JOHN SHAW (principal percussion) is returning to Eastern Music Festival for his 17th season. He joined the EMF Faculty in 2008, and was appointed principal percussion in 2012. He has been the principal percussionist with The Florida Orchestra since 1996. Shaw earned a B.M. from Florida State University, where he studied with Gary Werdesheim, and a M.M. from Temple University as a student of noted Philadelphia Orchestra percussionist Alan Abel.
Mr. Shaw was featured as a soloist at the Eastern Music Festival in 2019, performing Joseph Schwantner’s Concerto for Percussion. Over the past 24 years he has also performed several concerti with The Florida Orchestra – in addition to the Schwantner, he was also featured on Bela Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion, James MacMillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, and Tan Dun’s Water Concerto. His group, the Tampa Bay Steel Orchestra, was featured with The Florida Orchestra in 2005 and 2009.
With his wife, Anna Kate Mackle – principal harpist for The Florida Orchestra and Eastern Music Festival – he has commissioned several new chamber works for harp and percussion. Two such pieces, Nathan Daughtrey’s Labyrinth of Light and Michael Ippolito’s Wand’ring Fire, received their world premieres at EMF in 2018 and 2022, respectively.
Additionally, Shaw has taught at St. Petersburg College since 1996. He has performed with such artists as Sting, Seal, Idina Menzel, and Frank Sinatra, Jr., as well as Broadway touring productions of White Christmas and Anything Goes.
As an artist for Zildjian, Pearl/Adams, Grover and Freer Percussion, Shaw presented masterclasses at the Percussive Arts Society’s 2010 and 2013 International Conventions. He and Anna Kate live in St. Petersburg, FL with their daughter Madeline.