In Memoriam

Karen Ervin Pershing
by Kristin Lyman

Karen Ervin Pershing was an important role model for many of us in percussion. I first discovered her work during my undergraduate years. Fortunately, I was introduced to Karen at PASIC ’98. As I learned more about her, my curiosity grew. I began communicating with Karen in the spring of 2003, and she allowed me to interview her during the next few months. As the story of her life unfolded, I realized that she was an extraordinary individual who had a remarkable career.

Born on August 4, 1943 in Bakersfield, California, she was adopted just a few days later by a wonderful couple, the Jacksons, and spent her childhood in Glendale, California. Karen started piano lessons in third grade with a teacher who taught sight-reading and theory, and who encouraged performance through studio recitals. When Karen joined the junior high orchestra, she was one of two pianists. While one played piano, the other would cover bass drum, triangle or whatever else was needed. Eventually, Karen’s parents bought an old marimba and donated it to the junior high school. From this point on, Karen began to double violin parts on the marimba and started taking marimba lessons. She continued to pursue piano and wanted to take percussion lessons, but her parents weren’t thrilled at the prospect of her being a drummer. After a couple of years, Karen convinced her parents that she truly wanted to play percussion.

Karen first attended Stanford University, but transferred to the University of Southern California in the middle of her sophomore year. Karen’s percussion colleagues included Ken Watson, Barry Silverman and Frank Epstein. “In this atmosphere,”Karen said, “if you didn’t practice a lot, you were definitely not part of the ‘in crowd.’”

As Karen entered her senior year at USC, she had the opportunity to play with several small orchestras and free-lance as well. William Kraft, one of her percussion professors, recommended her for many jobs, including the Monday Evening Concerts, a new-music series in Los Angeles co-founded by Igor Stravinsky. One of the most important things Karen learned from Kraft was the importance of good sound. Although she only studied timpani with him, Karen thought a great deal about the quality of sound on other instruments, and this concept became more important to her over the years.

While Kraft’s knowledge of percussion was significant to Karen, his knowledge of the humanities changed her perception of performance. According to Karen, Kraft was extremely knowledgeable about history, art, literature and the world. He believed it was necessary to bring an understanding of greater things than technical facility to one’s playing.

Upon receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from USC, Karen decided to pursue a master’s degree in music history. During this time she met Tom Ervin, a graduate trombone student at USC. The two were married in 1967 and left Los Angeles for Norfolk, Virginia, where Tom served the next three years on the Navy School of Music faculty. Karen played with the Norfolk Symphony and substitute taught. She also taught junior high choir for one semester. During their third year in Norfolk, she was hired to teach part-time at Norfolk State College.

Tom and Karen returned to Los Angeles and she returned to free-lancing. She was immersed in a number of performance opportunities, including the Los Angeles Brass Ensemble and a percussion quartet that gave numerous school concerts. The director of the brass ensemble was associated with William Schmidt, a composer and the owner of a publishing company called WIM Music. Schmidt and his wife had published a number of percussion pieces, including Kraft’s “Morris Dance”and Boris Pillin’s “Sonata for Percussion and Piano.”They wanted to make an album featuring their percussion works and asked Karen to be the soloist. Schmidt had also written a work for percussion and narrator that would be included on the album, and the company was looking for an additional work. Karen had performed a work called “Marimba Mass”by Paul Sifler, so she asked Sifler to write a piece for her. The result was “Marimba Suite,”later published by WIM and included on the album.

Karen was quite busy throughout this period and did a lot of work with Crystal Records, including a duet album. The selections included Kraft’s “Encounters IV”for trombone and percussion, which he composed for the Ervins; Ingolf Dahl’s “Duettino Concertante for Flute and Percussion,”which was written for Karen during her time at USC; and Frederick Lesemann’s “Sonata for Clarinet and Percussion.”

In the summer of 1972, Karen entered the Concours Internationale d’Execution Musicale competition in Geneva, Switzerland. As a finalist, Karen competed against Sumire Yoshihara. After a long delay, the prizes were awarded with Karen receiving second place, despite the insistence of the judges to award two equal first prizes. Karen felt her success in this competition provided her with the confidence to perform anywhere.

The Ervins soon moved to Tucson, where Tom began a full-time position at the University of Arizona. Although Karen had spent one year working toward a master’s degree in music history at USC, she never completed the degree. She decided to pursue a master’s degree in composition at the University of Arizona, and she continued to perform.

In the summer of 1975, Karen entered another international competition, the Concours Internationale pour Musique Contemporaine, held in LaRochelle, France. Karen finished third, beating her rival Yoshihara from the Geneva competition.

When she returned to America, Karen became a clinician for the Ludwig/Musser Corporation and performed on PAS Day at the Midwest Band and Orchestra Conference in Chicago. While in Chicago, she ran into Joel Leach, Director of Percussion Studies at Cal State University Northridge. Leach was looking for a part-time instructor who could play well and who had good teaching and communication skills. Karen became a part-time instructor at Cal Sate Northridge in the spring of 1976.

While finding success in teaching and free-lancing, Karen and Tom decided to divorce. From 1976–80, Karen pursued a career as a performer and clinician, giving approximately 30 recitals and clinics a year throughout the United States. In 1980 Karen married D’Arneill Pershing, who was an accomplished arranger. But after only nine months of marriage, Pershing died of a heart attack. Karen was devastated and found the need to focus her energies into new things. This brought her career as a clinician and solo performer to a halt. Karen began writing fiction and eventually had seven romance novels published. During the mid-1980s, Karen also contributed several articles to Modern Percussionist magazine. Subsequently, she began teaching writing classes and working as a free-lance editor, continuing until her death.

Karen toured with Joseph Papp’s production of Pirates of Penzance in September 1981. The orchestration was not that of Gilbert and Sullivan, however, and Karen found the mallet parts written by William Moersch for marimba, vibes, xylophone and boobams quite challenging. Karen spent nearly a year touring with the production before returning to Los Angeles.

Resuming her teaching at Cal State Northridge in September 1982, Karen lacked the desire to play, with the exception of demonstrating in lessons. However, the chair of her department asked Karen to play on his recital in September of 2002, to which she agreed. She thoroughly enjoyed practicing and playing again and was inspired to give her first solo recital in over 20 years. This experience was so enjoyable that Karen purchased a five-octave marimba and was planning her next recital.

Karen was always ready to take on new challenges. She served on the PAS Board of Directors and Executive Committee during the 1970s. As Second Vice President, she worked to expand the chapter system. During the mid 1990s, Karen purchased Studio 4 Publications from Joel Leach. Although she was the owner of a publishing company and had a master’s degree in composition, Karen didn’t consider herself a composer, rather someone who wrote music from time to time. In fact, Karen contributed a number of works that have become standard in the learning process for students throughout the country, including Contemporary Etudes for 3 and 4 Mallets, Contemporary Mallet Duets, and Mallet Duets for the Student and Teacher.

Karen died on May 10, 2004 after a battle with cancer. Although the percussion world changed significantly over the span of Karen’s 40-year career, she was a critical figure in the development of its history. She has touched every aspect of the percussion world and has been a source of inspiration to many. Despite this tragic loss, there is no doubt we will continue to learn from Karen’s contributions for years to come.

Kristin Lyman is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Education and a Teaching Assistant at Texas Tech University under the direction of Lisa Rogers and Alan Shinn. She holds a Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Performance from Texas Tech University. Lyman is currently developing a percussion curriculum for an after-school program in Oklahoma and directs the Iles Elementary Panjammers Steel Band.