John Antonelli
Alchemy Independent Unit Director
alchemy@carolinagold.org
John Antonelli is a percussion educator, arranger, and adjudicator living in Raleigh, North Carolina. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree and a Master’s Degree in Percussion Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. He has been an educator, writer, arranger, adjudicator, and performer throughout North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Illinois. He has performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention with the Philidor Percussion Group, and has also performed with the Winston-Salem Symphony and the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra.
Mr. Antonelli has been the Percussion Instructor at North Carolina State University since 2008. While there the drum line has increased both in size and quality. There are two drums lines now that both perform on game days, and many of the top line performers go on to march independent groups for the winter season or drum corps for the summer. The group has performed in places such as Dublin, Ireland as well as Barcelona and Madrid, Spain. This year he is hoping to grow percussion musically on the concert stage at State by starting a percussion ensemble.
He has also served as the Director of Percussion at Athens Drive High School since 2007. In his time there, he has developed the Percussion Ensemble and Drum Line into highly successful groups. Both indoor and outdoor programs have won numerous awards all over the Southeastern United States, and in 2009 the Percussion Ensemble was invited to perform in the Music for All/Bands of America “National Percussion Ensemble Festival” in Indianapolis, Indiana. His students have gone on to earn scholarships for both Percussion Performance and Music Education at schools such as the University of North Texas, Butler University, Belmont University, and every major public institution in North Carolina. Five of his student have gone on to be awarded a position in the US Army All-American Marching Band held in San Antonio, Texas.
John’s favorite day of the year is when he sees all his former or current students marching at UD area, competing in WGI World Championships. This past year he had thirteen of them to take photos with in their various tour jackets. Seeing his students succeed in music and enjoy doing it are the greatest joys in his life.