 Back To Staff Page Dave Schmuck began his musical journey at the very young age of 4 when he began playing piano. However, it wouldn’t be until he was 10 when he would find his true calling by picking up his first pair of drum sticks. In high school, Dave excelled at his craft and was awarded several honors, amongst those being Most Outstanding Musician of the Central Illinois Youth Symphony in 1995 and the First Chair Timpanist in the All-State Honors Band in the state of Illinois in 1996. Dave Schmuck spent his college years as a percussion performance major in Champaign, Illinois. As well as studying percussion, Dave also performed around the Central Illinois area playing drum set and percussion for many jazz and rock ensembles as well as theatre productions and musicals. From 1996 to 1999 as a member of the Marching Illini at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Dave played tenors in some of the strongest tenor sections ever fielded at that school. He was Section Leader for three of those years and Ensemble Section Leader for his final year. |
He then continued on to teach and write for the Marching Illini for the next four years. He has also performed and wrote music for the 2000 University of Kentucky Indoor Marching Percussion Ensemble which took first place at WGI that season. In 1998 and 1999, he was a member of the seven time world champion Cavaliers Drum & Bugle Corps as a member of the tenor line which went on to win the Fred Sanford Percussion Trophy the summer of 1999. Dave continued on to teach the tenor section for the Cavaliers for 2001, 2002 and 2003 seasons during which the drum corps had earned two of its seven world championships. Since the fall of 2000, Dave has lived in the Chicago-land area writing and teaching percussion for many high schools in the area including schools like Waubonsie Valley HS, Wheaton North HS and Lake Park HS to name a few and continues to travel and teach schools throughout the country. He is also a local marching percussion adjudicator and clinician. Dave Schmuck has been teaching percussion at Prospect HS for the past nine years and is the director of the Chicago Bears Drumline which is in its fourth season performing at every Chicago Bears home game. Dave Schmuck is also a founding member of the Chicago Bulls Stampede Drumline which is in its second season. Currently Dave and his wife Gina live in Mokena, Illinois and is continuing his education at VanderCook College of Music in Chicago.
Dave is especially excited to be involved with this season of Pioneer Indoor and hopes to be a strong contributor in taking this ensemble to the next level. |