Colton Townsend

Colton Townsend is a composer, performer, and educator based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Colton’s compositions and arrangements have been premiered by the UW-Milwaukee Percussion Ensemble, UW-Milwaukee New Music Ensemble, University of Arkansas Wind Ensemble, University of Arkansas Percussion Ensemble, Bentonville High School Jazz Ensemble, and Fayetteville High School Percussion Ensemble. 

Colton has multiple years of Winter Guard International and Drum Corps International experience at both the Open and World Class levels and has premiered over a dozen new compositions for percussion. His teaching experience includes a Teaching Assistantship at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Bentonville High School, Fayetteville High School, and Cooper Elementary School. This past summer, he participated and had works performed and premiered in festivals and conferences such as New Music on the Point and Vu Symposium. This upcoming summer, he will be participating in the Du Vert À l'Infini PluComp Summer Festival and the SPLICE Summer Institute. He enjoys exploring all the different facets of music and strives to create fun and entertaining experiences for the artists, audiences, and students he interacts with.

Colton is pursuing a Master’s of Music with a dual concentration in Composition and Theory and Percussion Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he has received the Distinguished Graduate Student Fellowship Award for the final year of his degree. He earned his Bachelor’s of Music in Music Education from the University of Arkansas, where he also earned numerous awards and graduated as a Fulbright College Highest Distinction Scholar.