Aaron PlunkettMulti-ethnic percussionist, educator and recording artist, Aaron Plunkett is well versed in "Percussion From Around The World." He completed a two-year, 48,000 mile world tour including the Middle, Near, and Far East, as well as portions of Europe, the Celtic Isles and Africa. He is equally at home with Caribbean and South American music idioms. While on his world tour, he collected numerous exotic instruments and received instruction from master drummers. Regions of concentration include Ireland, Iran, India, Indonesia, the Balkans, Turkey, Egypt, and Ghana, Africa.
From a young age, Aaron was fascinated with the world and its different cultures. This early interest was further enhanced when he studied world music at California Institute of the Arts where he specialized in ethnic percussion and received tutelage from master mentors and gurus. Prior to his Cal Arts apprenticeship, he specialized in jazz and classical percussion at the University of Southern California (USC).
Aaron has performed with such greats as North Indian Tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussein, Iranian Tonbak master Siamak Pooyan, Setar virtuoso Mamoud Zolfonoon and reknowned Persian singers, "Suzanne" and "Sattar." His multi-ethnic drumming tracks can also be heard with a vast array of well known American music composers such as Jazz virtuoso, Lionel Hampton, and folk rock artists, John Fogerty and Johnny Cash to name just a few.
He has made numerous appearances on KPFK, KCRW and toured and performed with both the Aman and Avaz International Dance Theaters. He was the featured Ghanain percussion soloist for the National Repertory Orchestra in Colorado performing the premiere symphony orchestra, Global Warming, the featured Irish percussionist, clinician and exhibitor at the International Percussive Arts Convention and additionally contributing educator for the NASA Native Earth System Science Curriculum Project.
Aaron is one of a select few players who demonstrates a two-handed bones playing style and has further developed that method so that the pitches change while playing. His unique sound and ability have afforded him recording sessions such as: the
Titanic soundtrack, where he was the featured Irish percussionist and worked with internationally acclaimed composer, James Horner, special-effects guru, George Lucas and director, James Cameron; Universal Pictures'
Dragon feature trailer soundtrack (Bruce Lee's last film); and Walt Disney's Light Magic Parade Orchestra (theme music for Disney parks around the world) to name a few.
Aaron Plunkett is the founder of the Ojai Valley Whale Society , a non-profit organization dedicated to exhuming, recreating and preserving California's first two fossilized 25 million year old toothed, baleen whales, "Louie and Wendell Plunkettsaurus," Ojaicetus plunkettdentus.