Boyce Jeffries Jr.

Boyce Jeffries, Jr. has been serving as a faculty member with the Sam Houston State School of Music since the fall of 2022. He teaches applied percussion lessons, the percussion methods course for music education majors, and has instructed music theory and musicianship / ear training. He is the director of the University Percussion Ensemble, the Second and Third Steel Bands, and the Bearkat Drumline.

A native of the West Coast, Boyce completed his first three degrees (B.M., B.M.E., M.M) at California State University–Sacramento under the guidance of percussionists Daniel Kennedy and Christopher Froh. He later attended the University of Toronto where he studied with Aiyun Huang and Beverley Johnston. His dissertation examined the “YouTube effect” on the percussion field, primarily pertaining to performance, interpretation, perception, and education. Rather than seeking to reconcile the concerns with and benefits of viewing YouTube videos of percussion performance, he would like to encourage everyone to contextualize these digital experiences and see how they may, or may not, pertain to one’s own practice as a musician.

Since 2017, Boyce has been a member of the Toronto Tabla Ensemble (TTE) directed by Ritesh Das. Through his study and understanding of  tabla performance, Boyce has transcribed the group’s compositions and arranged them to be performed on concert percussion instruments (e.g., vibraphone, marimba, drum set) and other non-Western hand drums (e.g., frame drums, cajon). He can be heard on select tracks from the group’s 7th album, Unexpected Guests. In addition to his percussive discography with the TTE, he has taught beginning level tabla lessons online for the TTE School since 2023. 

His debut album, Near & Dear, was released in February of 2022 and contains a collection of original compositions and works in his performance repertoire that have a heightened level of sentimental value to him, personally. Boyce has authored articles that have been published by Percussive Notes, and will be contributing to the Percussion Pedagogy Handbook (Oxford University Press) that will be available in the fall of 2026. He is also on the board of directors for the non-profit group The Vibraphone Project (VPI), a community of vibraphone enthusiasts. Boyce has successfully led two "Calls for Scores" for the organization, which has culminated in over 200 new works for the instrument.