Derek Tywoniuk
Derek Tywoniuk has written an essay about his love of the Spice Girls. He’s searching for meaning everywhere and only comes up short...well...most of the time. He’s not not-worried about finding the answers, but at least while he’s aging he’s becoming more comfortable knowing even less about what it all means. He’s our percussionist, an expert tactician, whose mentors and influences include Jack van Geem, JonJon Battles, Shana Redmond, Pierre Boulez, and Nancy Zeltsman. As a composer he makes work about and around the LGBT+ world; most recently a piece called “Dorothy Fragments” for Spectrum Ensemble that explores the fragmentary nature of queer culture. Now that he’s finished his dissertation, Derek is writing a book about joy.