Dr. James Clanton is an Associate Professor of Music on the faculty of Pittsburg State University. His primary duties include teaching graduate and undergraduate percussion majors and non-majors, directing the PSU Pride of the Plains Drumline, and directing and conducting the PSU Percussion Ensemble.

As a performer, he has appeared with several ensembles, including the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Springfield Symphony (MO), Kansas City Ballet Orchestra, Liberty Symphony, St. Joseph Symphony, Southeast Kansas Symphony, Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, the Northland Symphony Orchestra of Kansas City, where he served as principal timpanist for seven seasons. He currently serves as Principal Timpanist of the Tulsa Signature Symphony Orchestra. Clanton has also participated in several festivals and chamber ensembles across the United States, including the Sunflower Music Festival in Topeka, Kansas, the Puccini Festival Orchestra in Kansas City, Missouri, the Mahlerfest Orchestra in Boulder, Colorado, the OKMozart Festival in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, the newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Fountain City Brass Band of Kansas City, the Chamber Music Society of Kansas City, and the Percussion Plus Project (IN).

A former member of Marimba Yajalón and Marimba Sol de Chiapas, Clanton has traveled internationally performing and lecturing about the traditional marimba music of Mexico and Guatemala. In the summer of 2009 he taught a 5 week course at the National Catholic University in Asuncion, Paraguay. While there, and again on subsequent annual invitations, he performed as a soloist and given master classes as a guest artist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Asuncion. In addition to traveling to South America, Clanton also performed as a guest vibraphone soloist of the Associazione Culturale Colleionci in Velletri, Italy. While in Italy, he performed and taught at the first and second annual Grumo Music Festival (Grumo, Italy). Under his direction, the PSU Percussion Ensemble has performed multiple times at the Percussive Arts Society Kansas Day of Percussion, and at the 2014 KMEA In-Service Workshop.

James received a Bachelor's degree in music education from Oklahoma City University, and earned both a Masters and Doctoral degrees in percussion performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. In the summers, he has served as a faculty member of the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan, and works with numerous public schools across the United States arranging percussion music for competitive marching shows, and providing clinics and master-classes. James is an educational endorser/clinician for Sabian Cymbals, Pearl/Adams Percussion, and Vater Sticks. He served as President for the Kansas Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society from 2014-2018.

Education

• D.M.A. University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.

• M.M. University of Missouri-Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.

• B.M.E. Oklahoma City University, Oklahoma, U.S.A.