“The difference between timpani and a drum is that you get a specific pitch,” says Berkeley Symphony timpanist Kevin Neuhoff. “It’s a voice, a bass line. You don’t even think of them as drums, they’re about pitch enhancement.” But in order for timpani to work their magic, he adds, everything must be working mechanically. And for a freelance timpanist, who must continually load his instruments into a van and move them from home to rehearsal hall to stage, this is no small task. “Every time you move the drums something goes out of alignment,” he observes. “A little push here, a little pull there, a drum is out of tune.” So he is generally among the first to arrive and the last to leave: “That’s the life you lead.”
Kevin grew up in St. Louis and took an interest in music early on, even though neither of his parents was particularly musical. Kevin’s first instrument was the piano, but he soon took up percussion, because he wanted to play music with other people, which he found “cooler than hanging out in a room pushing on the keys.” In high school, he became quite interested in oceanography, and during his junior year he spent a month on an oceanographic sailing ship traveling from Boston to Lisbon. But Kevin found he was more interested in the sailing part of the experience than the scientific part, and upon his return he decided to pursue music rather than science.
He spent his senior year at the Interlochen Academy, near Traverse City, Michigan. The Academy was an intense learning experience for Kevin. His teacher, Jerry Hartweg, gave him a thorough training in all aspects of percussion, including jazz. Hartweg would load his students in a station wagon and take them to jazz performances in Detroit, a 250-mile drive, to hear Stan Kenton, Buddy Rich, Don Ellis, Woody Herman, and other jazz greats, then make the trip back to Interlochen, arriving at 3 or 4 in the morning.
Back in St. Louis, Kevin continued his studies at the newly established St. Louis Conservatory. He spent several summers at the Aspen Festival, where he met Berkeley Symphony principal percussionist Ward Spangler and other Bay Area percussionists, and when he graduated he decided to move to the Bay Area. One of his first gigs was with a Japanese bagpipe player who wanted timpani and gongs to accompany his new age music. “I knew I had arrived in San Francisco,” comments Kevin.
His connection with Spangler led to an association with the Berkeley Symphony during Kent Nagano’s first season with the orchestra, and he especially remembers the Olivier Messiaen works he performed during those early years. “Playing Messiaen was an amazingly enriching experience,” says Kevin. “No other orchestras touch that stuff. It’s a wealth of content that really focuses you—that, in turn, enhances other aspects of music and life.” In addition to the Berkeley Symphony, he
plays regularly with the Marin and Fremont symphonies, Western Opera Theater, Russian Chamber Orchestra, and Carmel Bach Festival, and has appeared with many other groups, including the San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose symphonies, New Century Chamber Orchestra, and Paul Dresher Ensemble. Kevin enjoys the variety afforded by freelancing. “One week I recorded music for the Pixar film Finding Nemo,” he remembers. “A few days later I recorded timpani grooves for the acid jazz band VU’s CD Hardbook for the Apocalypse. And then I hit the road with my Baroque drums to play the Bach B Minor Mass with the Carmel Bach Festival Orchestra. The circle of life in three days. You gotta love it!”
Kevin is married to conductor Mary Chun, who conducts the Bay Area contemporary music group Earplay, served as assistant conductor of the Berkeley Symphony for many years, and is the only professional in the country to perform on the ondes martenot, an exotic keyboard instrument favored by Messiaen. Among Kevin’s extramusical passions are golf (his career highlight was finishing 4th in the Musicians Union Local 6 tournament) and grilling just about anything—from fish to chicken, tofu, and ribs.
—Richard Reynolds, March 2004
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