Alex Wier (President) is a percussionist active in Arizona as both a performer and educator. Wier has performed with the Arizona Musicfest Festival Orchestra, Crested Butte Music Festival, and at the 2006 Percussive Arts Society International Convention with the University of Arizona Steel Band. He is a member of the percussion trio Atlas Percussion and regularly performs with the Rhythm Is Life Steel Band. As a teacher, Wier has taught students of all ages and directed indoor and outdoor percussion programs at several high schools in Phoenix and Tucson. He currently teaches a Jazz History course at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix and has helped found percussion groups in Chicago and Tucson that were focused on community outreach. He is a graduate of Northwestern University where he earned a Master of Music degree and holds a Bachelors degree in Music Performance from the University of Arizona. He has been the recipient of several grants and scholarships that assisted in funding his collegiate studies and his attendance at various seminars around the United States, in addition to studying abroad in Ghana, Africa in 2006. Wier has been a member of PAS for eleven years and active in AZPAS during all but the two years he resided in Chicago. He has attended the past six PAS International Conventions and served on the Collegiate Committee for four years.
------------------------------
Jordan Drum (Vice-President) is a percussion performer, arranger, educator and adjudicator living in Tempe, Arizona. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Texas Tech University and is pursuing a Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance from the Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, where he conducts the ASU 'Pan Devils' Steel Band. He clinics & performs regularly throughout the United States with the millea/drum Duo and is an active freelance percussionist in the Phoenix area. Jordan has acted as director, consultant and arranger for a plethora of marching ensembles throughout Texas and Arizona, including the Arizona State University Sun Devil Marching Band (Tempe, AZ), Ronald Reagan High School (San Antonio, TX), James Madison High School (San Antonio, TX), and the West Texas Area Winter Drumline (Lubbock, TX). He is has also served as general effect judge and as critique judge for the annual AZPAS Day of Marching Percussion. His principal teachers include Lisa Rogers, Alan Shinn, J.B. Smith and Mark Sunkett.
------------------------------
Wes Hawkins (Secretary/Treasurer) is a percussionist and educator in the Phoenix area. He earned Bachelor's Degrees in Music Education and Percussion Performance from the University of Arizona in 1997 and a Master's Degree in Music Education (Jazz Studies emphasis) at Arizona State University in December 2003. Currently, Wes teaches at the Tesseract School (Instrumental music for grades 5-11). An adjunct faculty member at Phoenix College since 2005, Wes teaches Jazz History, Percussion Ensemble, and Concert Percussion lessons. He is the owner of the Rhythm is Life Percussion Studio and leads the popular Rhythm is Life Steel Band. Additionally, Wes has been on the percussion faculty at NAU Summer Music Camp since 2000 and has served as Secretary/Treasurer for the Arizona Chapter of PAS (Percussive Arts Society) since 2002. In his spare time, Wes enjoys hiking, biking, and spending time with his family.