Paul Vaillancourt

Biography

Dr. Paul Vaillancourt, Professor of Percussion at Columbus State University's Schwob School of Music, performs regularly with the Columbus and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Solo and concerto performances include the premiere of Brian Cherney's "In Gottes Garten schweigen die Engel" for solo voice, solo percussion and percussion ensemble at McGill University, Jan Jarvlepp's "Garbage Concerto" with UP/DOWN Percussion (CSU alumni) with the Columbus Symphony, Jennifer Higdon's Percussion Concerto with the Thailand Symphony Orchestra in Bangkok, the Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra and the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestras. He has also been a featured soloist with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Center Orchestra, at the Aspen Music Festival, the Banff Center for the Arts, the McGill Chamber Winds, the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra (St. Petersburg, Russia) and the CSU Wind Ensemble and Schwob Philharmonic.

He has performed all over the world with many contemporary music ensembles including Bent Frequency, Sonic Generator, Furious Band, The Fountain City Ensemble and the piano/percussion duo, STRIKE with pianist Jeff Meyer. STRIKE tours of China, Russia and Thailand included performances at the Beijing Modern Music Festival at the Central Conservatory, Tianjin Conservatory, SoundWays New Music Festival in St. Petersburg, at the Thailand International Composers Festival and at universities in the greater Bangkok area.

As a founding member of the new music ensemble The Zohn Collective, he participated in several recording projects of chamber music by composers Matthew Schreibeis and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon (2018). He also gave several performances of Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon's chamber opera COMALA in Guadalajara, Mexico (2018) as part of the International Arts Festival. The ensemble was recently in residence at Notre Dame University premiering and recording works by ND faculty composer John Liberatore (2019). The ensemble has been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the Paul R. Judy Center for Innovation and Research.

As a conductor, Vaillancourt has given the U.S. and world premieres of chamber works by Brian Cherney, David Lang, Steven Gellman, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Eric Moe, John Parcell, Sidney Hodkinson, Jack Beeson, R. Murray Schaeffer, Wayne Peterson, Sergio Assad, Fred Cohen, Jefferson Freidman, Nico Muhly, Dan Trueman, as well as the opera Comala, by Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. Vaillancourt contributed to the commercial recording of the Comala (Bridge Records) as a performer, which earned the composer a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 2010. As pit orchestra conductor for the Springer Opera House in Columbus, GA, he has led productions of Rogers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Elf The Musical, West Side Story, Newsies, Avenue Q, The Little Mermaid, Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, Shrek The Musical, Les Misérables and Sweeney Todd.

Equally passionate about the jazz, Paul has performed at the International Trumpet Guild and International Trombone Festival with such artists as Fred Wesley, Alex Iles, Michael Dease, Wycliffe Gordon, John Fedchock, Dominick Farinacci, Mike Vax and TPRTS, Clay Jenkins, and Tyrone Jackson. He performs regularly with the Jazz Faculty combo, has recorded with the Robert Orr Trio and the hammond organ trio Be3 with whom he performed at the Ottawa International Jazz Festival.

He can be heard on four recently released CDs: Uncanny Affable Machines, featuring the solo work Cross Chop for solo drum set by composer Eric Moe (New Focus), SONGTREE, featuring chamber works by composer Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon (Oberlin Music), Stars Stories Song, featuring chamber works by Eastman School of Music faculty composers David Liptak and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon (Ravello) and The Favrile Opalescence for solo Scottish bagpipes and percussion ensemble by Matthew Welch (Kotekan Records).

While completing his D.M.A. at the State University of New York in Stony Brook studying with legendary pedagogue Raymond DesRoches, he performed regularly with Pulse, the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble and the Orchestra of the S.E.M Ensemble.