“Randy Gloss's maneuvering of his frame drum had to be seen to be believed…" -Mina Silverstone, salamworldwide.com
"Randy Gloss' work on pandeiro (Afro-Brazilian tambourine) was one of the most amazing demonstrations of concentrated virtuosity I've ever seen." -Greg Burk, metaljazz.com
“Bergamo was successful at creating his own pool of students that went on to professional careers, most notably Randy Gloss who remains a highly innovative frame drummer.” -Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Volume II Performance and Production
Randy Gloss, a percussionist whose background performing several modalities of hand drums, contemporary percussion, and drum set has led to his involvement in many innovative ensembles that fuse world music with new music and jazz. Most notable is Hands On’Semble, a percussion group devoted to the art of and drumming founded by percussion vanguard John Bergamo.
Winner of Drum! Magazine Reader’s Poll Award for Best Percussion Ensemble in 2003, 2002, and first runner up award in 2001.
"A Stellar percussion group with extraordinary soloing, and extensive palette of sounds" -(Modern Drummer Magazine)
Hands On’Semble has performed and lectured at many of the world’s premier percussion and world music festivals, music schools and conservatories, and have collaborated with a wide array of highly esteemed percussionists including: Swapan Chaudhuri, Adam Rudolph, Poovalur Sriji, Houman Pourmehdi, Glen Velez, Brad Dutz, Jamey Haddad, Steve Shehan, Mark Nauseef, Pete Lockett, Ed Mann, Abbos Kosimov, Carlos Stasi and Guello, and have released four widely acclaimed CDs to date. Hands on’Semble was also featured extensively on the film soundtracks to Cowboys and Aliens in 2011, and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time in 2010.
In addition to his work with Hands On’Semble, Randy Gloss has also been involved in numerous other projects fusing world music with new music and jazz, including Adam Rudolph’s: “Go: Organic Orchestra” and world percussion group Vashti; The Lian Ensemble, including the Pangea Project with Djivan Gasparyan and Swapan Cahudhuri and the 2009 UCLALive production of Medea starring Annette Bening with Angus Macfadyen directed by Lenka Udovicki with music by Lian Ensemble and Nigel Osbourne. Randy has also worked with slide veena master Chitravina Ravikiran, Brazilian pianist Jovino Santos Neto; a Balkan/Indian collaboration with maestros Aashish Khan, Swapan Chaudhuri, Miroslav Tadic, Vlatko Stefanovski; pianist Larry Karush; Romanian pan-flutist Damian Draghichi; overtone singer David Hykes to name only some. Randy Gloss has also contributed percussion for film soundtracks by composers Danny Elfman, Gary Chang, and Harry Gregson-Williams; recorded music for the American Conservatory Theater and Southwest Chamber Music; several extensive percussion sample libraries for software companies such as: Apple (Garage Band), Ilio, and Native Instruments; as well as television shows such as Fear Factor; and video game soundtracks such as Uncharted 3 for Sony PlayStation.
Randy teaches at CalArts where he has been on the percussion and world music faculty since 1999. Randy Gloss endorses Remo world percussion and drumheads, Cooperman frame drums, and Paiste cymbals and gongs.