Happy to announce that the new principle timpanist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra is also the new percussion faculty hire at the FFSoM! Happy to have her on board staring spring 2020.

Alana Wiesing is a multi-faceted and award-winning timpanist and percussionist from Phoenix, AZ. She holds a Master of Music degree in percussion performance from Indiana University and the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, IN, where she also completed her undergraduate studies. Her major percussion instructors were Bill Wanser and John Tafoya, and she has completed additional studies most notably and extensively with David Herbert, Cynthia Yeh, Joseph Pereira, Ed Stephan, Markus Rhoten, Richard Weiner, Jauvon Gilliam, Eric Shin, Michael Spiro, Jonathan Haas, and Doug Howard. Alana’s summer festival activities include the Eastern Music Festival (2007, 2008), the Interlochen Arts Camp (2009, 2010), the Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar (2011), the Indiana University Summer Music Academy (2013), the National Orchestral Institute (2015, 2016), and the Aspen Music Festival & School (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). She actively performed, recorded, and freelanced with numerous orchestras and ensembles during her time in the Midwest, notably serving as the Principal Timpanist with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic and the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra as well as a regular substitute and extra percussionist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic.

Alana is currently based in Tucson, AZ and serves as the Principal Timpanist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor of Percussion at the University of Arizona and the Fred Fox School of Music. In her free time, Alana enjoys hiking, biking, running, cooking, playing sports (notably tennis and ultimate frisbee), attending museums and concerts, playing board games and trivia, listening to all genres of music, trying new restaurants, and spending quality time with family and friends.