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Lorena Navarro | Percussion
Prof. Lorena Navarro
Assistant Instructor
Percussion
Location/Building: Utt 001A
navarro@ucmo.edu
Lorena Navarro is a percussionist, educator, and composer. She performs in a variety of genres as a soloist and chamber musician and specifically enjoys performing in pits for musical theatre, opera, and as a choral accompanist. She has had the honor of sharing the stage with members from S艒 Percussion, Sandbox Percussion, Bang on a Can All Stars, and Akropolis Reed Quintet. She has performed internationally as an Artist in Residence at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada.
As an educator, Lorena serves as the interim Assistant Instructor of Percussion at 浪花直播 where she teaches private lessons, coaches percussion ensemble, and teaches the UCM Marching section. Lorena has presented masterclasses and guest recitals at various universities on topics such as Japanese marimba repertoire. As a composer, she explores writing for percussion and mixed chamber ensembles. She premiered her first solo written for marimba at the 2024 Gather Listen Hear Festival at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. Her arrangement, My Neighbor Totoro: 3 Movements for Percussion Ensemble, was premiered by the Michigan State University Percussion Ensemble.
As a member of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, Lorena is passionate about creating a space for Indigenous voices in the percussion community. Her dissertation research dives into the significant gap in percussion solos written by Indigenous composers. Her work includes commissioning and collaborating with Indigenous composers, Sonny-Ray Dayrider, Kerey Harper, Danielle Jagelski, and Anjelica Lindsey to write new works for percussion.
Lorena is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance at Michigan State University. She earned her Master of Music from Michigan State University and her Bachelor of Science in Music Education from Utah Valley University. For 9 months, Lorena was invited to study with Keiko Abe, world-renowned marimba virtuoso, at Toho Gakuen School of Music in Japan. By immersing herself in Japanese culture and society, Lorena has developed a deeper love and understanding of Keiko鈥檚 works. Lorena鈥檚 teachers include Gwendolyn Dease, Keiko Abe, Jon Weber, Keith Carrick, Gavin Ryan, and Alexis Lamb.