Percussive Arts Society

Percussive Arts Society – Since 2007, the Percussive Arts Society, the largest percussion organization in the world, has been based in Indianapolis. Opened in 2009, Rhythm! Discovery Center is the society's first-class interactive museum. Founded in 1961, PAS currently has over 9,000 members with forty chapters in the United States and twenty-four chapters outside of the country. In the interest of promoting percussion education, performance and awareness, PAS publishes two bi-monthly journals—Percussive Notes and Percussion News—and locally hosts an annual international convention (PASIC) that attracts around 6,000 attendees each year. Included in the PAS Hall of Fame are Gary Burton (1988 inductee), virtuoso jazz vibraphonist and Anderson native; Anthony J. Cirone (2007 inductee), world-class percussionist who was chair of the Percussion Department at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University (around 2002 to 2008); and George Gaber (1995 inductee), who developed IU’s percussion program starting in 1960.