ERIC SHRIVER

Battery Arranger and Ensemble Coordinator

Eric Shriver is a composer, arranger, and educator for percussion based out of Southern California. He is currently the Percussion Director and Battery Arranger for Etiwanda HS and Rancho Cucamonga HS. Some of his previous roles included: Snare Tech/Ensemble Coordinator with Pulse Percussion, Percussion Director for Gold Indoor, and Percussion Director for Sunny Hills High School.

Eric is also very active in the DCI activity. He is currently the Percussion Director and Battery Arranger for Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps. Previously he was Percussion Director at Gold Drum & Bugle Corps, Snare Tech for The Cavaliers, Percussion Caption Head and Battery Arranger for the Blue Stars, and Snare Tech for the Bluecoats.

Eric has a Bachelor of Arts in Music (Industry Studies) from California Polytechnic University (Pomona, CA). Eric has performed with the Bluecoats, Pulse Percussion, Black Knights, Pacific Crest, and RCC Marching Band.

Eric is a Co-Owner of Front2BackMusic.com, and also the creator and owner of the “The Build-Up Method,” which is a set of rudimental percussion practice methods using logical skill building exercises and audio tracks.

Eric is a member of the Zildjian, Remo, Yamaha, and Vic Firth educational teams and lives in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, with his Wife Amanda, Daughter Charlotte, Dog Sammy, and Cat Luna.

JOHN MAPES

Program Coordinator

This is John’s 13th year on the design team with POW and 16th with Pulse. He is a full-time percussion designer and educator in Southern California since 2000. He received his Bachelor of Arts in percussion from California State University Long Beach in the spring of 2000.

He has been the Percussion Director at Chino Hills HS since 2005 and was director of percussion at Pacifica HS from 2000-2011. John joined the design team for the Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps as the battery arranger from 2013-2016. Previously, he worked with the Blue Devil B Corps as the percussion arranger from 2007-2012 and was the Battery Arranger/ Percussion Caption Head for the Esperanza Drum & Bugle Corps from San Diego, CA from 2002-2006. His marching experience includes Velvet Knights and Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps organizations.

John is a Vic Firth Signature artist, a Yamaha artist, a Remo artist, a Zildjian artist and a WGI Percussion Steering Committee/Advisory Board member. He is also a co-founder of Box-Six.com, a website compiling original indoor percussion and marching band shows with fellow composer Ian Grom.

Trent Gronewold

Front Ensemble Arranger

This is Trent’s 2nd year arranging for POW. He is a full time percussion arranger and educator from Southern California. He is the Front Ensemble Arranger and Sound Designer for POW Percussion, Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps, and Thesis Indoor. Trent has run the percussion program at Gahr HS since 2017, and has been on staff at Pulse Percussion since 2022. Previously, he was the Front Ensemble Arranger for Gold Drum and Bugle Corps from 2020-2022 and joined the design team at Pacific Crest in 2023

Trent has been working behind the scenes for Box Six since 2016 assisting with front ensemble arranging. Recently he began writing Indoor Percussion shows with John Mapes for Box Six. In addition to Box Six, he has his music published on Front2Back music and Standing O Marching.

His marching experience includes the Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps (2015-2016), Santa Clara Vanguard (2018), and Pulse Percussion (2016-2020), where he served as section leader for his last 3 years. During this time he has won a WGI Championship, a DCI Championship and a Fred Sanford High Percussion Award. Trent is also a member of the Vic Firth and Zildjian Educational Team.

Jonathan Probst

Visual Design

This is Jonathan’s 2nd year on the design team at POW. He is the assistant director of instrumental music at Chino Hills HS and a visual designer who currently lives in Chino, CA. Jonathan completed his Masters degree in Education with an emphasis in Critical Thinking from National University and his Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from California Baptist University.

