(Playing the bell part in Leroy Anderson's 'The Typewriter')

Craig Sayer was born and raised in the beautiful Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania. Ever since a musical family moved in across the street from him at age 9, he wanted to play percussion. After two years of trumpet, he was finally able to begin learning the basics of percussion in 5th grade. During middle school he began to learn other percussion instruments, especially the timpani and marimba.

Although initially unsure if he was going to continue with music when he got to high school, when he was in 8th grade the high school band director heard him play a xylophone rag. As a result, the band director convinced Craig to continue playing. After about two years of performing in various high school ensembles, as well as studying privately with a local percussionist, he knew that he wanted to make a career in music.

Following high school he attended Syracuse University where he was granted a music scholarship to study with Michael W. Bull, Ernest Musquiz, and Joshua Dekaney. While there, he wanted to get as many new musical experiences as possible, and performed in a percussion ensemble, the college drumline, a contemporary music ensemble, and several student recitals.

After graduating from Syracuse, he attended the Strasbourg Conservatory in France (Conservatoire National de Région de Strasbourg) where he studied keyboard percussion with Emmanuel Séjourné, timpani with Denis Riedinger, snare drum and accessories with Stephan Fougeroux, and hand drumming with Latif Chaarani.

After moving back to the States in 2007, he was accepted as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Penn State University, where he studied with Dan C. Armstrong and Gifford Howarth while he pursued a Master of Music degree in Percussion Performance. His assistantship duties included teaching the percussion methods class for future music educators, directing a percussion ensemble, and assisting his professors by performing tasks such as maintaining the percussion equipment and music library.

Craig is currently an adjunct percussion instructor at Juniata College in central Pennsylvania, as well as a teacher for the State College Concert Percussion Academy. You may also see him performing with the Altoona Symphony Orchestra, Nittany Valley Symphony, and Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra.