Have Drums, Will Travel!

 

Have Drums, Will Travel!

At the Concertgebouw

At the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, 1996

Welcome to Kettledrummer.com! This is the personal website of yours truly, Andrew P. Simco. With over forty years experience as a timpanist, percussionist, educator and clinician, I have had a lot of fun during my career. Having performed with many fine ensembles such as the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, the Kenosha Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, the Elmhurst and Elgin Symphony Orchestras as well as the Lake George Opera and the Des Moines Metro Opera Festival, I have indeed been very fortunate. Note the subtitle. This is an affectionate tip of the hat to an old TV western that starred the actor Richard Boone, called “Have Gun, Will Travel.” Having been free-lancing and hauling timpani from one gig to another over the course of the last eighteen years, I kind of feel like the character Paladin from that show.
This website is designed not only to let you know who I am and what I have done and am currently up to, but to talk about the timpani and related matters. It is an interesting profession and I am still having a blast after all these years. The site will be built around a series of blog posts – and I hope that as they are posted that you will read and enjoy them.

Blank Performing Arts Center

My Musical Career I Part Sixty-One

The Des Moines Metro Opera Years – Part One I ended my last blog post with my winning the taped audition for the post of Principal Timpanist of the Des Moines Metro Opera Festival Orchestra, a post I was to hold for eighteen years – or nineteen seasons. To recap, as a result of our …

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Blank Performing Arts Center

My Musical Career| Part Sixty

.The Transition – from the Oslo Philharmonic to the Des Moines Metro Opera….. June 1998…. With the final glorious chords of the finale of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony resounding in my ears, I stood behind the Hinger timpani on the stage of the Oslo Konserthus with the orchestra accepting the applause of an appreciative audience for …

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On the job at last!

My Musical Career | Part Fifty-Nine

The Year 1998 – The last Six Months with the Oslo Philharmonic We now come to the last six months of my tenure with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. To recap, my wife and I made the decision to move our family back to the United States at the end of 1996, and the actual move …

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My Musical Career I Part Fifty-eight

The Year 1997 – Some Afterthoughts Wow! Three long blog posts to describe my musical comings and goings as well as those of the Oslo Philharmonic in the year 1997! Until I started with Part One, I did not realize how musically busy that year was! On top of making the decision to move the …

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