His marching experience includes Pacific Crest 2009-2011 on trumpet and baritone, Madison Scouts in 2012 and finished his time marching with the Phantom Regiment from 2013-2015, serving the corps as the horn sergeant and trumpet section leader during his age out season. 

Most recently, Jonathan was the visual designer for Elan Percussion from 2020-2022. He has worked collaboratively with many programs in Southern California including Chino HS, Upland HS, Ayala HS, Rowland HS, Alta Loma HS, and La Quinta HS (OC). He spent four seasons as a visual and brass instructor for Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps and is currently a member of the visual staff at the Phantom Regiment, a position he has had since 2018.

You can read more about him & his work at Probstproductions.com

NOE GOMEZ

Visual Consultant

This is Noe's 7th year on staff with POW. He is a lifelong resident of Los Angeles, California and prolific educator and designer within the marching arts. He has over seven years of performance experience, including Impulse, Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets, and half of a decade with the Santa Clara Vanguard, where he served as drum major from 2012 to 2015. 

Noe is immersed in the upper echelons of the marching arts, as he is a full time visual designer, judge, and clinician for both high school bands and independent programs. Noe serves on the visual and drum major education team of the Santa Clara Vanguard. He is on the design team at POW Percussion, Gold Indoor Percussion and Arcadia HS where he is currently the Visual Caption Manager at Arcadia High School. Noe also serves as an advisor to the Color Guard Alliance of the Philippines and Impulso Marching Latino America.

Learn more at:  noegomezproductions.com and on Instagram: @noegomez.productions

Roberto Morales

Choreographer

This is Roberto’s 2nd year working with POW Percussion. No stranger to the marching arts, Roberto Morales is a Movement Specialist. With over a decade in the marching arts, Morales has perform with groups such as The Blue Devils and Fantasia Winter Guard. Internationally with Switzerland based drum line “Top Secret” and Blue Devils International Corps & even appearances on T.V such as “Glee”. His teachings from Troopers, The Academy, Mandarins and recently The Bluecoats have affixed him within the Drum Corps community.
Morales is currently attending Mt.San Antonio College where he is a Dance Major earning 2 certificates in Dance and Pilates where he plans to transfer to a 4 Year University and continue to immerse himself with all things movement and fitness.

Christian Blydt-Hansen

Battery & Staff Coordinator

This is Christian's 4th year teaching at POW Percussion. Christian graduated from California State University Long Beach receiving a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. He currently resides in Redondo Beach, CA, working full time as a Software Engineer.Christian has performed with Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps, Dark Sky Percussion, Pulse Percussion, and the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps. He currently performs with Sidle Entertainment and the LA Chargers Thunderbolts Drumline.Christian has previously worked with Fountain Valley High School, Redondo Union High School, and Santiago High School. He currently works at Gold Drum and Bugle Corps and has been teaching there for the past 4 seasons.

Whitney Taylor

Front Ensemble Coordinator

This is Whitney’s 3rd year with the educational team at POW Percussion. She has been a front ensemble tech at the Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps since 2020 and is currently at Woodbridge HS and Temple City HS. Her performance experience includes Pulse Percussion (2016-2020), Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps (2016), and the Blue Devils Drum & Bugle Corps (2018).  

Whitney received her Bachelors in Health & Human Sciences with a focus in Psychology from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. During her time there, she also studied percussion with Wesley Sumpter and Peter Erskine. Whitney currently works as a private piano instructor throughout South Orange County both independently and with Elite Musique, LLC and is the Development Chair at FACES Counseling. Her past experience includes teaching at La Quinta HS, Gahr HS, and Arcadia HS. She is a member of the Vic Firth & Zildjian educational team. 

Adam Sanchez

Battery Coordinator

This is Adam's 3rd year teaching POW. Adam is originally from Bakersfield California and now resides in Long Beach. Adam has performed in various groups such as the Bakersfield College Drumline, Golden Empire Drum and Bugle Corps, the Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps, and Pulse Percussion. Adam is currently pursuing a degree in Jazz/Commercial music studies from California State University Fullerton.

