Kristen Shiner McGuire

Biography

Kristen Shiner McGuire has been the Coordinator of Percussion Studies since 1984. She is known internationally as a percussionist, marimbist, drummer, singer, composer, clinician, and teacher. Her credits range from playing drums and singing lead vocals in rock and jazz groups, to performing with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Pan Gaia Steel Band, as well as for artists Ben Folds and Josh Groban.

Ms. Shiner McGuire has served on the Board of Directors for the International Percussive Arts Society and won the Outstanding Chapter President Award in 1993; she served as NYS Chapter President from 1990-1999. Ms. Shiner McGuire is the recipient of the 2016 Richard H. Snook Award for Excellence in Teaching and the1998 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award from Nazareth College. A published author and composer as well as a performer and clinician, she holds a Masters Degree in Percussion Performance and a Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music and has studied marimba in Japan with virtuoso Keiko Abe.

Ms. Shiner McGuire is currently a performer with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the RPO Marimba Band, and The Rita Collective. Professor Shiner McGuire may be heard on her own jazz album, Kristen Sings and Plays and Rings, as the drummer, singer, and mallet percussionist; and as the marimba soloist and composer on the Rita Collective’s Forty-One Seconds. Her book, Mallet Percussion Workout, is distributed by Alfred Publishing.