Principal Timpani
Frank Shaffer has been Principal Timpanist with the Memphis Symphony and Associate Professor of Percussion at the Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music at the University of Memphis since 1975. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Music Education from Duquesne University while performing with the Pittsburgh Symphony. In New Haven, Connecticut he received his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University while performing with the Bridgeport and New Haven Symphonies.
His principal teachers include Eugene Fabrizi, William Schneiderman,and Fred Hinger. He has also participated in masterclasses with Leigh Howard Stevens and Cloyd Duff. Frank has served on the planning committees of the Percussive Arts Society International Conventions for 1989, 1996, 2001, and 2004. He was also percussion consultant and English translation editor for Chilpachole de Arpa, a bilingual harp method based on the traditional music of Veracruz, Mexico. In addition, Frank was a member of the Festival Marimba Orchestra at the West Point Music Festival in March,1998.
Since 1999, he has served as orchestra sub-chair on the Percussive Arts Society Health and Wellness Committee. Elected president of the Tennessee State Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society in 2004, he was re-elected in 2006. In May of 2007, he played in a faculty recital and gave Master Classes at the East China Normal University and the Shanghai Conservatory in China. In December 2007, he was invited to perform in the Festival Virtuosi Orchestra in Recife, Brazil. He performed and taught at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival from 1979-2008, and served as Associate Director of the festival from 2001-2006. Frank has just become a Trained HealthRYHTHMS Facilitator for drum circles, and will be working with students at Youth Villages during the 2010-2011season.
When not busy drumming or teaching, he enjoys reading,cooking, long walks, and sailing. He is married to the MSO principal harpist, Marian J. Shaffer. Theirs was a symphony romance. They met playing in the Memphis Little Symphony in 1975. Their two daughters are both harpists. Julia teaches third grade at the Covington Integrated Arts Academy where MSO trumpeter Mike Mckenzie is the band director. Mimi is a fourth year medical student at the Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University.