Dr. Sherrie Maricle, Ph.D.

For musician Sherrie Maricle, her drum set is a real-life metaphor of her career. Playing the drums requires coordinating four limbs at the same time, as Maricle's career coordinates musical successes as a jazz artist, classical musician, composer and teacher.

Maricle was born in Buffalo, New York, but her family moved to Endicott, New York when she was 5 years old. She began studying snare drum in sixth grade and at age 11 heard a concert by Buddy Rich and his Killer Force Orchestra. That concert ignited Sherrie's passion for the Drums, Big Band and Jazz, and started her on her life's journey.

While she was an undergraduate at Binghamton University she began playing professionally in a wide variety of musical situations. After earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985 she moved to New York City and attended New York University where she completed a Masters of Arts in Jazz Performance in 1986 and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Jazz Performance/Composition in 2000.

From the drum set Maricle leads her big band The DIVA Jazz Orchestra and her quintet Five Play. At Carnegie Hall she performs with Skitch Henderson and The New York Pops and is also the orchestra's Director of Education. As a teacher, she is on the jazz and percussion faculties of New York University and The Hartwick College Summer Music Festival, and runs a private drum set and percussion studio. She is an active clinician for Yamaha Drums, Sabian Cymbals and Vic Firth Drum Sticks and is the creator of the Rhythm, Rhyme & Rap workshop for children. Sherrie is also a busy freelance performer and a published composer/arranger in both the classical and jazz mediums.

With The DIVA Jazz Orchestra and Five Play she has performed at many of the world's most acclaimed music venues, including:

• Carnegie Hall
• Lincoln Center
• Tanglewood
• The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
• The Hollywood Bowl
• Symphony Halls in Philadelphia, Cleveland and Saint Louis
• the S.S. Norway and QE2 Jazz Cruises
• jazz festivals throughout the United States and abroad, including Croatia, Colombia, Finland, Germany, Italy, England, Holland, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France, and Switzerland

DIVA has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Osgood, numerous times on CNN Arts Break, and was highlighted on the Kennedy Center 25th Anniversary Gala and the NHK (Japan) Network's New York Jazz. With The New York Pops she often travels overseas to such countries as Japan and Korea.

As a composer, performer and educator, Sherrie has received several honors which include:

• a feature story in the December 2003 issue of Modern Drummer magazine, for whom she also authored an article
• a tour grant for DIVA from Arts International
• The Kennedy Center Alliance Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Arts
• a grant from Meet the Composer
• a Doctoral Fellowship from New York University and
• selection as the New York University Music Teacher of the Year in both 1997 and 2000

Additionally, Five Play's premier recording, On the Brink, was voted the #1 CD of 1999 by Nat Hentoff in Jazz Times magazine.

The DIVA Jazz Orchestra's most recent recording; T.N.T. - Tommy Newsom Tribute will be released in November 2004 on the DRG label. Other DIVA recordings include Live in Concert (2003); I Believe In You (1998); Leave It To DIVA (1997); and Something's Coming (1995). Five Play's most recent CD, Plus was released in September 2004. Other Five Play CDs include On the Brink. Some of Maricle's additional recording credits include The Time Being; Cookin' on All Burners; Dedication; Sherrie Maricle and Friends "LIVE" and numerous compact discs with The New York Pops.

Clinic: Getting Your Rhythm Section to Walk, Comp. & Kick in Style

Does your rhythm section look at you with fear and sound like they forgot how to play their instruments when you ask them to: Swing hard, Support the soloist, Kick the shout section, Play the ballad with energy, Comp. with meaning, Interpret the chart, don’t read it, Play a samba not a mambo, Play funk, not heavy metal, Play the guitar like Freddie Green, not Eddie Van Halen., etc.? If so, this clinic will provide you with various concepts to help you teach your rhythm section how to support each other, the music, the soloist and the band.