Musical Collaborators
Reach out to any of these fantastic music arrangers! I've had the pleasure of working with everyone on this list and would love for you to experience their great work!
Ezekiel Lanser
Ezekiel is a marching arts educator, composer, and arranger who has been professionally involved in the world of pageantry under a variety of roles since 2011. He is uniquely sought after as a composer and arranger for all musical segments of a marching ensemble, be it brass, woodwinds, front ensemble, battery percussion, or sound design / electronics. Over the years, Ezekiel has written award-winning shows for marching bands and percussion ensembles around the country, thus building a library of music that would be the foundation for Front2BackMusic, which he owns and operates. Ezekiel has been and continues to be very active as an educator. He is currently the percussion caption head and percussion composer/arranger at Los Alamitos High School in Los Alamitos, California, and a snare tech at Pulse Percussion. He has also had the pleasure of being on percussion staff at POW Percussion, the Boston Crusaders, Phantom Regiment, and the Santa Clara Vanguard. During his 4 years teaching at Vanguard, the percussion section won the Fred Sanford High Percussion Award an astounding 3 times in a row.
Ezekiel received his undergraduate degree in percussion performance with a minor in music theory from the University of North Texas where he studied percussion with Paul Rennick, Mark Ford, Ed Soph, Ed Smith, Jose Aponte, and Christopher Deane.
Steven Herman
For the past 12 years Steven has built his experience by surrounding himself with some of the most accomplished educators and marching ensembles in the community including Chino High School, POW Percussion, the Phantom Regiment, Pulse Percussion, and Broken City. With 13 seasons of marching experience in WGI and DCI Steven was inspired to continue in the marching arts and begin his own body of work.As a music arranger, Steven assumed the role of Battery Arranger / Drill Writer for Chino HS in 2015. Since that time the ensemble has made 3 consecutive A class Finals in the SCPA circuit, becoming class Champion in 2017 and then becoming an Open Class Finalist in 2019. In the Independent Division Steven became Program Coordinator/Battery Arranger for Orange County Independent in 2017 (2017 SCPA PIO Champion / WGI Finalist) eventually rebranding the program with Weston Amaro as Vessel Percussion.
Tyler Sammons
Tyler Sammons is a percussion educator, designer, and clinician based in Austin, Texas. He graduated in 2011 from the University of North Texas with a degree in percussion performance and music theory. Since then, he has taught at several schools across the country, including Marian Catholic High School (IL), and most recently at Tom Glenn High School in Leander.
Mr. Sammons is heavily involved in the drum and bugle corps (DCI) activity, having served as a member of the percussion staff for Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps since 2012. Santa Clara Vanguard won the Fred Sanford Award for best percussion in 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2018, and was the DCI World Champion in 2018.
Prior to teaching at Vanguard, he taught the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps, and was a marching member of the Crossmen (TX) and Phantom Regiment (IL), capturing the DCI world championship with the Phantom Regiment in 2008, and the Fred Sanford award for best percussion in 2008 and 2010. He is also a former member of the Dallas Cowboys drumline. Mr. Sammons is and active arranger, clinician and adjudicator in the marching arts, and is a proud Innovative Percussion and REMO artist.
Matt Penland
Matt Penland is a percussion performer, educator, and arranger based out of Washington, D.C. where he is a percussionist in the U.S. Air Force Band. He is also on the instructional staff for The Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps and arranges music for several marching percussion groups across the country, including Music City Drum Corps, Guardians Drum Corps, and the Hawthorne Caballeros Drum Corps.
Matt hold music degrees from the University of North Texas and Northwestern University. His teachers included Paul Rennick, She-e Wu, Christopher Lamb, Vadim Karpinos, James Ross, Christopher Deane, and Mark Ford.
Matt proudly endorses Dynasty, Innovative Percussion and Remo products.
Andrew Markworth
Andrew Markworth is a composer, arranger and consultant writing wind, front ensemble and battery percussion for marching bands, indoor drumlines and drum corps.
He is currently the music arranger and coordinator for the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps from San Antonio, TX and The Company Performance Ensemble of Great Britain. He also is the music director for Rhythm X; both the 3 time gold medalist percussion group (2008, 2009, 2013) and the WGI Winds group who were Independent World class gold medalists in its inaugural year (2015). Andrew was the Front Ensemble Arranger/Coordinator for Carolina Crown from 2007-2014. He has also written for many successful high school groups including Centerville HS, Cedar Park HS, Vandegrift HS, Stephen F Austin HS, Bellbrook HS and many more.
Andrew currently resides in Centerville, Ohio with his wife Kara, daughter Natalie, son Brady and Ralphie the Westie. Before becoming a full time composer and arranger, he was the Centerville High School Band Director from 2005-2008.
