The career of Todd Hammes continues to unfold, through frequent performances, powerful interactive workshops, profound educational contributions, prolific compositional output, and untiring efforts to bring the gift of music to an ever-widening and enormously receptive audience.

This gifted artist is one of a rare breed of percussionists, balancing sensitivity and control with creativity and raw energy – an uncommon artist whose life and training have prepared him for the exciting career he enjoys today.

Through the breadth of his musical endeavors, Todd creates meaningful connections between himself, his students, colleagues and audiences everywhere.

Born in 1969 and raised in Onalaska, Wisconsin, Todd has spent his life pursuing his own plan. An avid performer since age five, he never missed an opportunity to study or perform. It’s an inclination that has served him well – while a student at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire, and at the University of Arizona, where he studied with renowned pedagogue Gary Cook. Beginning in 1989 he performed with Tucson Symphony Orchestra, as well as with countless others of Tucson’s finest musicians. Today, residing in Madison, Wisconsin, Todd teaches, composes and performs with an ever-widening network of friends and musicians.

In addition to his virtuosity, Todd’s special gift is creating musical connection with others so that, in live performance, the line between stage and audience becomes at times nearly imperceptible.

It was at the U of A that Todd decided to devote himself to hand drumming. Upon graduating with a B. M. in 1992, he turned down several offers from graduate schools, instead charting his own course of independent study.

In 1993, Bob Becker of the acclaimed percussion ensemble Nexus introduced Todd to the Indian master tabla artist Pandit Sharda Sahai, with whom he has studied faithfully ever since. While tabla is his favorite instrument, the application of Indian drumming concepts to Western music is what most intrigues him.

Along his way Todd has sought out many other master drummers for study, most notably Glen Velez for frame drumming, as well as notable Latin, African and Middle Eastern musicians.

Even with the range of his world music influences, Todd remains a Western musician who relates extraordinarily well to American audiences and students young and old. He has performed at over 2000 events, on many recordings, and has extensively studied classical, chamber and western contemporary music.

Todd and Several Core Dancers Artistic Director Sue Shroder

Todd has received many commissions for the composition of original music. These include works for dance, theater, and the concert hall. An evening-long work, Remembering, was commissioned by Several Dancers Core of Atlanta and Houston. Speedway Boulevard: Tucson was commissioned by Linda Siegel, percussionist with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. 

In 2005, Todd was awarded a prestigious McKnight Visiting Composer Residency from the American Composer's Forun.  As a McKnight Visiting Composer, Todd had the privilege of making music with the clients and staff of the South Eastern Minnesota Center for Independent Living. 

Todd's compositions are regularly performed by his unique chamber music ensemble, The Tool and Drum Ensemble.  He considers himself a performer first and a composer second, so he regularly creates music for himself to perform as percussionist with these groups.  Improvisation is an integral part of his music and he often writes music that is a vehicle for virtuosic improvisational displays.

As an educator, Todd has led teacher training programs, and acted as artist-in-residence in over 50 schools and hundreds of classrooms in Arizona and elsewhere. He demonstrates a remarkable gift for working with non-musicians: gifted and at risk youth and adults, the deaf and blind, physically and /or cognitively impaired, and preschoolers. His artist-in-residence work has included The Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind, Wolftrap Institute, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Children’s Museum, Young Audiences of Southern Arizona, Young Audiences of Santa Cruz County, Meet the Composer, Arizona Commission on the Arts, Tucson/Pima Arts Council, Tucson Unified School District, Mesa Public Schools, Catalina Foothills School District and University of Arizona.

Todd regularly leads workshops, clinics and master classes in hand drumming, focusing on community and the universal similarities between people. He also teaches privately and leads a regularly scheduled hand drumming class entitled Hand Drum Exploratorium.

In 1997, Todd co-founded the Tucson Institute of Percussion (TIP) along with fellow Tucson percussionists Homero Ceron and Brian Harris. TIP’s mission is to raise the level of awareness and performance of the percussive arts in Southern Arizona, presenting the “World of Percussion Summer Camp,” an annual summer camp for young percussionists ages 8-18.

Todd is a contributing author to the 3rd Editions of Gary Cook's renowned text book, "Teaching Percussion." He also performed a variety of hand drumming demonstrations for the book's corresponding DVD. Released December 2005. ISBN: 0028701917 Wadsworth Publishing. www.thomsonedu.com

Todd has been listed on the Arizona and Idaho Commission on the Arts Artist Rosters with his program “Making Music”, and was also a two-term president for the Arizona chapter of the Percussive Arts Society.

Todd is a World Music Artist for REMO percussion and uses Pro-Mark sticks and mallets.