Jim Roberts

Teacher: Drums, Percussion

A member of the Elon music faculty since 2007, Jim will now also be teaching at Chapel Hill School of Musical Arts. He teaches drum set, djembe, congas, and all band and orchestral percussion instruments. has performed and/or recorded with such renowned artists as bassist Victor Wooten, drummer Futureman, The Horse Flies, and Billy Dean to name a few. His career illustrates a lifelong passion and dedication to music, rhythm and sound. He brings a wide range of experiences to his teaching studio.

His passion began at a very age, beating on pots and pans and anything he could find. This innate interest in music has led him to explore numerous musical genres over the years. He played in rock bands in high school as well as the school’s concert and marching bands and also studied piano. His experience in marching bands led to his participation in the East Carolina Marching Pirates and a top 12 Drum Corps International drum corps. Over the years his list of musical interests expanded to include West African Djembe, Zairian Soukous, Afro-Cuban Folkloric percussion, alternative rock, jazz, progressive rock, roots rock-n-roll, singer-songwriter, soul, rockabilly, funk, rhythm and blues, classical, bluegrass, old-time, world influenced music and more. Music from cultures across the globe became and remains one of his strongest passions.

Jim earned his undergraduate degree in Music Education in 1981 at East Carolina University, where he studied with Harold Jones, nationally known educator and performer, and then completed his Master of Music degree on Percussion Performance at Northern Illinois in 1985 Upon graduating, he taught high school band at Southern Nash Senior High School in eastern North Carolina then in 1987 moved to the Triangle. His later interests led him to Nashville in 2000, where he earned a diploma in Audio Technology from SAE Institute of Technology and o became a producer and studio musician, operating Kalimba Studio and recording a wide range of music well beyond the country music genres for which Nashville is noted.

Jim is extremely excited to join now with CHSMA to bring quality percussion instruction to students in the western Triangle area and to help us build additional courses and activities in Music Technology and songwriting among others.

Jim Roberts

Teacher: Drums, Percussion

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