Home » Member Page

Ron Coulter

Percussionist, Composer, Improviser, Educator

About Me

Ron Coulter is a percussionist, composer, improviser, electronicist, researcher, instrument builder, audio engineer, and educator currently based in the Mountain West region.

Ron has been a freelance percussionist since 1997, performing in a wide gamut of musical contexts from burlesque cabaret to live electronica. As a performer, he has toured internationally appearing in 50 U.S. states, and 11 countries, including: Norway, Croatia, Australia, and most major cities in the European Union, Japan, and Canada. He has performed with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Harry James Orchestra, Four Aces, The Gaylords, Al Martino, Matthew Shipp, Nate Wooley, David Murray, Tony Malaby, Vinny Golia, Hugh Ragin, Sam Newsome, Marvin Hamlisch, Sandy Duncan, Linux Laptop Orchestra, Dr. Q, Tone Road Ramblers, New Arts Jazztet, Sean Jones, Keith Javors, Anthony Cox, Todd Coolman, Bob Bowman, Bill McCrossen, Damon Smith, Donadi, Galen Abdur-Razzaq, Marvin Stamm, Dominick Farinacci, Chuck Mangione, Ben Markley, Nathan Hanson, Dave Pope, Donald Smith, Joanne Brackeen, Bruce Johnstone, Rip Lee Pryor, Martin “Big Larry” Allbritton, Casey D. James, Ivas John, Mark O’Connor, Billy Contreras, Aimée Niemann, Ryan Cavanaugh, Ashley Campbell, Justin Kalk, Sandy Ewen, Lucy Shelton, Susan Botti, Julia Rich, Larisa Martinez, Sony Holland, Abby Burke, Cristina Fontanelli, Beat Kaestli, Nick Hilscher, Bryan Anthony, Steve Lippia, Dick Johnson, Rodney Lancaster, Eric P. Mandat, Bill Smith, William O. Smith, James Falzone, François Houle, Viv Corringham, Tatsuya Nakatani, Gino Robair, Michael Zerang, Chris Corsano, Sean Hamilton, Ryan Seward, Matt Smiley, Josh D. Reed, Bret Sexton, Farrell Lowe, Dave Divine, RICKSPLUND, Kelan Phil Cohran, Walter Thompson, Tomeka Reid, Jim Staley, Jeb Bishop, John “Jack” Fonville, Morgan Powell, Ray Sasaki, Howie Smith, Noam Lemish, Durán Vásquez, Paulo Raposo, Martin Kuuskmann, Midori, Alexander Markov, Carol Wincenc, Eric Ruske, Francesca Dego, Elena Ulyanova, Ryan Anthony, Eliot Fisk, Bolokada Condé, Weedie Braimah, Erica Azim, Caution Shonhai, Renold Shonhai, Robert Van Sice, Robert Schietroma, Sylvia Smith, Music from China, CRAG Quartet, CRA Trio, Neoteric, Altgeld Chamber Players, One-Off Radiophonic Orchestra, SeFa LoCo, Red Desert, HaZMaT Percussion Group, Maraca2, Filament Duo, The Chance Operations Collective of Kalamazoo, The Noise Gallery, The Metro Sound Painting Orchestra, Three Rocks Trio, Daniel Corral Ensemble, Sam West Trio, Woodbox Gang, Rapture 7, Well Well Wells, and Rum Runners, among many, many others.

Ron is co-founder of the Percussion Art Ensemble and Youngstown Percussion Collective, and the founder of the Perkusiv Arts Elektronik¬, a collective exploring the performance of existing, and the creation of new, electro-acoustic music, including 69 world premiers from 2005 to 2006. Ron has performed with symphony orchestras across the United States, including the Wyoming Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, Paducah Symphony, Powder River Symphony, Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Southern Illinois Symphony, Southern Illinois Music Festival Orchestra, Warren Philharmonic Orchestra, Ballet Ariel Orchestra, Dana Symphony Orchestra, Warren Packard Band, and the Shenango Valley Lyric Opera. He has appeared as a soloist with the Wyoming Chamber Orchestra, Southern Illinois Symphony, Linux Laptop Orchestra, NEBULA Ensemble, Dana Symphony Orchestra, and the Casper College, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and Youngstown State University Orchestras, Choirs, Wind Ensembles, and Percussion Ensembles.

