{"id":2649,"date":"2025-09-05T14:06:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:06:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/music\/?page_id=2649"},"modified":"2025-09-05T14:06:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T14:06:18","slug":"makana-medeiros","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/music\/makana-medeiros\/","title":{"rendered":"Makana Medeiros"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adjunct Instructor of Music<\/span>
\nApplied Percussion<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\n<\/div>\n

Makana<\/span> Kai Noah Medeiros<\/span> is a percussionist active in both classical and contemporary music and a dedicated educator for students from middle school through the collegiate level. \"\"<\/p>\n

Makana<\/span> has appeared with ensembles and festivals including the Yale Percussion Group, The Percussion Collective, New Music New Haven, Blackbox Ensemble, Eastman Percussion Ensemble, Lake George Music Festival, Nief-Norf Summer Festival, and Chautauqua Festival Orchestra. He has collaborated with leading contemporary artists such as Pamela Z, Caroline Shaw, and Eighth Blackbird, and has performed internationally, including a TEDx-presented program of works by Alejandro Vi\u00f1ao and Garth Neustadter in Shenzhen, China with the Yale Percussion Group.<\/p>\n

As a guest artist, Makana<\/span> has appeared at the Next Festival of Emerging Artists and the inaugural ContemporArt Festival in Satu Mare, Romania, performing repertoire ranging from Bart\u00f3k\u2019s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion <\/i>to Thomas Meadowcroft\u2019s Walkman Antiquarian<\/i>. His solo and chamber performances include the George Flynn Classical Concerts, Ely Center for Contemporary Art, and Hartford Symphony\u2019s Sunday Serenades series with Leonid Sigal. In orchestral and wind ensemble settings, he has performed under the baton of Peter Oundjian, Carolyn Kuan, Giancarlo Guerrero, Leonard Slatkin, Rosen Milanov, Neil Varon, Timothy Muffitt and Samuel Hollister. In collaboration with Thomas Duffy, he was one of four soloists for Viet Cuong\u2019s percussion quartet concerto re(new)al<\/i> and served as the featured soloist for Jeff Tyzik\u2019s drumset concerto Riffs<\/i> during a tour across Spain in June 2023 with Yale Band.<\/p>\n

Committed to innovative repertoire, Makana<\/span> has participated in peer-run ensembles such as Ossia New Music (Eastman School of Music) and held leadership roles in Versicolor New Music (Yale University), both dedicated to music of the last century. He has collaborated with composers to bring new works to audiences, including the world premiere of Harriet Steinke\u2019s Marimba Concerto <\/i>with the New Haven Civic Orchestra and the U.S. premiere of Mat\u012bss \u010cudars\u2019s marimba solo relief<\/i>. He was a featured clinician at the 2025 Percussive Arts Society Connecticut Day of Percussion, presenting works by Ivan Trevino, Alejandro Vi\u00f1ao, James Wood, and Andy Akiho.<\/p>\n

Makana<\/span> teaches in public high school music programs across Southern Connecticut and Northern Virginia, including serving as front ensemble and drumline instructor for Greyhound Percussion at Naugatuck High School. In fall 2025, he will join Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, CT, as Adjunct Professor of Percussion.<\/p>\n

Makana<\/span> holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music under the mentorship of Michael Burritt, Charles Ross and Rich Thompson. He is also a recipient of the Performer\u2019s Certificate and Arts Leadership Certificate. He holds both a Master of Music and Master of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music under the mentorship of Robert van Sice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adjunct Instructor of Music Applied Percussion Makana Kai Noah Medeiros is a percussionist active in both classical and contemporary music and a dedicated educator for students from middle school through the collegiate level. Makana has appeared with ensembles and festivals …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2649","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wcsu.edu\/music\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}