Julie Licata (b. 1980 in Ashtabula, OH) is a percussionist/drummer, noisemaker, collaborator, and educator. Her performances range from improvisational soundscapes and works with computer processing, to solo marimba and percussion, chamber ensembles, orchestras, theater pits, Indonesian gamelan and West African drum ensembles. Julie recently accepted the position of Assistant Professor and Director of Percussion at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio.
As a performer, Julie focuses on promoting emerging composers and seeking new modes of musical expression with particular emphasis on improvisation and the integration of live analog and digital electronics. She recently released an album, resound/unsound, with co-creators Andris Balins and Brett Masteller; the album features percussive improvisations with time lag accumulation, feedback looping, and modular synthesis. Within this musical realm, Julie has performed at the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the US, the International Computer Music Conference, CHIMEFest in Chicago, IL, and numerous new music venues across the US.
Julie also performs regularly with musical partner, flautist Ana Laura González, as part of Windstruck Duo. Together they aim to stretch their instruments’ idiomatic worlds and promote a diverse range of composers. The duo has recently presented at the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, the College Music Society Southern Regional Conference, and the 10th Annual Flute Festival of Junín, Argentina. They just released their first album of flute and percussion music, Reciprocity, in March 2023.
As an educator, Julie strives to cultivate each musicians’ creative voice and personal agency through improvisation, self-assessment, and peer feedback in private lessons and ensembles. She also engages with musicians as whole people, weaving in philosophical and emotional discussions about music and talks about performance anxieties on and off the stage, as well as integrating physical elements such as meditation, strength training, and yoga as ways to help musicians foster deeper connections with the self. Recently, she published two articles related to percussion pedagogy in the Percussive Notes journal and has an upcoming publication of an article with psychology professor, Michael A. Faber, about the emotional experiences of performers as they relate to flow theory and the Taoist concept of wu wei (effortless striving).
Julie has been an active participant in the Percussive Arts Society, having served as a new literature reviewer for the Percussive Notes journal and as a member of the PAS University Pedagogy Committee and Diversity Alliance. Julie is also a member of the Black Swamp Percussion Educator Network and is the Secretary/Treasurer and recent Interim President of the PAS New York Chapter.
Julie holds degrees from the University of North Texas (DMA ‘09), University of South Carolina (MM ‘05), and Capital University (BM ‘02). Julie previously taught at SUNY Oneonta.