“If you hit it, we play it.”

That’s how Daniel Moore, director of Iowa Percussion, describes the range covered by his program. Vibraphones, timpani, and xylophones are just some of the instruments played in the University of Iowa’s percussion program, one of the oldest in the country.

Thomas L. Davis established Iowa Percussion in 1958, and served as director until 1996, when Moore arrived to succeed him.

Raised in Longview, Texas, Moore earned a BA from Texas A&M University–Commerce, a master’s degree in music education from Wichita State University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kentucky. After teaching at Montana State University for eight years, Moore eagerly accepted the position at the UI, noting that Davis was a respected figure in the field whose work he was familiar with.

Iowa Percussion has remained one of the most active programs in the country, and its ensembles have performed across the Midwest, in China, and at two Percussive Arts Society International Conventions.

Moore recently sat down with Iowa Now to talk about the highlights of his 20 years with Iowa Percussion.

What does being director of Iowa Percussion entail?

I teach all things percussion. My students are aspiring percussionist performers and teachers who are in music education, professional performers in service bands, in orchestras, are concert producers, or are in music therapy. A wide variety of people can come to the percussions program. If they’re looking for a Bachelor of Music degree and they play percussions, they are my students.

What’s your favorite aspect of teaching?

The connections with students that last a lifetime. Just like how I still talk to my college percussion teachers, I have students who come back to Iowa City for football games and concerts, and getting a chance to reconnect with them is great. I think building those lifelong relationships is crucial. A lot of my former students feel like they can come back to me for recommendation letters or career advice. For me, interacting with young people and watching them grow and go out into the world is the best part.

You’re the second director of Iowa Percussion in the program’s history. What was your relationship with your predecessor, Thomas L. Davis, and what does it mean to carry on the program’s legacy?

Percussion is fairly new in the world of academia. The first official percussion teachers didn’t start until the 1950s, and Iowa was among the first group of schools to actually have a specialized percussion teacher. Before that, maybe the band director taught percussions. When Himie Voxman was really trying to build the School of Music back in the late ’50s, he wanted to hire someone just to teach percussion. So in 1958, Professor Thomas L. Davis came to Iowa and started the percussion program. He taught here until 1996, when I started.

My relationship with Tom started in high school, and I didn’t even know it. I’m from Texas and I wasn’t aware of the UI School of Music then, but I did know who Tom Davis was because he wrote a lot of the early, high school–level percussion ensemble music. So I was playing his music from a young age, and when I went to college, everybody played pieces out of his book Recital for Vibraharp, so I knew his name. And in ’96, when this job opened up, I was like, “I know who this guy is.”

When I got the job, he was very open and accepting. He stepped out of the way to let me run things, but he was also very supportive. We got know each other pretty well, but unfortunately he had a stroke just a few years after he retired, and due to his health he wasn’t able to come by and be involved. But we remained friends until he passed away in 2011.

I feel like I got the job because I was a younger version of him. He was a percussionist, he could play drum set, he could play jazz, he directed the marching band here for a while. He could kind of do everything. In this age where people specialize in marimba or one thing or the other, they were looking for someone who could carry on the tradition of versatility.

We were set up to be successful by all the work that Tom had done for the program. I just turned up the amp.

How do you like the new Voxman Music Building?

It’s great. We love it. It’s a beautiful space to work in. It’s functioning very well, and you can’t dislike coming to work here.

What is your most memorable experience at the UI?

It was actually something that happened this November. We had a concert with an alumna guest artist. Her name is Michelle Colton. She was born and raised in Iowa, her father was a high school band director in Marion, and she came to the UI very early in my tenure here. She was a great student and a gifted performer. Since she left, she went to the University of Toronto for her master’s and doctoral degrees, and she’s become an amazing professional performer, and I just got to see how all of this is supposed to work.

I sent her away a wet-behind-the-ears young percussionist who had a wealth of energy and talent, but not a lot of focus, which is common for undergrads. And then she turned into this awesome musician, and she came back to perform with our students. And my current students got to see someone who was in their shoes 10 years ago being very successful. So it was very moving for me to see that. And, historically, we’ve had alumni come back and share their expertise to our current students.

If you could have a song written about you, who would perform it, and what would it be called?

“A Song Without Words,” an instrumental written by a 15-year-old composer who’s the next big thing.