Daniel Kirkpatrick graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance from the University of North Texas College of Music. At UNT, he was principal timpanist of the UNT Symphony and Chamber Orchestra while studying with Christopher Deane, Mike Drake, Mark Ford, and Paul Rennick. Following UNT, he attended the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee where he focused on timpani with Dean Borghesani, Principal Timpanist of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, earning a Master of Music in Percussion Performance with honors.
Mr. Kirkpatrick is the Principal Timpanist of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, the Principal Percussionist of the GAMAC Chamber Orchestra and served as the Principal Timpanist of the Symphony Orchestra Augusta. An active freelancer, he often performs with the Hendersonville Symphony, the Asheville Symphony and the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a Remo Education Artist who exclusively uses Remo Timpani heads and endorses Vic Firth Drumsticks and Mallets.
As an educator, he has held teaching positions in Maryland, Texas, Wisconsin and most recently in South Carolina; teaching students ranging from beginners to professionals alike. Currently, he is an Adjunct Professor of Percussion at Anderson University and served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Percussion at Clemson University as well as a Visiting Professor at Furman University. As a clinician, his presentations often focus on timpani head replacement, tuning, percussion repair, and preparing for all-region and/or college auditions.
In 2004 he founded DK Percussion where he produces custom made carbon fiber timpani mallets; and in 2007 he expanded his business into timpani repair. Now with an international clientele, he has delved into manufacturing and producing chain timpani parts and kits, as well as cnc-machined tuning bolts and other custom machined products.
When did you begin studying music?
I was about 3 years old when I started piano, which I studied for 2-3 years.
When did you start studying percussion?
I started when I was in first or second grade.
What made you choose percussion?
I was always attracted to drumming, whether it was on the “classical” side or drum set. I also believe being a lifelong tinkerer lead to an instrument I could “mess” with.
Who were your primary teachers?
Growing up: Jon Seligman (Westminster, MD), my two band director-percussionists in MS & HS Mike Hirsh and Mark Lortz, as well as Mike and Jenifer Hoff (Westminster, MD); Christopher Deane (UNT), Mark Ford (UNT), Paul Rennick (UNT); Dean Borghesani (UWM, Milwaukee Symphony) and Dwight Thomas (Omaha Symphony).
When did you decide to pursue a career in music?
In high school I started playing gigs regularly my senior year. I was debating between computer sciences and music for a college degree my junior year, but with regular work gigging (and working at a music store), I knew where my happiness was!
Did you have a specific goal: teach, perform, etc.?
I always wanted to be a performer. I’ve always enjoyed being in front of crowds and performing with other people. Teaching always came second and I knew I didn’t want to major in music education (as both my parents were music teachers). In fact, I never saw myself teaching at the college level until I graduated with a masters degree.
Do you focus on a specific area of percussion, if so, did you always?
I focus on timpani but didn’t always do so. I majored in percussion performance and tried my best to work on everything. But I was always drawn back to timpani. My graduate degree, although officially labeled Music Performance, was entirely timpani-based in lessons. My job is labeled “Principal Timpani,” however I’m still expected to double on percussion, teach percussion, and perform percussion on a recital series through the GSO.
Who impacted your musical growth the most?
Christopher Deane has been a father figure to me ever since I first met him at my UNT audition in 2003. He taught me a lot about timpani, percussion in general, and life as a working musician. A close second is Dean Borghesani, who really pushed me to work harder and helped me to win my first audition for a job.
What teaching positions have you held?
Many! Not including summer camps and school visits, I taught for a year in the Frisco ISD in Frisco, TX at Fowler Middle School and Liberty High School. Following that, I taught at Wisconsin Conservatory in Milwaukee from 2008-2011. I joined the adjunct faculty at Anderson University in Anderson, SC in the fall of 2011. In 2012, I was a visiting artist/professor at Furman University for half a semester, and also started at Clemson University, where I taught as an adjunct for five years. Since 2016, as part of my position with the Greenville Symphony, I visit elementary schools in Greenville County where I teach and demonstrate percussion. I do approximately 20 educational outreach programs a year along with a few side-by-side programs with local youth symphonies.
What percussionists have inspired you the most and why?
Saul Goodman and Cloyd Duff for their timpani tone and techniques; Max Roach, Stanton Moore and John Bonham for all things drumset; Mitchell Peters for his abundant supply of great educational repertoire; and all my teachers for showing me what they love doing, how to do it well, and how it’s possible to make a living doing it. Lastly, my predecessor at the symphony, Sherwood Mobley, for showing me it’s possible to remain serious about my music and get along with everybody who comes along. May he rest in peace.
