Troy Schaltenbrand, Percussion Teacher:

Troy Schaltenbrand is an instrumentalist who earned his Bachelor of Music in Instrumental Music Education at Youngstown State University. While residing in Youngstown, Troy studied conducting with Dr. Stephen Gage, and studied percussion as his primary instrument with Dr. Glenn Schaft and Dr. Elizabeth DeLamater. While studying percussion at Youngstown State, Troy studied all types of traditional and experimental percussion literature and techniques, with a specialization in world percussion and drum set performance. In addition to his teachers at Youngstown State, he also studied drum circle facilitation with Arthur Hull, Konnakol with Loire Cotler, and frame drumming with Yousif Sheronick and Grammy award-winner Glen Velez.

Troy has a variety of performance experiences such as playing in concert bands, orchestras, jazz combos, big bands, operas, musical theater, and chamber groups such as percussion ensembles and chamber winds. As a freelance musician, Troy spends most of his performance time in musical theater. He is a recurring artist with Stage 62 and regularly performs with North Hills-local school districts. He has performed shows such as Sweeney Todd, Guys and Dolls, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Annie, Legally Blonde, Good News, Cinderella, Freaky Friday, Mary Poppins, Cats, James and the Giant Peach, Curtains, Titanic, and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Troy’s playing can be heard on recordings such as the Youngstown Percussion Collective’s Forms of Things Unknown, a 12-movement composition commissioned by the Youngstown Percussion Collective and written by composer Dave Morgan. He can also be heard on select recordings on the album, Absent Dreamers which features original compositions written by members of the Youngstown Jazz Collective.

In addition to his percussion studies at Youngstown State University, Troy studied a variety of woodwind, brass, and string instruments. He later began studying cello as his secondary instrument. As an educator, he has extensively studied instrumental pedagogy across all instrument families, with an emphasis in percussion and string instruments. Troy is particularly passionate about the processes and methodology used to teach beginner musicians the core foundations of their instrument and musicality.

While living in Youngstown, Troy taught at Students Motivated by the ARTS (SMARTS), a non-profit organization that provides arts classes of all varieties and disciplines to students unable to access arts education in their public education system. While at SMARTS, Troy was a drum circle facilitator in the community on behalf of SMARTS, and taught a combination of music and life skills to provide meaningful intervention and interactions to a variety of learners in various special education charter schools such Potential Development: School of Students with Autism and Mollie Kessler’s ACLD School (All Children Learn Differently). Upon graduation, Troy moved back home to the Pittsburgh region to begin teaching as a certified PK-12 Music Educator. Throughout his teaching career, he has previously taught elementary general music and chorus at Marshall Elementary, and elementary orchestra at Franklin and Ingomar Elementary- all within the North Allegheny School District. He also taught elementary and middle school orchestra at Hampton Township School District at Poff and Central Elementary Schools, and Hampton Middle School. Currently, Troy is the orchestra director and co-director of the Ukulele Club at Peebles Elementary School, and the 3rd Grade Orchestra Director at Hosack Elementary School in the North Allegheny School District. In addition to teaching at NA, he maintains an active Percussion and Strings studio, and is owner/luthier at Schaltenbrand Strings.

Troy is an active advocate for improving the craft of teaching through means of professional development. He is an Apple Teacher and Google Certified Educator Level 1; he has also received certification in World Music Pedagogy from the Smithsonian Folkways Institution through West Virginia University, and his Level 1 certification in World Music Drumming curriculum at Slippery Rock University. He is an active member of the Percussive Arts Society, American String Teachers Association, American Choral Directors Association, and the American Orff-Schulwerk Association. Troy is also a Board Member of the local Pittsburgh Golden Triangle American Orff-Schulwerk Association chapter, which provides local professional development for music teachers in the Pittsburgh region. Troy Schaltenbrand resides in Wexford, where he lives with wife, Celeste.