Wes Denkins (b. 1996) is an in-demand educator, performer, composer, and arranger based in the tri-state region of Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. Drawing from a rich and varied set of experiences and inspiration, Denkins strives to advance the percussive arts through both education and performance while equipping educators with the resources and expertise needed to enrich their students’ musical experiences and opportunities. Additionally, it is Denkins’s goal to promote a healthy approach to percussion performance while providing students with the tools to excel both as musicians and as individuals.
As an educator, Mr. Denkins currently serves as the Director of Percussion at Boyd County Public Schools in Ashland, Kentucky. Additionally, he regularly offers clinics and masterclasses to regional schools, colleges, and other organizations. Many of Denkins’s students have successfully auditioned into area honor bands, collegiate percussion studios, and have competed and placed in both KMEA and PAS sanctioned events. Wes has also worked as both a front ensemble and battery instructor for many high school marching programs in the region and has served on the instructional staff at Audio Theater as a front ensemble technician.
Denkins’s performance experience spans a variety of classical and popular music mediums with groups like the Bluegrass Wind Ensemble, Mountain Arts Center Wind Orchestra, Cave Run Symphony Orchestra, and the Lexington Brass Band (principal). He has also regularly finds himself performing with the Ashland Regional Dance Theatre and Ashland Youth Ballet. Wes has also had experience playing in wind ensembles, marching bands, percussion ensembles, chamber music groups, big band and jazz combos, concert choirs, steel bands, and salsa bands. Additionally, Wes has studio recording experience and has tracked timbales and percussion on Noah Russo’s Slack Wire Mambo and Mamá through Magnolia Records in Murfreesboro, TN.
As a composer, Denkins has a penchant for writing music that is attainable for middle school and high school aged students. Wes’s focus as a composer is to create literature that is both developmentally appropriate and fun to play for the performer but is also accessible both in terms of instrumentation and to the general listener. Reviews of his works in the PAS publication Percussive Notes have claimed his works to be “carefully crafted to sound intuitive” and as creating “the cumulative effect of a percussive journey that has substance and worth”. Denkins is regularly commissioned both original compositions and arrangements, the first of which came in the form of a percussion ensemble piece, Subliminal Thoughts, the inaugural performance of the North Georgia Percussion Ensemble in 2022. Wes’s music is published through Tapspace Publications.
Wes received his Master of Music (Performance) degree from Middle Tennessee State University in 2021 and received his Bachelor of Music Education from Morehead State University in 2018. At those institutions, he is thankful and grateful to have studied under the tutelage of Lalo Davila, Brian Mueller, Julie Davila, Brian S. Mason, Matthew Geiger, and Jonathan Sharp.
Denkins’s professional memberships include the Percussive Arts Society (PAS), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity (ФMA). Additionally, Wes Denkins is proud to endorse Innovative Percussion for all his stick and mallet needs.
A flexible, ragtime-inspired xylophone solo with percussion ensemble accompaniment (or optional piano reduction) perfect for young players learning style and groove.
A fun, Rock-inspired piece for five developing percussionists.
Duration: 2:30
Level: Med-Easy
Personnel: 5 players
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