Joseph Gramley is professor of music in percussion and chair of the Percussion Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. He serves on the Executive Council and Administrative Committees at Jacobs.
A Grammy Award-winning multi-percussionist, Gramley has performed and taught internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in addition to playing with major symphony orchestras. He released eight albums as a founding member of the Silkroad Ensemble and served as the group’s first associate artistic director, working directly with Yo-Yo Ma. Gramley’s two solo recordings, American Deconstruction and Global Percussion, represent definitive, milestone works in the modern multi-percussion canon.
Gramley came to Bloomington after 12 years of leading the percussion program at the University of Michigan, where he successfully placed a generation of percussionists in varied posts worldwide—from symphony orchestras to Broadway, and top-tier universities and conservatories to world stages with pop artists and chamber musicians alike.
His versatility as a percussionist has found him performing alongside a broad cross section of artists, including Ma, Elton John, Michael Stern, Chris Thile, David Robertson, George Benjamin, Bela Fleck, Gabe Kahane, Susan Graham, American Ballet Theatre, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Renee Fleming, Wu Man, Bobby McFerrin, Glen Velez, and Keiko Abe. Gramley’s cross-genre collaborations have seen him involved with more than 100 new commissions from the leading composers of our time. His duo, Organized Rhythm, with Clive Driskill-Smith, is the world’s premier and most active organ/percussion collaboration. They have two albums to their name and have played at 6 AGO National and Regional Conferences. Gramley has also played at over 10 PASICs as both a soloist/ chamber musician and ensemble director. The Indiana University Percusison Ensemble won the International Percussion Enemble Competition in 2023, with Gramley as Director and Chair.
Born in 1970, Gramley grew up in Oregon and was named a presidential scholar in the arts in 1988. He did his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan. Festival experience includes Tanglewood, Salzburg Mozarteum, Spoleto Festival, London Proms, Parist Cité de la Musique, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Luzern, Hollywood Bowl, Blossom Music Center, Sonoma, and 15 summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. He has played with the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, Orchestre De Lyon and many others.
Gramley has played over 10 broadway shows in New Yorik City including Miss Saigon, Jekyll & Hyde, Caroline, or Change, The Color Purple, and Phantom of the Opera among others.
Gramley is principal timpanist and percussionist with The Knights Chamber Orchestra and has made multiple recordings with the group. This group has an annual series at Carnegie Hall and tours thorughout the U.S. and Europe. He made his concerto debut with the Houston Symphony and his solo debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Gramley earned his master’s degree from Juilliard and directed its Summer Percussion Seminar for 17 years.