About Isaac Pyatt

Praised for his “furious” and “precise” performances with “incredible dynamic range,” Isaac Pyatt is a multi-percussionist, composer, and educator working in Greensboro, North Carolina, where he serves as Artistic Director and Percussionist for contemporary chamber ensemble Catchfire Collective. He placed second in the 2019 Great Plains International Marimba Competition, was a finalist in the 2017 Rosen-Schaffel Young Artist Competition and received First Place in the 2016 and 2017 North Carolina Percussive Arts Society Soloist Competitions. Recent guest artist performances have included UNC-School of the Arts, East Tennessee State University, UNC-Pembroke, and Winthrop University. Isaac has performed as a soloist with the Michigan State University Orchestra and UNC-Greensboro Orchestra & Percussion Ensemble, and has performed with the Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Salisbury, and Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestras.

His work and teaching is guided by ongoing research of artists with lesser known or underrepresented identities, as well as studies towards understanding and appreciation of the wide variety of global artistic traditions that intersect with past and present performance practice of Western art music and commercial genres. Isaac works as a teaching artist for the Lyceum Arts Program in Guilford County, and as a lesson teacher for Music & Arts. He was previously a graduate teaching assistant at Michigan State University, and front ensemble director at Ledford High School.

He received his master’s degree in percussion performance from Michigan State University and bachelor’s degrees in performance and music composition from UNC – Greensboro as a Minerva music scholar. He has studied percussion with Gwendolyn Dease, Jon Weber, Eric Willie, John Beck, Charles Ross, and Peter Zlotnick, and music composition with Mark Engebretson and Alejandro Rutty.