Educators Association In-Service WorkshopKennedy Center Professional Teacher Outreach ProgramMaryland Music Educators Association ConferenceMid West Band and Orchestra ClinicMichigan Music ConferenceMissouri Music Educators Association ConventionMusic Educators National Conference Convention, Salt Lake City, UtahMENC Eastern Division Convention, Baltimore, MarylandMENC North Western Division Convention, Spokane, WashingtonNebraska Music Educators Conference4