Adam has previously taught many groups in the Bakersfield area such as Centennial High School, Independence High School, Golden Empire Drum and Bugle Corps (2018-2021), and the Bakersfield College Drumline (2019 WGI Open Class Champions)

William Abraamyan

Snare Tech

This is William's 3rd year teaching POW Percussion. Will has performed with the Santa Clara Vanguard, Vanguard Cadets, POW Percussion, Pulse Percussion, and the Marching Vlogs All-Star Drumline. He previously taught at Gold Indoor and Hoover High School. Aside from drumming, he is currently studying architecture at Woodbury University.

Gabriel Bustamante

Snare Tech

This is Gabriel’s first year on staff with POW. He has been a member of the Pulse/Pow family since the 2019 season and can’t wait to share the culture and knowledge he developed through the organization with future generations.
Gabriel’s marching experience includes Gold 2017 - 2019, Pow 2019, and Pulse 2020 - 2022. As an instructor, he has taught numerous drumlines across San Diego county, and currently teaches the drumlines at San Marcos HS and Scripps Ranch HS. He also taught the Gold Drum and Bugle Corps snareline in the summer of 2022 and the Pacific Crest snareline in the summer of 2023.

Luis Garcia

Tenor Tech

This is Luis's 2nd season working with POW. Luis graduated from CSU Fullerton with a degree in mechanical engineering. He is currently working as a mechanical engineer in the aerospace industry. He has performed with Golden Empire, Bakersfield College, Pacific Crest, POW, and Pulse. Luis has been on staff with some schools in the Bakersfield area as well as with SCVC for their 2022 season. Most recently was on staff with the Blue Stars for their 2023 season.

Louie Pereira

Tenor Tech

This is Louie’s 3rd year on staff with POW. He is a musician, composer, arranger, and
educator from Texas. He is a graduate of the School of Music at Texas State University, receiving his
Bachelor’s in Music Education in 2016. He has studied with performance master Bobby Lopez, as well as the world-renowned Count Basie drummer Butch Miles, and University of Texas - Austin Drum Set
Professor Wayne Salzmann II.
Louie’s WGI marching experience includes Texas State University Indoor Percussion (2012), Imperial
Percussion Theater (2013), and Teatro Indoor Percussion (2014). While living in Texas, he worked with
programs such as Dripping Springs HS, Reagan HS, Sandra Day O’Connor HS, Floresville HS, and
Harlingen HS. He was also the Percussion Director/Jazz Ensemble Director at Roosevelt High School
(2017) and Frenship High School (2018, 2019), with Frenship Indoor Percussion taking Gold in 2019 in A Class in the CCGC Circuit. Finally, he was a founding staff member of Violet Crown Indoor Percussion, a WGI Independent Open Class Finalist.
He is currently pursuing his Master of Music in Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where he is currently a Teaching Assistant and under the tutelage of two-time Grammy-Award winning fusion drummer Peter Erskine, Will Kennedy, and Roy McCurdy.

OTTo Peralta

Bass Tech

This is Otto’s 9th year on staff. He has been an active educator in Southern California for over 12 years, recently including Mira Costa HS and West HS. Otto’s previous marching experience includes Pulse Percussion, charter member of Pulse Open, Garfield independent, The Academy D&B Corps, and Gold D&B Corps.

Frances (Frankie) fabiyi

Bass Tech

This is Frankie’s 1st year on staff with POW. She has taught at Torrance HS, Temple City HS and Phantom Regiment. Her marching career started at Torrance High School, playing bass her first year and snare for the rest. She decided to continue to play bass drum going into independent groups starting her junior year with Odyssey Indoor Percussion (2017-2018). Frankie continued to march several other groups which include Pacific Crest (2018), Vessel Indoor Percussion (2019-2020), Mandarins (2019), Pulse Percussion (2022-2023) and Santa Clara Vanguard (2022).

