Executive Director
KnightFire Percussion Ensembles
Gary@KnightFirePercussion.com

Gary started his drum corps career at the young age of 6 years old as the mascot for the Nisei Ambassadors Drum and Bugle Corps out of Chicago, IL. Throughout the late 1970’s and early 80’s, he continued to march with programs in and around the Chicagoland area such as the Mount Prospect Imperials, Elmhurst Vaqueros and the Cavaliers of Rosemont. Gary moved to San Diego, Ca where he eventually marched with the Velvet Knights and the Anaheim Kingsmen.

After High School, Gary, along with long time friend and fellow percussionist Steve Elias, started “Say Hey Productions” a company that provided percussion arranging, drill writing, color guard choreography and even “Corps Style” instruction for many successful San Diego area marching programs such as Grossmont H.S., Granite Hills H.S., Monte Vista H.S., Vallhalla H.S., Morse, H.S. Sweetwater H.S., Mar Vista H.S., El Capitan H.S. and Ramona H.S.. During their tenure at these schools, Gary and Steve were able to aide these programs to many sweepstakes and first place finishes along with several high caption awards not only in the Southern California Band and Orchestra Association arena, but in WGI and Drums Across California (DAC) as well.

Gary moved back to Illinois in 1993 and continued instructing in the areas of percussion, color guard and drill for programs such as Le-Win H.S., Dakota H.S., Freeport H.S., Phantom Cadets, Guardsmen, Racine Scouts, Colt Cadets, Macomb H.S., and the Western Illinois University Marching Leathernecks. Gary studied percussion for 3 years under Dr. Richard Cheadle and Mr. Kevin Nichols and is currently working towards his Masters degree in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration at WIU.

Gary is a member of PAS, and a member of Vic Firth’s Education Team as a Marching Percussion Specialist

Contact Information
(217) 213-5771 Hm
(217) 274-1167 Cell
Gary@KnightFirePercussion.com