The timpani are among a symphony orchestra’s most exciting instruments. There’s nothing quite like a musician pounding away on wide kettledrums made from copper. But aside from the occasional dramatic ...

Use the tabs below to find out about each section of the orchestra, watch video clips, and read interviews with musicians. What is a percussion instrument? Well, in the simplest terms it's something ...

Alan Lawrence had been the principal timpanist for the Cedar Rapids Symphony for 11 years before his instruments — heavy kettledrums in varying sizes — were upgraded to a pristine, precise new set. On ...

Caroline Garden played in the SCO for 37 years ...

Before the timpani became an orchestral instrument, during the Civil War, people used to play on the horseback. This type of drum has a skin which is called head and it is stretched on a large bowl ...

Conductor Elizabeth Young said the orchestra was able to secure the set of four giant kettle drums, worth more than $20,000, thanks to the generosity of the Queensland Government and the Gambling ...

Markus Rhoten started learning piano as a toddler in Germany, "but I would always go to the low notes. I had an affinity for bass," he said. So his parents started him on drum lessons when he was 5.