Thom Hasenpflug

Dr. Thom Hasenpflug is nationally recognized as a unique performer and educational voice, while his compositions for percussion receive international recognition and are played all over the world. Currently the percussion head and Director of Performing Arts at Idaho State University, he has held prior teaching posts at Drake University, the University of South Dakota, Emporia State University, and the Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts.  

Dr. Hasenpflug has presented performances, clinics and master classes at many universities, high schools, and festivals, for several Percussive Arts Society chapter days, and has performed at the 2005, 2011, and 2012 PAS International Conventions. As a composer, he has been commissioned by some of the field’s leading percussionists, and has received top awards in the 1995 PAS composition contest for South of Jupiter, as well as receiving the 1993 Louis Smadbeck prize for Six Bagatelles.  His percussion quartet, Bicksa, is one of the most widely-programmed collegiate percussion works of the past 25 years. He has also judged several contests for various PAS activities, and was a featured composer-artist at both the 2006 and 2007 International Conventions.  Other international performances of his works have occurred in London, Barcelona, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Dublin, Rio de Janiero, Venezuela, and Sweden, by various percussion groups / individuals of note.  

He has performed as a member of numerous symphonies, including acting as principal timpanist in the South Dakota Symphony, and more recently principal percussionist locally with the Idaho State Civic Symphony. Dr. Hasenpflug has performed in symphonic and freelance capacities with artists as diverse as Peter Cetera, the Moody Blues, Blood Sweat and Tears, Riders in the Sky, and many others. He has also fronted the Hasenproject percussion group with brother, Andrew, whose album “Compercussions” has received critical acclaim.  

Born in 1966, he received his degrees in percussion and composition from Ithaca College and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Colorado, having studied primarily with Gordon Stout, Doug Walter, Greg Woodward, Joe Lukasik, and secondarily with Bill Molenhof and Dana Wilson. Additionally, Hasenpflug was fortunate to study privately with notable Pulitzer Prize-winning composers during their respective residencies at Ithaca, including John Corigliano, William Bolcom, and Karel Husa. Thom Hasenpflug has percussion works published through K.P.P. (a division of Malletech – MPI), Alfred Music, Bachovich Music, and C. Alan Publications, as well as his own label, “Hasenworks.” He is an endorser of Pro-Mark Sticks and Mallets, Remo Drumheads, and Sabian Cymbals. He has a wife and two bunny rabbits.