The Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble

Gary Rutkowski received his Associate of Arts degree from Villa Maria College in 1979 and his Master of Fine Arts degree from SUNY Buffalo in 1983. He has taught at Edinboro University in Pennsylvania and at Buffalo State College, and currently teaches at the Community Music School and at Villa Maria College of Buffalo. He has performed with Maelstrom since 1984, concurrently performing numerous solo recitals, workshops, and collaborations with various dance and visual artists in Western New York. His performance credits include the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the S.E.M. Ensemble and the Western New York Chorale, to name a few.

Kirk Brundage has received numerous awards, among them top prize in the International Music Competition of the German Radio (Munich) and a Fulbright Scholarship as well as grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and Rotary International. Brundage has performed and held master classes in Europe and Mexico and performed at the 1993 Percussive Arts Society International Convention. He received his primary training from the California Institute of the Arts, the Royal Danish Conservatory, and the University of Buffalo. A teaching artist for the Arts-in-Education Institute of Western New York, he has taught privately and at the Park School, and performed with numerous organizations including the Buffalo Philharmonic.

Bob Accurso has been the percussion instructor of Villa Maria College, Buffalo State College, the Villa Maria Institute of Music, St. JosephÆs Collegiate Institute and the Frontier Central Schools, and has performed with the Amherst Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo New Music Ensemble, the Greater Buffalo Opera Company, the Orchard Park Chorale, the Buffalo Philhamonic and many other organizations. As a freelance drumset artist and mallet percussionist, he has worked with some of the areaÆs top fusion groups, rock bands, and blues groups.

John Bacon, Jr., has performed jazz and new music throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. Bacon is a faculty member of the Tri-C Jazz Studies Program in Cleveland and at Fredonia State College in New York. He has received grants from Meet the Composer, the Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County and the National Endowment for the Arts, and has performed at Verona Jazz Æ92, Verona, Italy, and at The Next Wave Festival in Toronto, 1997. He recorded the Unheard Herbie Nichols Vol. I and Vol. II for CIMP Records, and recorded two albums of original jazz music, Multi-Jazz Dimensions, and Winds of Change.