Mr. Nick Bruce

Director of Bands, nabruce@greenville.k12.sc.us - 864-355-8780

Mr. Nick Bruce, originally from Florence, South Carolina, is a performer and educator with a wide array of percussive performance experience in the southeast including South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, and Indiana. His education includes degrees from the University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN) and Furman University (Greenville, SC), and his instructors include Dr. Andrew Bliss, Mr. Keith Brown, Dr. Eric Retterer, Dr. Omar Carmenates, Mr. Justin Watt, and Dr. Mike Truesdell.

Mr. Bruce has spent much of his performance career exploring his musical self and continues to find inspiration in a multitude of percussive avenues. As a passionate chamber musician, he’s been a part of a number of notable performances. In 2017, at the annual McCormick Marimba Festival in Tampa, Florida, he premiered Omar Carmenates’ arrangement of Piano Quintet by John Psathas. Later that year, Mr. Bruce performed at the first ever Emory Percussion Symposium in Atlanta, Georgia, premiering the Adam Silverman quartet The Cruel Waters. As part of a recording project begun back in 2015, he is featured on Matthew Burtner’s CD Six Ecoacoustic Quintets / Avian Telemetry released by Ravello Records in summer 2020. At the 2018 Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Mr. Bruce had the honor to perform an International Percussion Ensemble Winner Showcase. In 2019, he was awarded the inaugural Excellent Percussion Scholarship at the Nief Norf Summer Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Notable ensemble works in Mr. Bruce’s repertoire include, dis[armed] by Yaz Lancaster, Les guetteurs de sons by Georges Aperghis, The Dream of the Manichaeian / beFORe JOHN3 by Aurél Hollo and Zoltán Váczi, “Pléïades” (from Melanges) by Iannis Xenakis, and Behemoth by Jenna Lyle. As a member of Cue Percussion, he anxiously awaits the opportunity to perform more works with his colleagues in person.

As an educator, Mr. Bruce has taught at all levels of education from middle school to college ranging from individual lessons to ensemble instruction. He most recently taught at DRUM Percussion Studio in Greenville, SC where he taught lessons and helped lead the Advanced Percussion Ensemble with musician and educator Jason Currin. Mr. Bruce has also conducted college middle, high, and college level bands in performance. When he isn’t cutting up with his students in the band room or on the marching field, he enjoys watching sports (mainly basketball), catching up on Marvel shows and movies, or just chilling with his wife Jocelyn.

Mr. Scott Salinas

Woodwind and Brass Instructor

Ms. Lindsey Fromknecht

Visual Instructor

Mrs. Lacie Williams

Color Guard Instructor