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Austin Vaughn is a drummer and percussionist living in Brooklyn, NY. He is a recent graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory, where he double-majored in percussion and jazz studies, learning various new-fangled, old-fashioned, and timeless musical stylings from Michael Rosen, Billy Hart, Paul Samuels, and Jamey Haddad.  Before Oberlin, Austin was a high school student at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where he studied under John R. Beck.

Austin was invited to appear as a soloist at the 2008 Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) for a symposium on African influences in contemporary percussion, and appeared at the 2009 Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) convention as a member of Oberlin’s renowned Contemporary Music Ensemble.   Navigating the paths between genre-based musics, improvisation, and notated music with an ear for detail, Austin has worked and performed with a wide range of artists, including Jandek, Aaron Dilloway, Robert Turman, Peter Blasser, Becca Stevens, Tristan Perich, Rafiq Bhatia, and Alexander Overington.

Austin collaborates regularly on cross-disciplinary projects with Baltimore-based visual artist Miranda Pfeiffer. Most recently, he provided drums, percussion, and vibraphone for Canadian vocalist Alexandra Stewart’s upcoming album, Waba.

Discography

Truan Savage – Forthcoming (2012)

Alexandra Stewart – Waba (2011)

De’Sean Jones Septet – De’Sean Jones Septet (2011)

Like Bells – Palma (2010) – vibraphone and percussion
 overdubs

Austin Vaughn In the Press

“Vaughn beat his drums in trance-like perfection with a drumstick in one hand and a xylophone mallet in the other, sending reverberations of musical ideas way up into the Monday sky.”

--Park Slope Patch - September 20, 2011

“This first-and-last-time-ever combination of musicians sounded tight and coordinated….Jandek’s music on Sunday defied easy categorization or judgment. It was very carefully considered and performed, but the lack of resemblance to popular music made identifying highlights difficult.”

--The Oberlin Review – April 14, 2011

“This effect was most powerful in Perich’s first piece, titled Observations for two sets of crotales, three-channel 1-bit music (2008). The piece featured the interaction between acoustic sounds made by the crotales (played by Conservatory seniors Austin Vaughn and Ryan Packard) and the electronic noises. Each voice, electronic or acoustic, stopped completely to allow each other to shine at explicit landmarks throughout the composition. The piece perfectly exemplified the consistency and drive that characterized Perich’s bewitching presentation.”

--The Oberlin Review – May , 2011

“This implementation was developed by the interaction between the acoustic sounds presented in the crotales (which were played by Oberlin Conservatory students Austin Vaughn and Ryan Packard) and the electronic noises.  Each voice (electronic or acoustic) stopped completely to allow each other to shine at explicit landmarks in the composition.  All together, the effect was bewitching.”

--Sonic Bridges - May 9, 2011

On the NCSA Percussion Ensemble: “The evening began with John Beck leading the school's Percussion Ensemble in Varese's Ionisation, from 1931... The performance glowed with precision.”

--Winston-Salem Journal - Sunday, October 22, 2006