John F. Best

John Best is a native Houstonian, but his musical tastes are as diverse and exotic as the locations he has received his musical training. After studying in the Bluegrass, the Arizona desert and the arctic cold of Northern Sweden, John has emerged as a virtuoso percussionist, spending most of his time improvising on mallet percussion. He has traveled around the globe as a musician and has performed as a soloist and clinician in the United States, Austria, Germany, Sweden, and Australia.

John continues his musical craftsmanship both as a concert percussionist on the stage and as a vibraphonist in jazz venues. He enjoys a diverse array of performance opportunities. Groups he has performed with include Global Percussion Network (Stockholm, Sweden), Percussion One (Houston, TX), Orchestra X (Houston TX), the Arizona Opera (Phoenix/Tucson, AZ), the Da Camera Society (Houston), Erik Westberg’s Vokalensemble (Piteå, Sweden), the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra (Lexington, KY), the AIMS Festival Orchestra (Graz, Austria), the Gerald Blakeman Quartet (Houston), John Best Trio (Houston), and the rock-exotica band Clouseaux (Houston). He has performed as a featured soloist at such venues as the 2000 World Expo in Hannover, Germany and the 2001 Melbourne International Percussion Festival.

As an educator, John’s experience extends all levels of teaching. He currently is the Instrumental Music Director at Royal High School in Simi Valley, California, teaching 3 wind ensembles, a marching band and two jazz ensembles. Previously, he spent two years as the Percussion Area Coordinator at Sam Houston State University, and has also worked as an Affiliate Artist at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music. In 2005-2006, he was the Jazz Band Director and also Percussion Instructor at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas, TX. John has also taught courses in North Harris Montgomery County Community College District (TX), and worked closely with the marching band The Woodlands High School (TX) as their frontline percussion instructor. He has taught as a private music instructor in the Spring, Cypress-Fairbanks and Conroe independent school districts in Texas. In May 2004, he was invited to be the guest artist and clinician for the Temple High School Percussion Ensemble Concert in Temple, TX. He has been a clinician at numerous high schools and band camps in Arizona, Kentucky, Illinois, Michigan, and Texas.

John’s compositions range from solo percussion to works for chamber ensemble and jazz combos. He has arranged music for the marching shows of area high schools, including The Woodlands High School, Clear Lake High School (TX) and North Hardin High School (KY).

His success at competitions began at the University of Kentucky, where he won the prestigious Lewis Award Scholarship. His skills at the marimba allowed him to win the 1996 Concerto Competition at the school. He also won 1^st place in the 1998 PAS International Solo Timpani Contest in Orlando, FL.

During his studies in Sweden, John began to develop a unique method of utilizing professional audio technology in an educational framework. He has since extended this method for all musicians to enhance individual practice routines and aid the teacher during private lessons. He presented part of his methods of using digital delay at the 2001 Percussive Arts Society Convention in Nashville, TN. In October 2001, John was a featured artist, clinician and judge at the Melbourne International Percussion Festival in Melbourne, Australia, where he shared more of his ideas for incorporating technology into one’s practice routine and performed two solo etudes from The Delay Factor, a set of 10 improvisational etudes he has composed for vibraphone and digital delay.

John Best uses Innovative Percussion mallets and sticks. He serves on the Music Technology Committee for the Percussive Arts Society. He also is a member of the International Association of Jazz Educators and the Texas Music Educators Association.

John received a Bachelor's degree in Music Performance from the University of Kentucky in 1999. John then continued graduate studies at the University of Arizona. He completed a Masters in Percussion Performance from Musikhögskolan i Piteå, Sweden in 2002 where he also studied in a studio musician's program. His main teachers have included James Campbell, Gary Cook, Dan Moore, Gregg Rinehart, Norman Weinberg and Anders Åstrand.