​tim shuster

Tim Shuster is a multi-faceted percussionist and educator living in Austin, Texas.  Unbound by creativity, he has performed in a multitude of ensembles and venues ranging from duos to chamber ensembles and punk bands to orchestras, in basements and breweries to world-class orchestra halls.    He is currently performing in Steady State, a duo dedicated to the creation of new music for percussion, with his brother Eric Shuster.  Tim also performs locally with the Austin Civic Orchestra, and recently performed at Fast Forward Austin as a member of up and coming percussion band The Kraken Quartet.  Before moving to Austin, he served as principal timpanist and percussionist of Opera Louisiane in Baton Rouge and performed frequently in Southern Louisiana as a percussionist with the Acadiana Symphony, Baton Rouge Symphony, and Rapides Symphony.  An advocate for new music, Tim has premiered over thirty works by composers such as Brett William Dietz, Wally Gunn, David Lang, Daniel Lentz, Dave Molk, Joe W. Moore III, David Stock, Jude Traxler, and Kevin Volans. 

 

A passionate educator of young musicians, Tim teaches beginning percussion classes, private lessons,  master classes, and coaches percussion ensembles at Cele Middle School and Park Crest Middle School in Pflugerville, Texas, and Four Points Middle School in Austin.  He previously worked with Kids' Orchestra of Baton Rouge, an El-Sistema based after school program for elementary school children, and taught freshmen percussion majors and non-majors as the percussion studio Graduate Teaching Assistant at Louisiana State University.

 

In the summertime, Tim has worked extensively in artistic operations and production as stage manager of the Round Top Festival Institute in Round Top, Texas (2014 and 2015) and percussion manager at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California (2016-2019).  

 

Tim Shuster holds degrees in percussion performance from Louisiana State University (MM) and the Ohio State University (BM).   His primary teachers include Brett William Dietz, Joseph Krygier, Susan Powell, and Kevin Zaczkiewicz.  Additionally, he studied chamber music at the Sō Percussion Summer Institute at Princeton University in 2012 and 2013 with Eric Cha-Beach, Josh Quillen, Adam Sliwinski, and Jason Treuting of Sō Percussion.