Ron has presented at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (2018, 2013, 2003, 2002), International Society for Improvised Music Symposium (2009 & 2008), Montreal Jazz Festival (2009 & 2004), JVC Jazz Festival, Grand Teton Music Festival, International Clarinetfest, ReVIEWING Black Mountain College 3–John Cage, a.pe.ri.od.ic Music Series–John Cage Festival, nief-norf’s John Cage Research Summit, NIME, HICAH, tilde~, LiWoLi–Art Meets Radical Openness, Blurred Edges Festival, Wild Energies: Live Materials Unearthed (CRiSAP), UNC Greeley Open Spaces Festival, FoCoMX (2023 & 2022), MOXsonic, Interference Series, VU Symposium, VU2, VU3 & VU4 Symposia, New Music Gathering, Horestooth Fest 5, The Immediate Music Series, SPLICE Festival II, Athena Festival VI, Futurisms Centennial Conference, Sound Lines, RadiaLx, St. Louis New Music Circle (2012 & 2010), TUTTI Festival, FMRL Experimental Music Series (2018 & 2016), Kinser Jazz Festival (2019 & 2016), Glenn Miller 100th Anniversary Festival, Jazz Education Network International Conference, BYU Barlow Lecture Series, BYU Arts Performance Series, Big Muddy Film Festival (2011 & 2010), UNCG New Music Festival, The Noble Snare–25 Years Festival, redStone Recital & Gallery Series (2020–2014), Outside the Box New Music Festival (2014–2007), Casper Chamber Music Society Series, OscilloScope, U.S. Army Band Tuba/Euphonium International Conference, College Music Society (CMS) National Conference (2012 & 2008), CMS Central Regional Conference, Illinois PAS Day of Percussion (2012, 2010, 2009), Wyoming PAS Day of Percussion (2017–2015), Nebraska’s Panhandle Percussion Festival, American College Dance Festival Association Conference, Music Educators National Conference, and numerous state and regional Music Education Association conferences, among many others.

Interests in noise, intermedia, performance art, acoustic ecology, radio art, interdisciplinary collaboration, and non-idiomatic improvisation have led to organizing Fluxconcerts, founding the Improvisation Unit, SeFa LoCo, Summit Quartet, and co-founding duende entendre, REDVIXA, Marble Hammer, Drm&Gtr, and RACCA trio; all in addition to collaborative projects with artists specializing in performance art, sculpture, photography, video, poetry, spoken word, and sound art. Ron is the founder and curator of the Southern Illinois Improvisation Series (SiiS), Wyoming Experimental Sound Series (WyExSs), and the Creative Music Series. The SiiS was a twice-monthly series (2014-2007) that presented 135 free sound events exploring interdisciplinary collaboration, technology integration, site-specific work, sound installations, sound empowerment, education, and documentation in the rural southern Illinois region. The WyExSs (2021-2014) presented composed and improvised music in the American Experimentalist tradition and was the first of its kind in the state of Wyoming, with over 100 free public events. The Creative Music Series (2019-2021) presented the most forward-looking artists in jazz, improvised, and contemporary music to the central Wyoming region in performance and educational events (50 artists and 80 events, nine commissioned composition premiers, and 10 published recordings). Drm&Gtr is a free-jazz duo with Canadian guitarist, Jay Reed. Duende entendre is an ongoing 15-year collaboration with poet and bassist, Sam West. Marble Hammer is an experimental blues trio with guitarist, Casey James, and bassist, Mike Alderfer. Additional interdisciplinary collaborators include Mary Beth Edelson (performance art), Dr. Craig Gingrich-Philbrook (performance art), Dr. Susannah “Bunny” LeBaron (performance art), Terry Adkins (sound art & visual art), Kerry Laitala (video), Wago Kreider (video), Jay Needham (sound art & visual art), David Romtvedt (poetry), Erin Taylor (sculpture), Chris Scamehorn (ceramics), Zizia (environmental sound art), Charles Stein (poetry & photography), and Boris Chesakov (metal sculpture).

