Jeff Stern, percussion
Known for performing “with precision and an impressive attention to timbral detail” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), percussionist Jeff Stern has developed a voice to listen for in today’s contemporary music scene. He has performed extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and has collaborated with a number of the world’s preeminent composers. Recent premieres include Alejandro Viñao’s Stress and Flow with The Percussion Collective, James Wood’s Secret Dialogues for solo marimba, and John Luther Adams’ Sila at Lincoln Center’s Out of Doors Festival.
Stern is the executive director, co-artistic director, and founding percussionist of icarus Quartet, a 2 piano/2 percussion group and winner of the 2019 Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition. He has appeared at the Yellow Barn Music Festival, the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, and can be heard on the Albany, Elm City, Bright Shiny Things, figureight, Furious Artisans, and Cantaloupe record labels.
Stern serves as Lecturer in Percussion at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. He holds degrees from UMass Amherst, the Peabody Conservatory, and the Yale School of Music. Stern is a proud artist endorser of Vic Firth sticks and mallets, Zildjian cymbals, Evans drumheads, and Pearl/Adams drums and percussion.