Dominick Villaverde

Bass Tech

This is Dominick's first year on staff with POW. Dominick is a Southern California based educator and has been involved with marching percussion since 2014. Graduating from Diamond Bar HS in 2017, he went on to obtain a degree in Pure Mathematics from Cal Poly Pomona in the Spring of 2021 with a specification in Secondary Teaching along with continuing his involvement in the marching arts. While obtaining his degree, he would march DCI groups Pacific Crest (2016-2017), Mandarins (2019), Blue Devils (2020), as well as WGI groups POW Percussion (2018), and Broken City (2019-2022). Currently, Dominick is a performer for the LA Chargers Thunderbolts Drumline. Since graduating in 2017, Dominick has taught in a handful of groups throughout the Southern California area including North Torrance HS, El Modena HS, Diamond Bar HS, Claremont HS, Nogales HS, La Quinta HS, Etiwanda HS, and currently works at El Dorado HS, and Vista Murrieta HS. He has also gone on to teach DCI groups Gold, and currently both Pacific Crest and Blue Devils B as well as helped design visual aesthetics for both Meraki Percussion and Glendora HS.

Albert Avelar Jr.

Cymbal Tech

This is Albert’s 3rd year on staff with POW. His marching experience began at El Rancho High School in Pico Rivera, CA where he played tenors. His cymbal career did not begin until his sophomore year of college, when he marched with POW Percussion in 2015. Albert then returned as section leader of the POW cymbal line in 2016 and marched his first year of drum corps at Impulse. He went on to perform with Pulse Percussion in 2017, then continued his drum corps career at the Santa Clara Vanguard Cadets. In 2018 Albert was asked to be the section leader of the Pulse cymbal line, where he aged out.

Throughout his instructional career, Albert has served as clinician and instructor for many groups in Southern California. He has worked with the music programs at Crescenta Valley HS, San Marino HS, El Rancho HS, Gahr HS, Gold Indoor Percussion, Gold Drum & Bugle Corps, and Pacific Crest Drum & Bugle Corps. His background of indoor and outdoor percussion make Albert the ideal instructor for any group. Albert’s unique insight into the cymbal community is something he enjoys being able to share with POW Percussion.

jack Wurth

Cymbal Tech

This is Jack's first year teaching at POW Percussion. As a native to Torrance, Jack has been teaching around So-Cal for 5 years, mainly at Torrance HS and West Torrance HS. Has has also spent time teaching at Gold DBC and Gold Indoor Drumline in more recent years.

His cymbal marching career includes Pacific Crest '16 '17 '19, Mandarins '18, Dark Sky Percussion '17, and RCC '18-'22 where Jack was the section leader during Pacific Crest '19 and RCC '20 and '22.

Christian Do

Front Ensemble Staff, Co-Coordinator

This is Christian’s 4th year on staff with POW. He was raised in Fountain Valley, CA attended La Quinta High School where he took interest the marching arts, specializing in design, composition, and audio engineering. Christian has performed with various Southern California ensembles including POW Percussion ('15), Pulse Percussion ('16,'17,'19), and Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps ('18).

Christian has worked with several local HS programs over the years such as La Quinta HS, Los Amigos HS, and Chino Hills HS. He was also the recipient of the Southern California Percussion Alliance Composition Scholarship in 2016. Currently, he serves as the percussion caption head at Arroyo HS, a front ensemble/sound tech at Gahr HS, and as a sound engineer at Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps. Christian attended California State University, Fullerton where he received his B.A. in Pure Mathematics.

Amanda Byers

Front Ensemble Staff

This is Amanda's 4th year on staff with POW. She marched with POW back in 2016 and then with Pulse Percussion in 2017-2019. In DCI she marched with Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps in 2016 and 2017, and marched with Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps in 2018. Amanda also currently teaches at Los Alamitos High School.
Outside of teaching Amanda works at an animal hospital in Corona, CA. She has her Bachelor of Art degree from University of California Irvine and is currently going to Oregon State University for a Bachelor of Science in Zoology.

