Kevin Yetter
Principal
A versatile musician and educator, Kevin Yetter is a freelance percussionist who is equally at home in the orchestra, as a chamber musician, and as a drummer in many settings, from the theatre pit to the jazz club. He serves as Principal Percussionist of the Fort Collins Symphony and performs regularly in the area, including with the Boulder Philharmonic, the Cheyenne Symphony, the Longmont Symphony, and many others.
Originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, Kevin has performed in dozens of states and abroad, in orchestras and as a chamber musician. He has premiered new works at the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Cortona, Italy, performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention with Jorge Alabe, and performed at the Hyde Park Jazz Festival with Nicole Mitchell and Ensemble Dal Niente. While living in Chicago, Kevin was an active jazz drummer and performed with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Composer’s Orchestra, and the Highland Park Strings.
As an educator, in addition to teaching privately, Kevin has taught lessons in Chicago area public schools and currently teaches percussion courses at the University of Colorado Boulder. Kevin holds a Master of Music in Percussion Performance from DePaul University, and a B.A. in Music and Mathematics from St. Olaf College. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance at the University of Colorado Boulder. He lives in Boulder with his fiancé Erika and their two cats. Away from music, he enjoys getting outdoors to hike, camp, ski, and volunteer for organizations working to restore and protect Colorado’s landscapes.
Get to Know Kevin
Where are you from?
St. Paul, MN
How did you first get started playing?
There were always a few instruments in our house that I would play with as a very young kid; guitars, a banjo, and my dad’s old broken-down set of drums in the basement from when he played in high school and college. After starting out playing violin for several years I quickly asked to take drum lessons instead and never looked back.
What’s your favorite thing about playing your instrument?
In the orchestra, I feel the percussion’s role is often just to make a moment in the music a little more special. Whether it’s a cymbal crash punctuating a climactic arrival or a triangle coloring a delicate moment — our contribution isn’t always necessary to the music per se, but it can add the last little bit of musical magic to create those powerful, special human experiences that we only feel with live music. I love the feeling of putting everything I can into a passage, sometimes even just a single note, to be a small part of creating moments like this.
What do you like to do outside of music?
Like many in Colorado, I love being outside and in the mountains: hiking, camping, and skiing, as well as volunteering for organizations working to restore and protect Colorado’s landscapes.
Why is music important to you?
Music is important for so many reasons — it makes us feel present and connected to ourselves and other people, it always goes hand-in-hand with community, and like all forms of art it helps us understand and interface with the complicated world around us. It’s also just so much fun…I know I will never get tired of playing drums!