Percussionist Jeff Stern is emerging as an exciting new voice in today s contemporary music scene.  Recent highlights include the world premiere of James Wood s marimba solo, Secret Dialogues, a performance at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, and his debut in Carnegie s Weill Recital Hall with the Yale Percussion Group. Jeff currently serves as a founding member of 2 piano/2 percussion group, icarus Quartet, championing the repertoire s staples as well as new works from great young composers of his generation. He has performed at major halls such as Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, and with ensembles including the Boston New Music Initiative, ensemble mise- en in New York, and Baltimore s Sonar New Music Ensemble. Jeff has appeared at the Yellow Barn, Bang on a Can, Avaloch Farm, and Norfolk music festivals, and can be heard on Cantaloupe Records release of Pulitzer prize- winning John Luther Adams large- scale percussion work, Inuksuit. 

As an educator, Jeff is a frequent guest studio teacher at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he assists resident lecturer in percussion, Ayano Kataoka. In 2012, he established a percussion department for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra s youth program, OrchKids, and from 2013- 2014, he served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory s Preparatory division as the director of their percussion program, a position he will step into once again in 2016. 

Jeff holds degrees from UMass Amherst and the Peabody Conservatory, where he was awarded the Harold Randolph Prize in Performance. He recently earned an Artist Diploma at the Yale School of Music, where he studied with marimba virtuoso Robert van Sice.