Gary Cook Author & Editor

Gary Cook is Professor Emeritus of Music in the School of Music at The University of Arizona in Tucson, where he founded the percussion studies program in 1975 and was Director of Percussion until retiring in 2008. He has been Artist in Residence at the University of Nevada Las Vegas since 2008 where he teaches graduate seminars in percussion. He was Timpanist and Principal Percussionist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra for over two decades, and has held similar posts with the Arizona Opera and other orchestras. From 1994 to 1999 he served as Director of the UA School of Music and Dance. In the summer, he has been Principal Percussionist with the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado and has performed with other summer festivals in Colorado and Nevada. From 2007 to 2008, Cook was President of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS), and he received the PAS Lifetime Achievement Award in Education in 2011. Prof. Cook was recognized for outstanding teaching in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Arizona with the coveted Putnam Excellence in Teaching Award in 1990, the James Anthony Sustained Excellence in Teaching Award in 2005, and Maestro Award for student achievements in 2005. He is contributing author to the Percussive Notes and The Encyclopedia of Percussion. His former students hold distinguished professorships in colleges and universities around the country and in Trinidad, perform professionally around the world, and are successful teachers, administrators, and performers in all areas of music and the arts.