Spirit Of Atlanta Names 2016 Percussion Team

The final pieces of the Educational and Instructional teams for Spirit of Alanta’s 2016 season are now in place, as Director Chris Moore has named the staff that will lead the percussion section for the corps’s 40th Anniversary year.

John M. Cypert – Percussion Supervisor & Arranger

John M. Cypert currently serves as a music specialist at Duncan Creek Elementary School in Hoschton, Georgia where he teaches General Music to children in grades K-5 and co-directs the Duncan Creek Cardinal Choir, a 2013 guest performance ensemble at the Georgia Music Educators annual in-service conference. John is also in his seventeenth season as the percussion coordinator and arranger for the University of Georgia Redcoat Marching Band. John has served as the music arranger and ensemble director for Pariah Percussion Theatre from Jasper, Georgia, a competitive independent percussion ensemble in the Winter Guard International arena. While in this position, Pariah earned the WGI Percussion Independent Open Class silver medal in 2003, was a World Class finalist in 2004, and was crowned the Open Class World Champion in 2009. In 2005 and 2006, John served in the same capacity for Odyssey Percussion Theatre from Suwanee, Georgia, who placed sixth and seventh respectively in the WGI Percussion Independent World Class. In 2000, John served as the percussion caption head and arranger for the DCI finalist, Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps from Newark, Delaware. In 2009, the Valdosta Middle School percussion ensemble commissioned and premiered John’s original work, Perpetuality, at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to this in 2008, the Lanier Middle School percussion ensemble from Suwanee, Georgia performed his commissioned arrangement of Voices of Spring by Johann Strauss, Jr. at the same venue. John remains active as a composer, arranger, adjudicator, and clinician throughout the United States.

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