Paul G. Ross is a Chicago based percussionist specializing
in steel band
music and drum set performance. He is the founder and leader of
the
midwest's most accomplished professional steel band, Pan Go, director
of the
Harper College Steel Bands in Palatine, Illinois, and director
of Barrington
Percussion Experience. A prolific composer, Paul's collection of
original
compositions for steel band and steel pan solo are available from
his
publishing company
Pan Press, Inc. and are performed around the
world.
Raised in Windsor, Connecticut, Paul moved to Illinois in the fall
of 1983
to attend Northern Illinois University as a percussion major. It
was the
renowned NIU steel band that gave him his first exposure to pan
music and it
wasn't long before he joined the group as their drummer. While
at NIU he
also became principal percussionist of the NIU Wind Ensemble and
NIU
Philharmonic. During his junior year he won the NIU concerto competition
and
performed as soloist with the orchestra on marimba. Paul went on
to receive
a Bachelor of Music in percussion performance and a Master of Music
in Steel
Pan performance from NIU.
Shortly after completing his Bachelor degree, Paul became percussion
instructor at Elgin Community College in Elgin, Illinois. In the
fall of
1987 he founded the Elgin Community College Steel Band program
and rehearsed
as many as three different steel bands weekly. While at ECC he
composed
prolifically for steel band, writing 35 original pieces and arranging
close
to 100 other pieces for ECC's steel bands. The two annual steel
band
concerts at ECC often became sold out shows. In 1998 Paul produced "
Full
Circle", the ECC Steel Band's first CD, which included
3 of his compositions and a
commissioned work by Trinidad steel pan legend Ray Holman.
Paul has been directing the
Harper
College Steel Bands since the
spring of 1998 and during that time Harper’s advanced steel band has
become one of the
finest community steel bands in the nation. The Harper
Steel Bands present
two on campus
concerts each school year and also perform several
outdoor
concerts each summer. They have specialized in premiering new works
for
steel band.
Over the past decade Paul has been in demand as a freelance performer
in a
wide variety of musical settings. Although he is well known as
a performer
of caribbean music he also works as a symphonic percussionist and
drum set
performer. Highlights of the last few years include the release
of Pan Go's
debut recording, "
For the Day" and
performances on recordings by Chicago's
"Waterhouse" band, jazz composer/mallet player James
Walker and the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra. Paul has made three trips to Trinidad and Tobago,
the
home of the steel band, to perform in Panorama and the first World
Steel
Band Festival. He has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra
in
Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Carnegie Hall, and on tour in Germany
and
Switzerland.
