Damon Grant: Arts Speak Performance Lecture

About Damon Grant
Damon teaches percussion regularly to private students ranging from beginner to intermediate and beyond. He has given clinics, masterclasses, and seminars for the Percussive Arts Society and at many music conferences throughout the US and Canada, as well as the Peruvian Cajon Festival. He has contributed articles to Modern Drummer Magazine, Percussive Notes Magazine, and writes and arranges for percussion groups, drum corps, high schools, and several universities. He is available for clinics or consultations for groups, in person and virtually.

He hosts a weekly percussion podcast called Discussions in Percussion, the official podcast of the Percussive Arts Society and is the co-chair for the PAS World Percussion Committee.

Damon and his group, The Damon Grant Project, have been featured in Modern Drummer and Latin Beat Magazines and performed in London at the gala event for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team. He was a member of the 1-time World Champion Boston Crusaders Drum Corps, and the 10-time DCI World Champion, Cadets Drum Corps, performing at the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Damon was also a member of The Bomb Squad which was featured in People Magazine and won an American Music Award. He was an original cast member of the show Blast! which won both an Emmy and a Tony award.

Damon independently recorded and released an album called ‘Prevailing Melodies’ produced by David Ryan Harris. The album features Harris, along with other artists including: Morgan James, Marc Broussard, Zane Carney, Stephen Kellogg, Doug Wamble, Chrissi Poland, P.J. Pacifico, Christine Tambakis and many more.

Damon has recorded on two Grammy-Nominated albums. One by the late Blues artist, Joe Louis Walker and the other by Randy Rainbow. He also worked with Madonna on her 2012 Super Bowl halftime show, her MDNA tour, and DVD premiere in NYC. As a professional side-person, Damon has performed around the world, worked and/or recorded with world-class musicians including: Mary J. Blige, Charlie Hunter, Ziggy Marley, Morgan James, David Ryan Harris, Billy Porter, Kirk Franklin, Eric Hutchinson, Javier Colon, Erich Bergen, Norbert Leo Butz, Horacio “El Negro” Hernandez, Stefon Harris. He has played in the house band for American Idol, The Voice, and benefits supporting the ACLU, Gods Love We Deliver, and With Love From Broadway. He played in the pit for Jelly’s Last Jam and has done sidelining work on shows like The Path, Pose, and Daredevil.

Damon is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst with a degree in African-American Jazz Studies and Performance. He has studied with greats like Yusef Lateef and Giovanni Hidalgo on all types of percussion instruments.