Michelle Purdy is a contemporary percussionist and educator. She performs with various ensembles including the percussion quartet Umbilicus, the science/music ensemble The Inverse Square Trio, Sonic Meditations Baltimore, arts-in-education ensemble Envirodrum Maryland, and the avant/jazz trio The Compositions. In addition to ensemble pursuits Ms. Purdy regularly partners with local composers, musicians, dancers, sculptors, and various improvisers within the Baltimore community. Ms. Purdy’s passion for contemporary works has led to a vast array of opportunities including performances at Baltimore’s Artscape Festival, So Percussion’s Summer Institute, IFCP at Mannes, June in Buffalo, Make Music New York, The Livewire Festival, The High Zero Festival, The Center for Advanced Musical Studies at Chosen Vale and The Percussive Arts Society International Convention.
Purdy received her B.A. in Percussion Performance at UMBC where she studied western contemporary classical percussion with Tom Goldstein and Balinese Gamelan with Gina Beck. For her Masters she attended the State University of New York at Buffalo where she continued her study of percussion performance with Tom Kolor of the Talujon percussion quartet. Ms. Purdy currently resides in Butler, Maryland where she teaches at The Music Space, Towson University, Carroll Community College and UMBC. In recent years Purdy’s focus has turned towards more community engagement through organizations such as The High Zero Foundation & 2640 Collective as well as broadening her study to include Javanese Gamelan under the tutelage of Prof Gina Beck.
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Gamelan
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