Marlon Blair

Front Ensemble Staff

This is Marlon's first year working with POW Percussion. He is originally from Sacramento, CA and now resides in Riverside, CA. His teaching experience includes schools in Northern California and San Bernardino District, and he is now teaching at Etiwanda High School. 

Marlon performed with many world class ensembles, including The Sacramento Mandarins (2016-2018) and the Concord Blue Devils (2022). His WGI experience includes RCC (2020) and Pulse Percussion (2022-2023).

Taron Turner

Front Ensemble Staff

This is Taron’s first year teaching at POW Percussion. Raised in Madera, CA, Taron began his marching career as a snare drummer and switched to the front ensemble his junior year of high school. Taron’s marching experience includes POW Percussion and Pulse Percussion. He is a graduate of University of California, Riverside with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and is currently in the process of pursuing his Master of Arts. 

Taron has been the front ensemble tech at SB Percussion and Chavez Middle School. He now serves as the front ensemble instructor for Ramona High School. 

Zachary Novack

Front Ensemble Staff

This is Zachary’s 1st year teaching at POW. Zachary graduated from Carnegie Mellon University, receiving his Bachelors of Science in Statistics and Machine Learning. He currently resides in San Diego, CA, where he is a PhD student in Computer Science at UC San Diego researching the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Music. His performance experience includes Stryke Percussion (2017-2018) and the Blue Stars Drum and Bugle Corps (2017-2018). Zachary has previously taught and arranged for numerous groups around the country, including the Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps, Gateway HS, Tomball HS, Cooper City HS, and West Broward HS.

Nicklous Chau

Visual Staff

This is Nick’s 2nd year on staff with POW and resides in Chino Hills, CA. He currently attends Orange Coast College for kinesiology. His performance experience includes marching with Gold Drum & Bugle Corps (2017), Mandarins Drum & Bugle Corps (2018), and then being a part of Pulse Percussion’s visual ensemble (2019-2022). Nick is also an avid student for dance, taking classes from studios such as Offstage by GRV, LMNL Space and the Snowglobe Perspective. Nick has taught various high schools around SoCal as a visual coach/choreographer and is currently teaching Chino Hills HS & Rancho Cucamonga HS. He has also taught independent orgs such as Instinct Percussion and Gold Drum & Bugle Corps.

David Lopez

Visual Staff

This is David’s 2nd year on staff with POW. He is currently the Director of Bands at Ross Middle School and Niemes Elementary in Artesia, CA. He graduated from California State University, Fullerton, with a degree in Music Education. David has taught at several programs such as Gahr HS, Arcadia HS, Esperanza HS, Whittier HS, Damien HS, and Pacific Crest. David is an active drill writer and is on the design team at Gahr HS, Damien HS, and various other schools.

His marching experience includes Impulse (2012), Pacific Crest (2013-2015) and Blue Devils from (2016-2018). He served as the Trumpet Section Leader his age-out year. David was also a performer in the Christmas Fantasy Parade at Disneyland as a trumpet toy soldier.

Chris Schmitz

Visual Staff

This is Chris’s first year on staff at POW. He is a full-time drill writer, choreographer, and educator based in Southern California. His performance experience includes the Sacramento Mandarins (2016-2017) and Blue Devils Entertainment. A native of Northern California, Chris has been based in Southern California the last three years, working at programs at Rancho Cucamonga HS, El Dorado HS, Tesoro HS, and Sunny HIlls HS, among others. He is currently on staff at Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps, and was previously on staff at both Gold Drum and Bugle Corps and Gold Indoor Percussion, as well as Golden Empire Drum and Bugle Corps. Chris currently resides in Placentia, California, and studies Dance Education at Fullerton College.