Jonathan Haas, Director of Percussion Studies at NYU Steinhardt, traveled to Beijing this summer to participate in the 10th Annual PAS China International Percussion Festival. The festival brought together internationally recognized artists, educators, conservatory students, and more than 1,000 young percussionists from across China for a week of performances, competitions, and educational programming. Haas served as a final-round adjudicator, evaluating emerging performers and sharing professional feedback informed by his decades of experience as an internationally acclaimed percussionist and educator.
Haas also presented a lecture on Béla Bartók and the landmark Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, examining the composer’s cultural background, folk-music research, modernist musical language, and transformation of percussion into a fundamental compositional voice. His visit culminated in a performance of the Bartók sonata during the festival’s closing concert. Through adjudication, scholarship, and performance, Haas’s participation fostered meaningful exchange between NYU and China’s percussion community while introducing NYU’s artistic and educational perspectives to a new generation of musicians.
