Benjamin Fraley, Percussionist

RIP Stuart Saunders Smith. This picture was taken many years ago at the Chosen Vale Percussion Seminar. I was fortunate enough for a long time to perform Stuart’s music, as well as have some coachings and have written correspondence with him. Truly a great voice of American music and philosophy, and a really nice person on top of it all. RIP SSS

Last concert of the season!

Haven’t played timpani for this piece in many years. Still good.

Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra Concert!

Bruckner 7 with CVSO. One crash to rule them all, One crash to find them, One crash to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

2009 vs 2023. Different Timpani. Different Mallets. Different Orchestra. Different Hall. Different City. Same Tux.

First concert of the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra season! Really interesting program including Sibelius’s Symphony no. 7 and Janáček’s Sinfonietta.

Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra season is in the books! See you next season.

Concert tonight with Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra!

Fun time playing with the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra tonight.

It was fun playing Holst’s “The Planets” last night. Always good times playing with the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra.

Children’s concert today with the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra. The featured piece was Tubby the Tuba. If you’re a percussionist, you know this piece because of some of the seemingly obscure excerpts in the back of the Morris Goldenberg book.

Almost 2 years ago, I was commissioned by the US Air Force Band of the Golden West to compose a percussion quartet. The result was Mach X-1, a percussion quartet that was inspired by the flight that broke the sound barrier by “Chuck” Yeager. I am really happy to finally receive a copy of the recording the band published of brand new chamber music. Thank you to the US Air Force Band of the Golden West and Tyler Tolles for this commission!

500 followers! Thanks everyone for following and checking out my percussion page.

I’m super excited that I got this in the mail today. Thank you, Rui!

Just finished up my clinic at the South Dakota Music Education Association Conference. Thank you SDMEA for having me! I had good attendance and the easiest load in and out for a conference ever.

Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra Concert!

Opening Night for the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra!

Opening night for the Eau Claire Chamber Orchestra!

The H’s of The Real Book Project are available at The Pit: Percussion Blog! Link in bio! Happy Listening!

Seeing live music is important to your musical education.

If I can change a tambourine head, so can you. Check out the new installment of The Pit: Percussion Blog, Changing a Tambourine Head!

Matinee concert today with the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra, take 2. Our Christmas Concert was cancelled due to weather. Hope to see you at the Pablo at 2 pm.

The G’s of The Real Book Project are available at The Pit: Percussion Blog! Link in bio! Happy Listening!

The F’s of The Real Book Project are available at The Pit: Percussion Blog! Link in bio! Happy Listening!

Big thank you to the Iowa Music Educators Association for inviting me to present my drum set clinic at their conference yesterday in Ames, Iowa.

Presenting at the 2021 WMEA Conference went well. Big thank you to the Wisconsin Music Education Association, the Eckroth Music Company, Pearl/Adams Musical Instruments, Remo, Inc., Innovative Percussion, Grover Pro Percussion, and everyone who came to my drum set pedagogy clinic.

It’s always nice to sit behind some timpani for the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra. Thank you to all who came out to concert Saturday night.

I can’t wait to see you in Madison! My clinic will be at 11:30 am on Thursday, October 21st. See you there!