Chelsea Tinsler Jones is an avid percussionist, arts administrator, and educator based in Utah County. She has a unique skill set having studied solo, orchestral, and contemporary percussion in addition to musical styles from West Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, and the Middle East.
Chelsea is percussionist and Director of Operations for Khemia Ensemble, an internationally performing mixed-chamber ensemble dedicated to promoting contemporary classical music. Khemia actively commissions new works and mentors young performers and composers. Performance highlights include National Sawdust, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, Strange Beautiful Music X Festival, New Music Gathering, and the MoxSonic Experimental Sonic Arts Festival, among several university residences.
As a soloist, Chelsea has performed with the University of Michigan Symphony Band, Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble, and the Hartt Contemporary Players. She placed second in the 2016 Black Swamp Solo Percussion Competition. Chelsea’s performance of Andy Akiho’s Stop Speaking for solo snare drum accompanied by a stop-motion animated film by visual artist Alisa Yang won “Best Music Video” at the 2018 Ann Arbor Film Festival.
Notable freelance appearances include the White Christmas National Tour (Paducah, KY), Ballet West Orchestra (Salt Lake City, UT), Section Percussionist with Paducah Symphony Orchestra (2017-20), steelworks steelband (2014-present), AEPEX Contemporary Performance (Detroit, MI), Rochester Symphony (MI), New Britain Symphony (CT), Nutmeg Symphony (CT), Adrian Symphony (MI), and the Artful Living Musical Theater Company (CT).
A passionate educator, Chelsea is Instructor of Music at Utah Valley University. In 2021, Chelsea’s Level Up! 15 Sequential Duets for the Developing Snare Drummer was released by Tapspace. Previously, she has held positions as a Lecturer of Music at the University of Tennessee at Martin, Instrumental Music Teacher in the Ann Arbor Public Schools, and Director of the University of Michigan’s Impact Youth Percussion Ensemble. Chelsea has also served on the faculty of summer programs including Littlestone Summer Music Festival (TN), Music for the Sake of Music (WI), and the Hartt Community Division (CT), in addition to 12 years of private teaching.
Chelsea received her MM in Percussion Performance and Chamber Music from the University of Michigan and her BM in Percussion Performance and Music Education from the Hartt School, University of Hartford.
https://www.chelseatinslerjones.com/
