Dr. Jason Kihle is currently the Director of Percussion Studies at the University of North Dakota. He teaches applied percussion, percussion ensemble, percussion techniques, and drumline. His previous appointments were Associate Professor of Percussion and Director of Bands at the University of Jamestown in North Dakota, where he taught applied percussion and directed the Wind Ensemble, and at Texas A&M University–Kingsville where, as Associate Professor of Percussion and Associate Director of Bands, he taught percussion, basic conducting, the Concert Band, founded the Latin Jazz ensemble, and directed The Pride of South Texas.
Dr. Kihle has taught music in public schools in Arizona, Colorado, and North Dakota. He has studied percussion with Mike Blake, Jim White, Gray Barrier, Michael Spiro, and Mark Ford. Dr. Kihle has been published in Early Music Colorado Quarterly, The Instrumentalist, The Educator's Companion, and Percussive Notes. He has been a presenter at the Minot State University Northwest International Festival of Music, the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, the state music education association conferences of North Dakota, Wyoming, California, Texas, and Iowa, and the NAfME National Conference.
Dr. Kihle has performed with the Grand Forks Symphony Orchestra, Colorado Wind Ensemble, Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra, and the Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed at the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy, the International Double Reed Society Convention, Texas Music Educators Association, the National Flute Association Convention, College Music Society National and Regional Conferences, the Montreaux Jazz Festival, and the International Thespian Festival. He performed Concertino for Marimba by Paul Creston at California State University Los Angeles in the spring of 2013. He commissioned Silencio for solo marimba from Nathan Daughtrey and gave its world premiere in the fall of 2016. Along with Elizabeth Janzen, he commissioned ANS (A New Sound) for flute and marimba from Trevor Weston for the College Music Society 2019 National Convention. His compositions and books are published by Bachovich Publications.
Dr. Kihle is a member of PAS, NAfME, TMEA, NACWPI, CMS, KKP, TBS, and ASCAP. He is a past member of the Percussive Arts Society University Pedagogy Committee. Dr. Kihle is an artist/endorser for Yamaha, Innovative Percussion, Black Swamp, Remo, and Zildjian.
