TAMUC Student Wins National Percussion Performance Competition

A person playing a set of snare drums

A Texas A&M University-Commerce music student recently took the first-place prize at the 2024 Black Swamp Percussion Solo & Ensemble Showcase. Noah Avelar, a graduate student pursuing a Master of Music degree, won the College Snare Drum division with his performance of “Rooted” by Brian Blume. In the competition, collegiate-aged percussionists perform unaccompanied solos for snare drum. Submissions for the competition are required to be a single-take video with no editing of any kind and are graded on a 100-point scale. Avelar’s win is the third time in the last four years that an A&M-Commerce percussion student took home the victory in this competition that sees entries from across the United States. See Avelar’s winning performance on YouTube.