Biography

Erik Forrester, associate professor, winds and percussion, is the director of the USC Thornton Percussion Ensemble. Active as a soloist in chamber music, symphonic music and opera, Mr. Forrester plays with the Southwest Chamber Music Society, the chamber ensemble XTET, as principal percussionist with the Opera Pacific Orchestra and with ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony and Long Beach Opera. He performed for several years as principal percussionist and assistant timpanist with the Mexico City Philharmonic and has also performed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Dallas Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, American Ballet Theatre, Joffrey Ballet and the Royal Ballet.

Mr. Forrester was a distinguished guest at the 1999 Taipei International Percussion Convention, which included performances by twelve of the world's finest percussion ensembles. In Taipei, he was guest clinician and adjudicator at the National Institute of the Arts. He is the creator of the Performance Potential Workshop, designed to help performers deal with performance anxiety and achieve their best performance. Under his direction, the USC Thornton Percussion Ensemble is completing a recording of works written especially for the ensemble by Thornton composers.