Hello!
My name is Michael Brenmark. I'm originally from Richmond, VA and I've been playing percussion for thirty-eight years. Like most, I started in middle school band and continued on with band in school until I graduated high school. There are a couple major highlights from high school band I'd like to share: The first is from my junior year when our band was selected to march in the nationally televised 104th Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, CA in 1993. That was a once in a lifetime experience I will never forget and will always cherish. The second highlight was during my senior year when I auditioned for and made it into the Virginia All-Regional Symphonic Band. That was a really wonderful experience! I always highly encourage students to audition for regional and state bands, because I know they will gain a wealth of knowledge and experience from doing so, even if they don't make it on their first try!

The part-time jobs that I had throughout high school were all in food service, so after I graduated, I enlisted in the Army as a Food Service Specialist in August 1995. My first duty station was Ft. Wainwright, AK. Early on in that job I realized that my true passion was definitely in music, so I set out to change my path. I researched and found out that there was an Army Band, the 9th Army Band, on my installation. I went over to the band and spoke to one of their percussionists and found out what I needed to do in order to pass an audition to become an Army Bandsman. I practiced percussion nonstop outside of work for a year, and when I felt like I was finally ready, I scheduled taking a Field Audition from them. I passed it with flying colors, and after a long one-and-a-half year bureaucratic process, I was finally released from my unit in May 1998, and was then permanently assigned to the 9th Army Band for On-the-job Training (OJT) as a Percussionist. I was assigned a school slot at the Army School of Music in Virginia, Beach, VA for October 1998. I attended the then six-month course that included proficiency on your individually assigned musical instrument and/or instruments, concert and marching ensemble playing, ear training and sight singing, and music theory. I graduated in April 1999 and was officially an Army Band Percussionist. Over the next seventeen years of my twenty year Army career, I served in seven different Army Bands.

Some notable moments in my career were:

* The countless opportunities to give percussion master classes and clinics in schools as part of our Community Relations Mission
* Deploying to Southeastern Europe on a peace-keeping musical mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina to provide entertainment and morale for U.S. Troops
* Being selected in 2004 to be the drummer for Army Entertainment's showband "USA Express" and deploying on a four-month musical mission to the Middle East to entertain deployed U.S. Troops throughout that region
* Deploying with the 1st Infantry Division Army Band in 2010 to Basra, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom 2010-2011

During my time as an Army Band Percussionist, I was a self-employed Percussion Instructor outside of work for seventeen years. I have always had the passion to teach music and decided I wanted to continue my musical journey as a music educator. I continue to teach percussion and drumset lessons to this day and have now been a Percussion Instructor for 27 years.

I retired from the Army in August 2015 and enrolled in Pierce College in Lakewood, WA, where I spent the next year taking almost all of the Core Credit classes I would need for a Bachelor of Music degree. I had a very high GPA and was invited to become a member of Phi Theta Kappa, the International Honor Society for Two-Year Colleges. My family and I moved to Wichita Falls, TX in July 2016, where I had been accepted into the Fain Fine Arts School of Music at Midwestern State University (MSU). I maintained a very high GPA at MSU as well, and after I was accepted into the Gordon T. & Ellen West College of Education, I was invited to become a member of Kappa Delta Pi, the International Honor Society in Education. I graduated from MSU in just three years in December 2019, where I was conferred a Bachelor of Music (K-12 Teacher Certification - Instrumental) degree. I learned a wealth of Music Education teaching knowledge at my two Clinical Teaching placements at Hirschi High School in Wichita Falls, TX and Overton Ray Elementary School in Burkburnett, TX. My Cooperating Teachers at both schools were truly amazing and set me up for success to be an excellent K-12 Music Educator!

My family and I moved to Colorado Springs, CO in summer 2019. I gained my State of Colorado Music (K-12) Initial Teaching License in 2020, and I was employed by Academy School District 20 in Colorado Springs, CO as a K-5 Elementary Music Teacher at High Plains Elementary School for the 2020-2021 school year.
In the summer of 2021, my family and I moved to Santa Ana, CA, where I gained my California Public Schools Single Subject Teaching Credential for Music (TK-12) from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. I was employed by Magnolia School District in Anaheim, CA as a TK-6 Itinerant Elementary Music Teacher for the 2021-2022 school year. I taught TK-6 Music at three elementary schools in this District: Robert M. Pyles STEM Academy, Mattie Lou Maxwell Elementary School, and Walt Disney Elementary School. During this school year, I completed the Orange County Department of Education Teacher Induction Program Year One of their two-year induction program.

In the summer of 2022, my family and I moved to Chesapeake, VA, where I gained my Commonwealth of Virginia Music: Instrumental Pre K-12 Collegiate Professional Teaching License. In August 2022, I was hired by Virginia Beach City Public Schools as the K-5 Music Teacher at Seatack Elementary School, An Achievable Dream Academy. I worked in that position for 2 years: The 2022-2023 & 2023-2024 school years.

In the spring of 2024, I was hired by Chesapeake Public Schools as the Director of Bands for Greenbrier Middle School. I am going into my second year of teaching there. In the winter of 2025, I became a performing member of the Virginia Wind Symphony as a percussionist.