Is there a specific genre you enjoy performing the most?
I love playing stuff from the Romantic era with the orchestra! Its lush sounds and having the string basses and low brass mixing with the timpani is amazing. On drum set, I enjoy playing “four on the floor” style dance music.
What composers do you identify with and why?
I like Beethoven. His works seem simple at first but involve a lot of drama and sense of urgency. I can relate because when I’m working on a project (musical or not), I like to make the facade simple and pretty, but there’s a lot of underlying complexity and drama to work through to get to the finished product; along with there always being an urgency to get it done. I also enjoy Mahler – everything is overdone and big. I don’t like to do things small and I can be a bit OCD and moody when it comes to just about anything.
Do you get nervous before you play – if so, how do you deal with it?
Sometimes, depending on what I’m playing and in what context. For instance, when it comes to performing on timpani (my primary instrument), I rarely, if ever, get nervous doing that. It’s quite literally my job and I do it enough and practice enough that it has become a non-issue. Auditions are a bit different and cause some nervousness, but I’ve found the being overly prepared and confident allows one to overcome the feelings associated with being nervous. I like to think of it like being a soldier or police officer in a gun battle – they can rely on their training, even if they are nervous.
When it comes to performing auditions, solo recitals, or on instruments I’m not as confident on, such as keyboard, I get butterflies, worry, lose sleep, etc. However, I tend to find that preparing for the situation helps immensely. Sometimes if I get random butterflies for any reason (adrenaline rush, etc), I’ll try to practice soft passages to see how well I can control myself.
Do you ever make a mistake while performing? If so, how do you go about resolving it?
All the time. That’s life! I like to think of it like this: there are pessimistic optimists, and optimistic pessimists. A pessimistic optimist realizes there will be mistakes made in a performance but you simply have to move on, aka “the show must go on.” An optimistic pessimist counts their mistakes rather than realizing all the right stuff that’s going on around the performance space while still performing. I believe in analyzing your mistakes in rehearsal time and doing everything in your power to correct them, but in performance you must “sell” the show. The audience may not know any better or even care, they paid to see a performance, and all live performances are not perfect. Do I make mistakes? Yes. Do I let them linger in my head during a performance? I try to avoid that and focus on what needs to be done and what’s being done correctly. I consider myself as a pessimistic optimist!
As far as resolving such mistakes, if it’s a rehearsal, realize and think about what happened and correct it. Whether it’s an easy correction using a pencil or a practice room session on a particular issue, a musician should be able to self-analyze in rehearsal. In a performance, I tell my students to think of this analogy: music is like a train with box cars and you’re standing on the side of the tracks lobbing tennis balls into the open box cars. Each box car is a beat, rhythm, measure, whatever… if you miss a box car with your tennis ball, do not chase after the train trying to lob another ball in, it’s passed. You’ll miss the rest of the box cars trying to catch up with one mistake. Music preparation, practicing, score study, listening, and general awareness all contribute to being able to move along from a mistake quickly. Do not try to correct it in a performance, ever. It’s not worth the chase.
Has your practice regimen changed from when you were a student – if so, how?
When I was a freshman in college, I tried to practice as many hours in a day as I could. However, by the time I was a senior, I was able to get more done in an hour than I could in a day just a few years prior. My practice has become more efficient throughout the years – knowing what to start with (not the beginning of a solo), how to work on it (slowest, slower, slow, under tempo, tempo…, faster than tempo…), and knowing how to organize my time has allowed me to physically practice less to get done what used to take a lot of time. These days I spend more time doing score study and marking my parts prior to the first rehearsal than I do physically playing the music. A majority of the time, playing the music I play in the symphony does not require great playing chops, it requires good listening chops, tuning abilities, and good timing.
For the physical part of practicing timpani, I’m lucky to own my own timpani and can access them anytime I please. One thing I’ve started doing recently is watching random stuff on YouTube while doing warmup and roll exercises. It makes time fly by very fast and my hands have been improving lately as a result. (So has my knowledge of WWII air and sea battles. And the effects of objects dropped from 45 meters up…)
How do you keep your technique fresh on all primary percussion instruments?
Teaching at the university level really allows me to access all the other instruments. I purposely schedule breaks in my teaching to allow time for practicing instruments, whether it be snare drum, marimba, vibraphone, drum set, etc. What it boils down to is if your hands are in good shape with snare drum technique, it shouldn’t take much adjusting to perform on the other instruments. Four-mallet keyboard requires more effort, but I usually have mallets in hand during lessons to demonstrate. I like to choose an instrument to passively focus on each semester for myself and it sometimes coincides with a particular student’s lesson. In Fall 2019, I plan to rework my Stevens technique in order to prepare for something I’ll be doing with the symphony.
