How long have you been playing drums?
I have been playing the drums for over 30 years.
Professional Experience:
I have played in rock, blues, jazz, metal, progressive, latin, funk, middleeastern, orchestra, chamber ensemble, and choir projects throughout my career.
Accomplishments:
Derron Bell finished school with a Master’s Degree in Music Performance from Texas Tech University in 2000, and before that a Bachelor of Music degree from Oklahoma State University with a major in percussion and minor in piano. (He bleeds Cowboy Orange!) Since then he has performed as a freelance musician in Lubbock, Midland, Houston, New York City, and for the past 13 years in the Dallas-Ft Worth metroplex. After finishing school, Derron was the Principle Timpanist for the Midland-Odessa Symphony in 2000 and 2001, and has since then performed with a number of other symphony orchestras, including those in Plano, Irving, Las Colinas, Arlington, Garland, Flower Mound, Lubbock and San Angelo. He has enjoyed performing for hundreds of kids, parents and teachers with his entertaining and educational childrens’ programs. In addition to classical music, Derron performs regularly with several different rock bands as well as jazz, latin, country, funk, metal and pop music on drumset. He is well-versed in music theatre, world hand drumming, and especially the marimba. In 2007 he participated in the International Marimba Competition and Festival in Belgium. In 2001 he performed at the Nancy Zeltsman Marimba Festival, at the Texas Music Festival in 2000-2001, and in 1994 he toured with Star of Indiana & Brass Theater (the forerunner to Broadway’s ‘Blast!’). More recently, in 2013 he joined the touring cast for Cirque Musica, a show combining traditional circus acts with live orchestra.Derron has been an active educator for the past 20 years. At Texas Tech University he was a graduate teaching assistant, his responsibilities including marching percussion, steel drum band, and private lessons. He also assisted the marching percussion instruction at Oklahoma State University. In 1996-7 he taught the front ensemble for Delta Brigade Drum & Bugle Corps. Currently, Derron lives in Dallas and teaches privately at home and in several area school districts. He serves as a clinician for college and high school marching percussion programs and adjudicates nationally for the USSBA Marching Band Competition circuit. He has taught or been involved with dozens of high school drumlines and percussion ensembles. He has maintained a steady roster of 30-70 private students per week for the past 14 years. He has had a number of students make the Texas All State Band, and several former students have gone on to attend college as music majors.In addition to orchestral and classical music, Derron keeps an active schedule playing live shows, especially on the drumset. Some of his former rock bands include Power of Omens (progressive metal), The Roaming Soldiers (blues/rock/jam band), and Besotoxx (Latin pop/Rock en espanol). He is currently kept busy by The Rusty Brothers (country), Opium Symphony (alternative rock) and Garcia (latin/rock). He performs regularly with the cover bands Hair Ballad All Stars and Da Hit Mob. His latest endeavor, Trialogue, is a world jazz trio in which he performs on doumbek, frame drum, and cajon.
