Hayes School of Music

Dr. Brady Spitz is a percussionist, timpanist, and educator serving as assistant professor and coordinator of percussion activities in the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University. He has extensive performance experience with classical, contemporary, and world percussion in a diverse group of musical environments. He is the Principal Percussionist of the Western Piedmont Symphony and has performed with orchestras in Houston, San Antonio, Arkansas, Hawaii, and Louisiana, among many others. Dr. Spitz maintains an active freelance percussion schedule and has appeared on stage alongside artists such as Idina Menzel, Weird Al Yankovic, and The Who. As a chamber musician, he has worked with a diverse group of artists, including Claire Chase and Mario Davidovsky. 

He has given performances and clinics across the United States, as well as performing at several of the Percussive Arts Society’s International Conventions.. He was the director for the Houston Baptist University Gamelan Ensemble’s appearance at PASIC in 2019 and is formerly artist-in-residence at the Indonesian Consulate in Houston. He maintains an active research interest in Lou Harrison’s American Gamelan repertoire and the American Gamelan movement. 

Dr. Spitz previously held positions at the University of Tennessee at Martin, Houston Baptist University, and Rice University. 

He holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from Rice University, where he was awarded the Benjamin Armistead Shepherd Teaching Fellowship. He also holds a Master of Music in Percussion Performance from Louisiana State University and a Bachelor of Music Performance in Percussion, magna cum laude, from the University of North Texas College of Music. His teachers include Matthew Strauss, Richard Brown, Mark Ford, Christopher Deane, Brett William Dietz, Ed Soph, Paul Rennick, Jim Atwood, Jose Aponte, Poovalur Sriji, and Ed Smith.

Dr. Spitz is an endorser of Innovative Percussion and Black Swamp Percussion.