Photo by Dan Goldwasser

profile An active recording artist, Wade Culbreath has contributed to world premiere recordings of works by Esa Pekka Salonen, John Adams and Steve Reich. As principal timpanist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, he has toured Europe and performed and recorded with the orchestra under Sir Neville Mariner. During the summer, he performs with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra as principal percussionist and has toured Japan and Brazil as well as contributed to numerous recordings with the orchestra for Philips Classics since the orchestra's inception. He has participated in recordings with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the Sony Classical and Deutsche Grammaphon labels and his work with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group includes working with Pierre Boulez, Mauricio Kagel, Tan Dun and Esa Pekka Salonen, performing their works at Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Ojai Music Festival and the Chatelet: Theatre musical de Paris. He can be heard on the soundtracks for hundreds of motion pictures by Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, James Newton Howard, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, James Horner and John Williams, among others.

A longtime fan of the music of Steve Reich, he had the opportunity to work with the composer on two recordings for the Nonesuch label; the world premiere of "You Are (Variations)" and "Daniel Variations" with subsequent performances in New York and Los Angeles. His work has also included performing with the Pasadena Symphony where he is principal timpanist, and with touring ballet companies such as the Bolshoi Ballet, the Dance Theater of Harlem and the American Ballet Theater. He received his Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California and Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music where he was awarded the Performer's Certificate. His instructors have included John Beck, Arthur Press, Kenneth Watson and Massie Johnson. He is a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 47 and the Recording Musicians Association of Los Angeles.