Alan Shinn
Professor of Percussion
Associate Director for Undergraduate Studies
Office: School of Music, Room 006
Phone: (806) 742-0700 ext. 256
Email: alan.shinn@ttu.edu
Alan D. Shinn is Professor of Percussion and Associate Director for Undergraduate Studies at Texas Tech University. He holds the Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Missouri and the Master of Music degree from Texas Tech University. His primary teachers were Tim Lautzenheiser and Ron Dyer. He served as Chair of the Winds/Percussion Area from 2004-2007. Shinn was the Director of Jazz Studies at Tech from 1985-2005 and continues to lead the summer jazz program. Prior to coming to Texas Tech in 1982 as faculty percussionist, he served as Instructor of Percussion and Jazz at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, TX. Over 120 percussion students have graduated with music degrees at TTU since 1982 and are enjoying careers in education (all levels) and performance as well as music business and industry. Shinn is Principal Timpanist with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra and a former member of the Austin Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as Principal Timpanist/Percussionist with the Roswell, NM Symphony and has performed a number of times with the chamber orchestras of Santa Fe Pro Musica and 20th Century Unlimited. As a member of these organizations and the musical communities in which he lives, he has performed with Itzhak Perlman, Christopher O’Riley, Henry Mancini, Peter Nero, Roger Williams, Doc Severinsen, The Fifth Dimension, Rita Moreno, Michael Martin Murphy, Tony Bennett, William Warfield, Mark O'Connor, Jose Feliciano, The New York Voices, Ralna English, Mitzi Gaynor, Engelbert Humperdinck, Cathy Rigby in Peter Pan and Carol Channing in Hello Dolly. Alan Shinn is also a busy drum set artist as well as an active clinician and adjudicator throughout the Southwest and Midwest and has served as an Educational/Product Consultant for REMO, Inc. and Innovative Percussion. He is currently an Artist Endorser of Pro-Mark, Paiste, and Bergerault.
Under the direction of Alan Shinn, Texas Tech’s Jazz Ensemble 1 has taken honors at many jazz festivals. The group has performed with such renowned jazz artists as Louie Bellson, Frank Mantooth, Kevin Mahogany, Willie Hill, Clay Jenkins, Kim Richmond, Denis DiBlasio, Tony Campise, Phil Wilson, Bob Mintzer, Tuck and Patti, Dave Pietro, Ed Calle, Ernie Watts, Mike Mainieri, Brad Leali, Bobby Watson, Carla Helmbrecht, Peter Horvath, Nelson Rangell, Marvin Stamm and Les DeMerle. The Tech Jazz Ensemble has opened shows for Spyro Gyra, the Yellowjackets and Jay Leno. In 1996 the ensemble was invited to open for Arturo Sandoval and the UNC Jazz Lab Band 1 at the UNC/Greeley, Colorado Jazz Festival. Other major performances have included the Beaches Jazz Festival in Toronto (July, 2004) and the Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas (March, 2005).
Their CD Seein’ the Light...Hearin’ the Hub-Tones (Sea Breeze Jazz) received a Grammy nomination in 1998. The ensemble’s second CD was released in August of 2007. Entitled Glimmer of Night and Day (Sea Breeze Jazz), it features the sax, flute and vocal talents of Austin jazz legend Tony Campise. He has recorded as a percussionist on many of his own projects as well as on albums by Lubbock artists Terry Allen and The Maines Brothers. Alan Shinn was the 2009 recipient of the William Kerns Performing Arts Award for his contribution to the performing arts in Lubbock.