He was a member of the Centerville Jazz Band and world champion winter drumline from 1997-2001. Following high school he was a member of the Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps in 2001 and 2002, being the percussion captain in 2002. In 2004, he was a member of the DCI World Champion Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps. Andrew was also a member of the WGI Independent World Class Medalist Rhythm X from 2003-2005, being the ensemble captain in 2004 and 2005.
Tanner Jones
Tanner Jones currently resides in Brea, California where he is an active arranger, composer, and educator in the greater OC area. His work, ranging from chamber music for the concert stage to music for marching ensembles is being performed regularly throughout the United States.
As a specialist in music design, Tanner’s work for the marching arts is steeped in nuance and rooted in strong orchestration that elevates your ensembles presence on the field. His roster of clients spans many groups across the country including Economedes High School (Edinburg, TX), Terrell High School (Terrell, TX), New Braunfels High School (New Braunfels, TX), Wakeland High School (Frisco, TX), Denison High School (Denison, TX), Robert Vela High School (Edinburg, TX), Valencia High School (Santa Clarita, CA), and Granada Hills Charter High School (Granada Hills, CA).
Tanner also has a long history of quality visual instruction. He began his pageantry career at the age of 13 with his high school band and extended that to four years of marching DCI split between The Cadets (2009-2011) and The Blue Devils (2013). After aging out and staying in Central Texas for school Tanner would go on to work for multiple stand-out high school marching programs such as Claudia Taylor Johnson High School (San Antonio, TX), James Bowie High School (Austin,TX), Dripping Springs High School (Dripping Springs, TX), and New Braunfels High School. Since moving to Southern California he has also worked with Ayala High School (Chino Hills, CA), Upland High School (Upland, CA), Valencia High School, and Chino High School (Chino, CA) respectively. Most notably Tanner has been the Visual Caption Head of the Blue Devils B Drum & Bugle Corps since 2018 where his work has resulted in 2 consecutive Open Class Visual titles.
Tanner studied at both Texas State University (Sound Recording Technology) and Texas A&M University - Commerce (Music Composition). He is and ASCAP artist, member of TMEA, and proud dad to his dog Toby.
Ryan Adamsons
A native of Springfield, Virginia, Ryan Adamsons is based in Chicago where he is an active performer, composer, and educator. His drum corps career began as a marching member of the Bluecoats from 1998 to 2002, and he continued with the organization as a brass instructor from 2003 to 2008 and again in 2011. In 2012 he joined the brass staff of the Santa Clara Vanguard, helping to build the brass program to their first DCI World Championship in nearly 20 years and their first ever Jim Ott High Brass Award in 2018. In addition to his duties with the World Class A corps, he joined the Open Class Vanguard Cadets as Brass Caption Manager and Brass Arranger in 2018, and continued his arranging duties 2019 while taking over as Assistant Brass Caption Manager for the A corps. Ryan is also an active instructor, adjudicator, and clinician, working with countless groups in the US, Canada, and Japan. In addition to writing for various marching ensembles, he has over 50 commissioned and performed works for jazz ensemble, with his educational charts published and available through Kendor. He is also the co-author of the book Rehearsing the Jazz Band published by Meredith Music.
He currently works as an Artist Advisor at the Denis Wick/Vandoren Musician’s Advisory Studio in downtown Chicago, serves on the Board of Directors for the Chicago Jazz Orchestra developing their educational programs, is the Jazz Area Manager for The Midwest Clinic, and serves in several roles for the Jazz Education Network including as Conference Production Coordinator for their annual international conference. He plays Powell Custom trumpets and flugelhorns.
Jonathan Zuniga
Jonathan Zuniga is an instructor, composer, and arranger from Southern California. He has worked with several WGI/SCPA indoor ensembles including Pulse Percussion 2010-2018, Los Alamitos High School 2011-2016, La Quinta High School 2016-2020, Chino Hills Winter Drumline 2013, 2016-2018, and Sunny Hills High School. Jonathan is currently the Front Ensemble Arranger and Musical Director for Pacific Crest (2017-Current) and was on the design team at George Mason University for their 2018 WGI season. He has also joined the 2020 Design Team for Elan Percussion. His past instructional experience in DCI includes Academy 2011, Cadets 2012, and the Blue Stars 2013-2016. Jonathan was a former Assistant Front Ensemble Arranger for Box Six.
Jonathan's performance experience includes the Arizona Academy Drum and Bugle Corps 2007, RCC Winter Drumline 2009 and the Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps 2008.
Jonathan is a member of the Vic Firth, Zildjian, Mike Balter, and Remo team and lives in Huntington Beach, California.