Dr. Thom Hasenpflug - Music Staff

Dr. Thom Hasenpflug is nationally recognized as a unique performer and educational voice, while his compositions for percussion receive international recognition and are played all over the world. He is a proud member of the Idaho State University Music Faculty, where he has taught in the department since entering as an Assistant Professor in 2003.  

He has presented performances, clinics, residencies, and master classes at many universities, high schools, festivals, and Percussive Arts Society conventions and chapter days. A prize-winning composer, he has been commissioned by some of the field’s leading percussionists. His percussion quartet, Bicksa, remains one of the most widely-programmed collegiate percussion works of the past 25 years. International performances of his works have occurred in Vienna, London, Barcelona, Moscow, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Dublin, Brazil, Venezuela, and Sweden, by various percussionists of note.  Perhaps of equal importance, he has embraced working with music programs in the local high schools of Idaho, from Idaho Falls to Boise. He is a member of the College of Arts and Letters Liberal Arts High team, and serves as a regional clinician to public schools on demand.

Currently Professor of Percussion and Director of Performing Arts at Idaho State University, Dr. Hasenpflug has been the recipient of ISU faculty recognition awards for both Outstanding Researcher (2013, 2017) and Outstanding Service (2010). As a resident of Pocatello, Idaho, he serves as Principal Timpanist of the Idaho State Civic Symphony. He has furthermore performed as a member of numerous symphonic organizations, including as principal in the South Dakota Symphony, as a sub in Boise Philharmonic, and in symphonic and freelance capacities with artists as diverse as Bela Fleck, Peter Cetera, the Moody Blues, Blood Sweat and Tears, and many others.

He received his degrees in percussion and composition from Ithaca College and the University of Colorado. He has held prior teaching posts at Drake University, the University of South Dakota, Emporia State University, and the summer Tennessee Governor's School for the Arts. His principal teachers have included Gordon Stout and Doug Walter for percussion, and Greg Woodward, Dana Wilson, and Joe Lukasik for composition.

Thom Hasenpflug has percussion works published through K.P.P. (a division of Malletech – MPI), Alfred Music, Bachovich Music, Tapspace, and C. Alan Publications, former publishers Go Fish Music and Penn Oak Press, as well as his own label, “Hasenworks.” He is a proud product endorser of Salyers Percussion (sticks and mallets), Remo Drumheads, Sabian Cymbals and as a performing artist for the Yamaha Corporation of America. 

He has a wife and as of this writing now FOUR bunny rabbits; Originally from New York, he has lived in Pocatello, Idaho, since 2003.