CY MIESSLER

Cy Miessler is a percussionist, composer, and educator currently based in Austin, Texas.  As an avid performer of marimba repertoire, Cy has competed in an abundance of marimba competitions, receiving 1st prize at the 2022 Great Plains International Marimba Duo Competition as a part of Arcus Duo, and 2nd prize at the International Percussion Institute Marimba Competition in Aberdeen, Scotland in the summer of 2019. In 2015, Cy received 1st place at the Mid-Missouri Marimba Competition, and was a semifinalist in the Great Plains International Marimba Competition in 2014, 2015, 2019, 2021, and 2022.  He also was the winner of the Indiana University Percussion Concerto Competition in 2011, in which he performed the Kraft Timpani Concerto.  In the time he has spent at the University of Texas, Cy was commissioned to compose a percussion ensemble for the Lassiter Percussion Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, as well as a percussion quartet for PASIC 2020. While at Arizona State University, Cy was commissioned by J.B. Smith and the Arizona State Contemporary Percussion Ensemble to compose a marimba sextet for the McCormick Marimba Festival in Florida. 
Cy received his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a teaching assistant for Texas Bands, writing the music for and helping instruct the drumline. He studied with Thomas Burritt and Tony Edwards.  He received his Master’s of Music from Arizona State University, where he studied with J.B. Smith and Shaun Tilburg.  He has earned a Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance and a Performance Diploma in Percussion from Indiana University, where he studied with Kevin Bobo, John Tafoya, Michael Spiro, and Steve Houghton.  While at Indiana University, he studied composition with P.Q. Phan, Jay Hurst, and Nathan Stang. He is currently the Adjunct Professor of Percussion at Victoria College in Victoria, Texas. 
Along with percussion, Cy enjoys cooking and spending time with his cat Acorn.