About

Graham Viegut is an American performer, creative, and educator whose art is driven by the insatiable curiosities of sound. As a percussionist with an extraordinarily diverse skill set, Graham’s performing output ranges wildly, crossing genre, location, and culture. He is an international performer and clinician, performing at festivals as varied as Montreux Jazz Festival Miami, to Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend, in venues ranging from 2,000 seat concert halls to Carnival parades, and playing music stretching from orchestral standards to contemporary multimedia improvisations to several world music traditions. Recent highlights include performing at the Bang on a Can Long Play festival, a European chamber percussion tour with the World Percussion Group, performing with New World Symphony, winning first place at the NYC Carnival Panorama with Pan Evolution Steel Orchestra, and producing independent concerts ranging from solo cafe shows to interdisciplinary gallery happenings.

Beyond performing, Graham is an active arranger and musical curator. He has organized concerts and interdisciplinary happenings in cities across the US, prioritizing authenticity and a fearless approach to original collaborations. His musical arrangements have been played by the University of North Texas 2:00 Steel Band, The Bridge Cross-Cultural Ensemble, and Pep Band as well as in several independent performances. Special projects like a Pauline Oliveros-inspired night of contemporary vibraphone, an intermedia work combining solo percussion with live projections and ambisonic live audio, and a concert reimagination of one of Christopher Deane’s out-of-print vinyl are essential to his artistic output. 

As an educator, Graham believes in music's power to inspire, enlighten, and connect. He has taught masterclasses, clinics, rehearsals, and judged competitions at the elementary school through university level, covering a wide range of topics and ages, but always led by a human-centric process of mutual curiosity and exploration. At the University level, Graham has presented clinics on American Rudimental Snare Drumming, his experience studying Balinese Gamelan in Indonesia, and given masterclasses to student performers. He has also substitute-taught Gamelan Bwana Kumala and the 8:00 Steelband at the University of North Texas. Working with middle and high schoolers in Dallas-Ft Worth and South Florida, Graham regularly teaches drumline rehearsals and has given several masterclasses on solo performance and fundamental percussion skills. Graham currently directs and arranges for a youth steelband in South Miami and serves as a member of the diretoria for Miamibloco, the largest samba percussion community in the United States.

Graham holds a Master’s Degree in Percussion Performance from the Frost School of Music, studying under the luminary Svet Stoyanov. While focusing on contemporary classical performance, he also pursued coursework in recording and music engineering. He earned his Bachelor of Music at the University of North Texas, studying in the studios of Mark Ford, Christopher Deane, Paul Rennick, and Jose Aponte, performing with the renowned North Texas Wind Symphony, and diving into the plethora of world music ensembles, including the Gamelan, Steelband, West African Drumming and Dance, and Brazilian ensembles.