Inspired Journey: Percussion instructor helps students find their rhythm

The percussion director at Center Grove schools is more interested in helping his drummers get better each year than he is in filling schools’ trophy cases.

Joshua Torres knows that the excitement percussionists feel when they start learning rhythms and beats can wear off within a year or two, and he wants to keep Center Grove’s drummers hungry for more. He wants them to expect to learn something new each year, so that if they decide they want to apply to a collegiate music program, they’ll know they have the skills to audition successfully.

But to remain in the band students must be passing all their courses, and Torres knows math and English don’t come as easily to some students as performing a cadence. That’s why some of Torres’ time at Center Grove High School and Center Grove Middle School Central is in the schools’ labs, helping students with homework, band director Joe Lapka said.

So regardless of whether the students become innovative, history-making musicians, they will become high school graduates.

“He has the ability to get (students) to make positive changes because they want to be a part of what he’s directing,” Lapka said.

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