Ron was selected as a finalist in the 2002 Percussive Arts Society International Multiple Percussion Competition and can be heard on more than 100 published audio recordings with various artists; including recent releases with the Sam Newsome Trio, Free Wyoming (May 2020) and Media is the context for the exchange of content (2023); SMILEYCOULTER, INNER SPACE MUSIK (August 2020) and unknown pathways (January 2021); Percussion Art Ensemble, ORIGINS2 : forgotten percussion works, vol.2 (December 2020); CRAG, Polychromy (August 2021); Toiling in Obscurity: chamber works for percussion, vol. 2 (September 2021); SeFa LoCo, Creosote (October 2021) and Wrong Turns (December 2021); RACCA Trio + RAGIN, The Great Expanse (January 2022) and Four Phase (June 2022); COULTER HAMILTON, Concurrent Sentience (January 2022) and wide caliber (February 2022); Golia Smiley Coulter, EFFLORESCE (February 2022) and Refractories (July 2022); COULTER HILL, EMBER (March 2022) and ASH (August 2022); RACCA trio, Arrosto (April 2022); SeFa LoCo, Futurist Song Forms (May 2022); and additional forthcoming releases with SeFa LoCo, Coulter & Co., Tony Malaby, Damon Smith, Jeb Bishop, Sandy Ewen, Vinny Golia, Sam Newsome, Brad Dutz, Walter Thompson, Summit Quartet, RACCA trio, Matt Smiley, Aimée Niemann, Dave Pope, Josh Gerowitz, and Louis Lopez.

As a composer, Ron has created more than 430 original compositions for various media encompassing numerous genres. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Europe, and have been recorded on the Kreating SounD, Upper Hand Press, Vox Novus, Not Art Records, pfMENTUM, SomeNewMusic, Histamine Tapes, Enforced Existence, Institute for Alien Research, MxH, and A Caldera record labels; selected scores and editions are published by HoneyRock Publishing, Media Press, Smith Publications, Frog Peak Music, and Kreating SounD. He has also recorded for Chen Li Music, Being Time Records, Right Brain Records, Mother Brain Records, Comprovise Recordings, New Focus Recordings/Panoramic Recordings, and emic rite.

Ron’s musicological research has unearthed over 20 unknown percussion works from the 1930s and 1940s, of which he has facilitated premiere performances, recordings, and publication as audio recordings and scores, in addition to analytical papers.

As a producer and curator, Ron has produced over 900 free public music concerts and intermedia Art performances involving over 400 artists across a multitude of disciplines. During his tenure at SIUC he organized 73 visiting percussion artists and produced 124 free percussion events, in addition to 135 free SiiS sound events for the university and regional communities. As the Instrumental Director of the Kinser Jazz Festival from 2014 to 2021 he produced 14 concerts by internationally recognized jazz artists and over 330 student jazz ensemble performances. During his tenure at Casper College he was coordinator of visiting percussion artists, founder and curator of the Wyoming Experimental Sound Series (WyExSs), and the founder and artistic director of the New Music Days at Casper College (2017-2021) for which he produced 25 events and premiered 10 commissioned works. As the Executive Director of the Creative Music Series from 2019 to 2021 he produced 80 concerts and educational events involving 50 internationally-recognized musicians.

Ron’s longtime interest in contemporary music has led to the commission of more than 40 compositions and the premieres of over 620 individual works as a performer or conductor.

A Master Educator, Ron was a tenured Professor of Percussion, Jazz, American Popular and World Musics at Casper College from 2014 to 2021, and he previously served as Senior Lecturer of Percussion, Improvisation, and Jazz Studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale for a decade, and as a Visiting Professor of Percussion Studies at Clarion University of Pennsylvania in 2003. He has served as an Adjunct Instructor of Percussion at Laramie County Community College, John A. Logan College, and Youngstown State University; and as an independent contractor at Westminster College and Chadron State College. He has presented clinics, master classes, lectures, and/or performances at more than 100 colleges and universities internationally as a visiting artist, and he has been appointed faculty of the Casper Mountain Jazz Camp, Southern Illinois Music Camp, and SIUC Jazz Camp.

Ron has been an official endorser with the Promark Corporation and Black Swamp Percussion since 2006; a Concert Artist with Pearl Drums and Adams Percussion since 2016; and Artist Endorser with Murat Diril Cymbals since 2018.

Originally from Hermitage, Pennsylvania, Ron Coulter (b. 1978) was raised on a dairy farm and earned M.M. and B.M. degrees in Percussion Performance from Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. His principle teachers include Dr. Glenn Schaft, Tony Leonardi, Dr. Stephen Gage, Feza Zweifel, Fred Morris, Nina DeCiancio, John Riley, Moussa Bolokada Condé, “Sinyoro” Caution Shonhai, Renold Shonhai, Erica Azim, and Tom Storch.