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Arthur Avila, Jr., B.M. - Drummer/Percussionist

pro*mark Drumsticks Education Artist
BadAssDrumming.com Endorsed Artist

Arthur Avila Jr, born in El Paso, Texas, drawn to percussion at the early age of two, graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso with a Bachelor of Music Education degree in 2001. Mr. Avila is also a certified, all-level Music Educator for the state of Texas. He is currently the Assistant Band Director of Eastwood High School in El Paso, Texas, and the Percussion Director at Eastwood High School, Eastwood Middle School and Eastwood Knolls Middle School in El Paso.

Making Eastwood his home for the last 6 years, Mr. Avila has taken the Eastwood program to new heights in many areas of percussion including marching percussion, concert percussion, drum-set percussion, and Latin & hand drum percussion.

Under his tutelage, Eastwood has won numerous top awards at competitions such as the Thunder Drums Challenge, The Duke City Drum-Off, the UTEP Day of Percussion, Franklin Percussion Ensemble Festival, The Star City Percussion Ensemble Festival, and UIL State Solo and Ensemble Competitions. Caption awards include: Best Front line, Best Bass Line, and Best Cymbal Line.

Mr. Avila has been recently awarded the Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction award from The National Society of High School Scholars in 2006. Art is also a current member of the Percussive Arts Society, the Texas Music Educators Association serves serves on the Board of Directors with the El Paso Youth Symphony Orchestra. Art is the former Co-Caption/Snare/Cymbal Tech for the indoor WGI Independent Open ensemble, Innovative Marching Percussion, which is also based out of the El Paso/New Mexico region. Combined, Mr. Avila has over 75 percussion students in the Texas/New Mexico Southwest area.

Mr. Avila is a very active, international percussionist in the El Paso Southwest/Mexico region. He has performed with such prestigious groups as the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Pops Orchestra, Zarzuela, Pro-Musica, Symphonica de Juarez, El Paso Opera, Star City Percussion Ensemble, The Eklectic Jazz Band, The Abundant Living Faith Center Orchestra, and the Music Theater of El Paso. He has been performing percussion with the El Paso Wind Symphony for the last ten years where he has shared the stage with Sam Pilafian, Lamar Burkhalter, and many others.

Mr. Avila really showed his talents on congas and drum-set percussion for a local salsa group called Fuego Latino where he has shared the stage with Tito Puente, Jr. Other stage shares include Jeff Berlin, Rosanna Eckerd, Kimberly Locke, Dr. Willie Hill, Sean Jones, Fred Wesley, N'Dugu Chancelor, Brad Leali, Marty Olivas, Billy Townes, The Canadian Brass, STYX and Eric Johnson. Art's performance travels include Cancun, Mexico, Zacatecas, Mexico, Chihuahua, Mexico, Juarez, Mexico, San Diego, CA, Nashville, TN, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Las Vegas, NM, Alburqurque, NM, Ruidoso, NM, and Las Cruces, NM.

Art Avila has studied with professor Larry White at the University of Texas of El Paso, Ricky Malachi, Eric Boseman, Jeff Ausedemore, Demetrius Williams, Javier Chavez, "Rusty" Jones, Calvin Edwards, Darren Dyke, Frank "Chama" De La Rosa, and Jesse Reza. He has attended numerous clinics given by Ed Shaughnessy, Lalo Davila, John Wooton, Keiko Abe, Jeff Moore, Marvin "Smitty" Smith, Nexus, Alex Acuna, Arthur Lipner, Dave Samuels, Tom Aungst, Jim Casella, Murrey Gusseck, Ed Soph, Chester Thomson, Mike Clarke, Bobby Rock, Scott Johnson, Keenan Wylie, Elle Mannette, Chris Romanowski, Pat Amaan, Gregg Bissonette, Danny Gottlieb, Rick Latham, JoJo Mayer, Airto Moreira and many others.

Art has been a part of many creative recording projects as a drum-set/Latin hand percussion/steel drum and concert percussionist with Sound Finesse, "Children Under the Gun" (Frontline Productions, 2001), Pandemonium Steel Drum Ensemble , "Music Under the Stars" (Set Productions, 1998), El Paso Wind Symphony, "Classics with a Twist" (Summit Records, 2002), Los Arrieros, "Ultimante", 2005, and Quest Poetics, "A Sound Campaign" - 2008.