Biography:
Multi-percussionist Joseph Gramley, a native of Oregon, is Silkroad’s Associate Artistic Director. During more than sixteen years with Silkroad, he has collaborated with renowned musicians from India, Iran, China, Japan, Korea, The United States and central Asia. He has performed internationally as a soloist and section member with major symphony orchestras. His first solo record American Deconstruction, a rendition of five milestone works in the modern multi-percussion canon, was released in 2000 and reissued in 2006. A second solo recording, Global Percussion, was released in 2005. Gramley is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Percussion Studies at his undergraduate alma mater, the University of Michigan. Prior to his teaching career, he performed extensively in New York with orchestras, chamber groups, percussion ensembles and major Broadway musicals. He now frequently tours and records with The Knights as well as with organist Clive Driskill-Smith in the duo Organized Rhythm; their CD Beaming Music appeared in 2008. Gramley completed his graduate studies at the Juilliard School where he then directed the Juilliard Summer Percussion Seminar for sixteen years. His orchestral festival experience includes: Interlochen, Tanglewood, Marlboro, Spoleto and the Salzburg Mozarteum. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Nashville Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus, Orchestre de Lyon, Singapore Symphony and many others.