How do you define a good musician and a good teacher? And has your definition of both changed from when you were a student to the present?
A good musician is one who is always listening. Listening to music they play, listening to music they don’t play. Listening to the tones they produce (and deciding what to do with that), and listening to any ensemble they play with. A good musician is usually a good team player as well.
A good teacher is one who can find faults and strengths and use them to help his/her student improve. He/She will also be able to set a good example, whether it be in practice routines and habits, performance practices, or just general social skills. If a great teacher happens to also be a great musician, he/she is likely to be a highly sought after individual and exceedingly rare. Some of the best teachers are really good at teaching, but perhaps some of the best musicians can’t explain the basics, they just know them. My definition of both a good musician and good teacher really haven’t changed throughout my life, which is why I believe I’ve always been able to seek out the right people to teach me. I do not consider myself the greatest teacher ever, but strive to be the best musician I can be.
I will say, the phrase “If you can’t play, teach” is the worst idea I’ve heard repeated time and time again. It degrades great teachers who may not make it their life’s work to be a great musician.
Has teaching made you a better musician, if so how and why?
I think so. It’s easy to forget about basics when you get farther into a performing career and teaching someone to hold a stick for the first time is a powerful thing. You are responsible for him/her for as long as he/she is your student; having that responsibility in mind reminds me that I need to make sure my fundamentals are solid. It also helps to have a student who is learning something I do for a living, where he/she can come see me do it and give honest feedback. “I thought you said you need to do it this way, why did you do it that way?” That kind of question haunts me before, during and after a lesson or performance, so I make sure to teach the way I know how to successfully do something. Having a student in the audience at a concert is a morality booster but also can lead to some honest and great feedback. Some of the best feedback I’ve received recently (on mallet choice) came from a former student.
What is DK Percussion and what motivated you to start it?
I started DK Percussion when I was a freshman in college by making and rewrapping timpani mallets. I wasn’t happy with the selection of mallets (and its prices) and didn’t have much money to spend, so I bought the materials to make them. I picked the name “DK Percussion” before I really knew what it would become. I figured if it wasn’t a timpani mallet business, the name would still apply to anything I’d possibly do, solo career included. As my mallet business expanded, I learned instrument repair while at UNT and took that knowledge to develop a percussion repair business, which I officially started as part of a class project in my junior year. Since then, it has morphed into more of a machine shop for percussionists! I love that I’m not stuck to one business plan or ideal, it’s just a fancy name to market my hobbies. However, I do hope someday soon to start building and repairing professional level timpani. Surprisingly, the most lucrative parts of my business have been vibraphone motor repair, engraved stainless steel tuning indicator bolts, and timpani mallet cores!
Knowing what you know today, would you change anything about how you prepared for your career? If so, what and why?
I wouldn’t change much! I’m extremely happy with how my career has turned out (started, is going…) and if you had told me in high school exactly what I’d be doing 16 years later, I’d keep at it. However, I do wish I had spent more time learning more repertoire on our primary instruments for teaching at the college level, as well as tried more time on steel pans. One thing I’m proud of is that I’ve always (whether I realized it or not) lived by the general rule of “learn the instrument, not just the solo,” but I wish I had spent more time on solos and method books. I didn’t plan to teach college; if I had known I’d be teaching anything other than private lessons, I would have also spent more time studying educational methods.
What words of wisdom would you share with a student who aspires to make a career as a performer and/or an educator?
I’d like to combine my answer: be flexible and understanding of what’s needed from you. Not everybody will become a hotshot teacher, solo performer, celebrity percussionist… sometimes the local drum teacher, regional orchestra performer, elementary school teacher, etc, is what makes the career a possibility. Multiple sources of income are far more stable than going after the big job right out of school – establish yourself locally (or online) as a reliable and sociable person. As my middle school band director once told me, nobody wants to hire a jerk. If the absolute best player is a jerk and the next best is easy to get along with, the second best will make a career that’s long-lasting and enjoyable. On that note, practice and get good at your craft, whether it be teaching and/or playing, but also practice the craft of networking and being social. If you’re the greatest player/teacher who ever lived, but nobody knows you….
If you would like to contact Mr. Kirkpatrick and/or learn more about DK Percussion, please visit his website at: www.dkpercussion.com
