Joesph Gramley

Biography

Joseph Gramley is professor of music in percussion and chair of the Percussion Department at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. 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 has also served as a children and family concert host for the New York Philharmonic, Silkroad ensemble with Yo-Yo Ma, Carnegie Hall and many other institutions.

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 has three solo recordings, American Deconstruction, Unison and Global Percussion: each represent definitive, milestone works in the modern multi-percussion canon.
Gramley came to IU-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 DMA graduates are teaching at colleges, universities and conservatories across the world.

His versatility as a percussionist has found him performing alongside a broad cross section of artists, including Yo-Yo Ma, Elton John, Jennifer Lopez, Michael Stern, Renee Fleming, Bill Irwin, Bobby McFerrin, Fantasia Barino, Sebastian Bach, Lisa Fischer, Gregory Porter, Bill Frissell, Wu Man, Glen Velez, Sandeep Das, Edgar Meyer, Emanuel Ax, Dawn Upshaw, Alan Gilbert, Chris Thile, Colin Jacobsen, Keiko Abe, Eric Jacobsen, Susan Graham, Bela Fleck and many others.

He has appeared on Good Morning America, Late Night with David Letterman, CBC national Canadian TV and NHK National Japanese TV. He appears in the film The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (nominated for the 2016 GRAMMY for Best Music Film).

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 recorded two albums and played on three continents. They are regularly featured at national regional AGO (American Guild of Organists) conferences. His Indiana University Percussion Ensemble won the International Percussion Ensemble competition and performed at PASIC 2023. Gramley has performed at five additional PASIC conferences.

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, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Caramoor, Ravinia, Mostly Modern, Central Park Summer Stage, Blossom Music Festival, Hollywood Bowl, Shanghai Special Olympics opening, IBM executive conference, Ford Foundation and 15 summers at the Marlboro Music Festival.
He made his concerto debut with the Houston Symphony with Christoph Eschenbach, and his solo debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Gramley earned his master’s degree from The Juilliard School and directed its Summer Percussion Seminar for 17 years.

Gramley is committed to a versatile and open-minded approach across multiple styles, genres and idioms.