Jade A. Hails is a dynamic presence on and offstage. Combining theatrics and technical precision in a musical amalgamation, Hails has committed his career to bridging the gap between the arts, engaging composers, dancers, poets, and visual artists in pursuit of a more integrated creative practice. Dedicated to expanding the percussion repertoire, Hails has commissioned and participated in consortiums for works by Matthew Keown, Vera Stranojevic, Emmanuel Sejourne, Steven Snowden, Bryan Jeffs, Molly Joyce, among others, while developing concert programs that function as research in practice. His recital program Gesture, examining movement and audio/visual perception, and lecture recital A Theatre for the Absurd, both investigate theatre practices and their intersection with contemporary percussion performance, reflecting a sustained scholarly engagement with questions of choreography, notation, visual perception and embodied expression.
Hails has most recently been involved with research projects like the 2025 France-Canada tour of Mystery of Clock with Aiyun Huang, Mark Fewer, and Roland Auzet as well as held residency at the Centre for Brain, Performance, and Music Creation. Jade was invited to participatie in the 2022 Transplanted Roots Percussion Symposium in San Diego and served as a project fellow at the 2024 Arcata Gathering in Arcata, California, both convened by Steven Schick. As a longstanding member of Scrap Arts Music and co-founder of the piano-percussion duo Pas de Duo alongside pianist Letizia Pent, he maintains an active performance life rooted in collaboration and interdisciplinary inquiry. His earlier work with Left Edge Percussion brought invitation to the 2020 Bang on a Can LONGPLAY Festival in New York, and his tenure with the Oregon State University Wind Ensemble included international tours and a featured appearance as soloist in Sejourne's Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra.
As an educator, Hails has held appointments at Douglas College and St. John's School, and has taught privately across the Greater Toronto Area and the Pacific Northwest for over a decade. He holds a Master of Music in Percussion from Southern Oregon University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Oregon State University, and is currently pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Toronto under Dr. Aiyun Huang, supported by the Gerald Harlan Johnston Fellowship and the Terence Clarkson and Cornelis Van De Graaff Graduate Scholarship.
Long Bio
Jade A. Hails | Performer | Composer | Collaborator
“...a graceful, corporeal severity…”
“... [a] melding of technical gesture with idiomatic choreography.” OregonArtsWatch.org
Jade A. Hails is an American percussionist, composer, and interdisciplinary collaborator whose work occupies the intersection of contemporary performance practice, theatrical inquiry, and new music advocacy. Grounded in a rigorous technical foundation and an expansive artistic vision, Hails has dedicated his career to fostering meaningful dialogue between percussion and the broader arts, engaging composers, dancers, poets, and visual artists in pursuit of a more integrated creative practice. Jade is currently based in Toronto Ontario after moving from Vancouver British Columbia where he enjoyed the first four years of making Canada his home.
A committed advocate for the expansion of the percussion repertoire and a more diversified performance practice, Hails has commissioned and participated in consortiums for works by Matthew Keown, Vera Stranojevic, Emmanuel Sejourne, Steven Snowden, James Boznos, Menelaos Peistikos, Bryan Jeffs, and Molly Joyce, among others. His concert programs function as research in practice: Gesture, a recital examining the relationship between movement and musical meaning through a curated program of works for solo and chamber percussion, and A Theatre for the Absurd, a lecture recital investigating composition and performance aesthetics in percussion performance,. This research has been recognized and developed within distinguished scholarly communities: Hails participated in the 2022 Transplanted Roots Percussion Symposium in San Diego and was selected as a project fellow for the 2024 Arcata Gathering in Arcata, California, both convened by renowned percussionist and educator Steven Schick and served as a research fellow for the 2025 tour of France and Canada for the Mystery of Clock project of Aiyun Huang, Mark Fewer, and Roland Auzet. Hails also held a residency at the Centre for Brain, Performance, and Music Creation. These experiences have significantly shaped his approach to performance research and his commitment to percussion as a site of rigorous intellectual inquiry for expanding performance practices.
Hails is a longstanding member of Scrap Arts Music, a touring experimental percussion ensemble directed by Gregory Kozak and Justine Murdy, through which he performs for audiences across North America in inventive and boundary-challenging work on their Children of Metropolis tour. As co-founder of Pas de Duo alongside Italian-born pianist Letizia Pent, he has developed a body of work that arranges, commissions, and performs repertoire at the intersection of chamber music and contemporary dance, further extending his commitment to interdisciplinary practice.
His earlier work with Left Edge Percussion, the resident chamber ensemble of the Oregon Center for the Arts under the direction of Dr. Terry Longshore, brought invitations to the New York for the 2020 Bang on a Can LONGPLAY Festival. As a principal percussionist with the Oregon State University Wind Ensemble, Hails performed, recorded, and toured internationally, including appearances in Oahu and Taipei, and served as featured soloist in Emmanuel Sejourne's Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra.
As an educator, Hails has held appointments as percussion instructor at Douglas College and artist-in-residence at St. John's School, and has maintained an active private teaching studio across the Greater Toronto Area and the Pacific Northwest for over a decade. He approaches pedagogy with the same curiosity and rigor that defines his scholarly and artistic work. Hails holds a Master of Music in Percussion from Southern Oregon University and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Oregon State University. He is currently pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Aiyun Huang, supported by the Gerald Harlan Johnston Fellowship and the Terence Clarkson and Cornelis Van De Graaff Graduate Scholarship.
To keep up to date with Jade's music and future projects. Subscribe to his YouTube channel or follow him on Instagram @jade_hails_music