Paul Tanner is the Principal Percussionist of the Perth Symphony Orchestra and has played with the Western Australian Symphony since 1985. He has spent many years performing in a variety of musical situations, including solo performances, new-music ensembles, jazz combos, Latin bands, world-music groups and many freelance ensembles.

Whilst completing his Master-of-Music degree, Paul studied with new-music guru, Steven Schick in San Diego, before travelling through South America to gain insight into other percussive music traditions. Furthering his interest in other cultures, he travelled through West Africa and Zimbabwe.

Paul completed his PhD at Edith Cowan University, developing repertoire for one player performing marimba and vibraphone simultaneously (for more, see https://www.paultanner.com.au/marimbavibe), He was awarded the medal for ‘most outstanding research thesis’ by WAAPA and was the first WAAPA student to win the medal for ‘most outstanding research thesis’ from Edith Cowan University. Paul currently runs an Afro-Latin percussion unit (including Zimbabwean marimba ensembles) at the University of Western Australia.

By combining his performance and teaching work, Paul has been able to inspire percussionists and encourage them to explore new and promising fields. He has pushed boundaries and demonstrated possibilities through his work in innovative percussion groups and as a soloist; in collaborations with other instrumentalists, musicians from diverse genres, composers, dancers, circus performers, dramaturgs, poets and painters; by building and composing for invented instruments; educating future performers through schools’ performances and artistic residencies; composing works for students and professional soloists (some of which may be found in the AMEB syllabus); and arranging works by composers as diverse as J.S. Bach, Ed Sheeran and Iannis Xenakis.

Paul has performed throughout Australia and South-East Asia for Musica Viva; in the UK with OgdenTanner (duo with Grammy-nominated guitarist, Craig Ogden); with diverse groups at the Adelaide, Sydney, and Perth International Arts Festivals; at Darwin’s Bougainvillea and International Guitar Festivals; and recently toured the east coast of Australia with New York’s Bang-on-a-Can Allstars.