Before entering Camden County Technical Schools (CCTS), Gage Kroljic’s musical experience consisted of playing the drum set and snare drum.
By the time he graduated from the Music Academy at CCTS in 2015, Kroljic, a Blackwood native, expanded his percussion knowledge, but also learned more about other instruments including brass, strings, piano and guitar.
He then continued his education, earning dual bachelor’s degrees in music education and percussion performance from The Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Music Performance from the University of Delaware. As an undergraduate, he seized many opportunities to continue learning from others to fuse other musical approaches with his own ideas to build a personal sound-concept and leave his mark on the world of percussion.
One notable experience over the summer of 2017 took him to Arcata, Calif., for the International Katarzyna Mycka Marimba Academy. He also served as a residential teaching assistant at Wyoming Seminary’s “Summer at Sem Creative Arts” program over two separate summers.
“CCTS helped to prepare for early on collegiate success,” said Kroljic. “The content I covered during my time there provided me with a strong understanding of the material I encountered throughout my undergraduate degree. This allowed me to focus more on my individual performing capabilities and develop my pedagogy.”
Kroljic said his music education at CCTS also helped prepare him to enter the classroom as a student teacher while he studied at Penn State.
“The time I spent not only practicing my primary instrument, but a second, third, fourth, etc., provided me an invaluable advantage for my music education studies,” he said. “The guitar and piano experience played a big part in my student teaching, where I taught five beginning guitar and piano classes, as well as fundamental knowledge of music history and theory.”
Kroljic’s focus today is on percussion as he performs with “The Commandant’s Own” United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, which is known world-wide as a premier musical marching unit. The Drum and Bugle Corps travels more than 50,000 miles annually, performing in nearly 500 events nationally and abroad.
