Percussion Faculty

Brian Justison

Brian Justison is Associate Professor of Music and Coordinator of Percussion Studies at Millikin University.  His responsibilities include directing the chamber and world percussion ensembles and teaching courses in percussion pedagogy and drum set styles.  His students include recent winners of the MTNA National Solo Percussion Competition and the Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition.  His performance credits include the: Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, Canadian Brass, and the Brass of Illinois.  He has also performed with a variety of leading jazz, Latin, and pop artists including: Gene Bertoncini, Brian Bromberg, Warren Chiasson, Jeremy Davenport, Dardanelle, Cathy Garcia, John McNeil, and Marcus Roberts.  He is currently the drummer for the Jane Hartman trio.  Mr. Justison is active as an adjudicator and clinician throughout the region with recent appearances at the United States Percussion Camp, the Midwest Percussion Camp, the IMEA/MENC All State Festival, and the Percussive Arts Society Illinois Day of Percussion (1998, 2000, 2006, 2008). 

Jeremy Brunk

Dr. Jeremy Brunk serves as Lecturer of Music at Millikin University, where he teaches percussion and music theory. In addition to applied percussion students, masterclasses and percussion methods courses, he also assists with the ensemble program by coaching contemporary repertoire and new works with the Experimental Music Percussion Ensemble. Dr. Brunk’s current music theory and ear training courses fit into the sophomore year of the Music Core curriculum, but he has also taught freshman theory, Twentieth Century music history, jazz/commercial music history and all levels of composition.

Outside of Millikin, Dr. Brunk has given masterclasses in marimba and timpani at the Illinois Day of Percussion (2007 & 2008), Waubonsie Valley High School Summer Percussion Camp (2007) and IMEA Percussion Symposium (2006), as well as taught at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (2002-04).

Since 2001, Dr. Brunk has served as Principal Timpanist for the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra and as Section Percussionist with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in Springfield and Bloomington. His previous orchestral experience includes working with Sinfonia da Camera, Champaign-Urbana Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic and North Carolina School of the Arts Summer Festival Orchestra. He has also appeared as a soloist with the Millikin-Decatur Symphony and Valley Symphony Orchestras, and was a finalist for the PASIC International Solo Timpani Competition in 1998.

Dr. Brunk is also a founding member of the Mélange Chamber Players, giving recitals of classical and contemporary chamber repertoire in Chicago and the surrounding region. During the summers, he works as an accompanist for the dance program at Interlochen Center for the Arts, collaborating with dance faculty and guest artists from around the country.

As a composer and performer of new music, Dr. Brunk has premiered works by Millikin composer John Stafford, as well as Carolyn Bremer, Jennifer Bernard Merkowitz, Elyzabeth Meade, Michael DeMurga, Kyong-mee Choi and many others. As a graduate student, he performed in residencies of Steve Reich, Vinko Globokar, Pauline Oliveros, Annea Lockwood, Christian Wolff, and NEXUS.

Dr. Brunk’s own compositions have been premiered by the Millikin Percussion Ensemble (PASIC, 2003), the New York New Music Ensemble (Illinois Wesleyan University Symposium of Contemporary Music, 2006), and the University of Illinois Percussion Ensemble (Midwest Composers Symposium, 2000). His latest work for the Millikin ensemble, Dominican Cycles will be premiered in its entirety this fall on the PASIC Focus Day.

In 2007, Dr. Brunk completed his D.M.A. in Percussion Performance and Literature at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, having studied percussion with William Moersch and composition with Erik Lund and Zack Browning. His dissertation, titled “Reflections of Debussy: A Comparative Analysis of Solo Marimba Works by Jacob Druckman and Richard Rodney Bennett,” explores connections between the musical language in Reflections on the Nature of Water and After Syrinx II to that of Debussy’s Syrinx and piano Préludes. Part of this research was presented at PASIC in 2000 as a Research Poster titled “Motive, Interval and Form.” Dr. Brunk also received his M.M. from the University of Oklahoma (1999) and a B.M. from Millikin University (1997), both in Percussion Performance