Paul Vaillancourt (D.M.A) is Professor of Percussion at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. He has been a featured soloist at the Banff and Aspen Summer Music Festivals, Sound Symposium Music Festival in Newfoundland, with the National Arts Center and Ottawa Symphony Orchestras and the St. Petersburg Chamber Orchestra (Russia). Recent concerto performances have included Michael Daugherty’s Raise the Roof with the CSU Wind Ensemble, Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto with the CSU Philharmonic, the Guanajuato Philharmonic Orchestra in Mexico and the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra this past summer.
He has performed all over the world with many contemporary music ensembles including Bent Frequency, Sonic Generator, Furious Band, The Fountain City Ensemble and the piano/percussion duo, STRIKE with pianist Jeff Meyer.STRIKE tours of China, Russia and Thailand included performances at the Beijing Modern Music Festival at the Central Conservatory, Tianjin Conservatory, SoundWays New Music Festival in St. Petersburg, at the Thailand International Composers Festival and at universities in the greater Bangkok area. He performs regularly with the Columbus Symphony and more recently with the Atlanta Symphony.Since his appointment as pit orchestra director for the Springer Opera House in Columbus, Georgia, he has led productions of Shrek, The Musical, Les Misérables, Mary Poppins, Beauty and The Beast, The Little Mermaid, Avenue Q and Sweeney Todd.
Upcoming performances include Brian Cherney’s In Gottes Garden schweigen due Engel for solo percussion, voice and percussion ensemble; concerto appearances include Jan Jarvlepp’s Garbage Concerto with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Jennifer Higdon’s Percussion Concerto with the Arizona State University Orchestra and Springer Opera House productions of Disney’s Newsies and Bernstein’s West Side Story.
He produced a disc of chamber music by Eastman School of Music faculty composers Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and David Liptak (Stars, Stories, Songs) and several recordings as director of the Columbus State University Percussion Ensemble, including: Matt Welch’s The Self and The Other, a double concerto for bagpipes and piano with percussion ensemble (Dream Tigers-TZADIK), Eric Moe’s I Have Only One Itching Desire (Strange Exclaiming Music, American Classics-NAXOS), and the ensemble’s first full length disc entitled Shifting Cells (Albany Records), featuring new works written for the ensemble by Nico Muhly, Jim David, Robert Rumbelow, and Brian Cherney. Their second disc is due for release next year and will include new works by composers Wayne Peterson, Sergio Assad, Fred Cohen, Matthew Welch, Dan Trueman and Jim David.
He also participated in the recording of Ricardo Zohn Muldoon's chamber opera COMALA, which earned the composer a Pulitzer prize nomination. Vaillancourt has recorded for Parma Recordings, Ravello Records, Albany Records, Luminescence Records, CRI, Tzadik, Naxos and New Chris Records. He is a Pearl/Adams Education Artist.