Peter Magadini was a musician’s musician—a recording drummer, author and teacher. To his son Greg, he was “dad.”
“He was always there, fun-loving. He threw amazing birthday parties growing up. He’s someone I looked up to a lot from a professional standpoint. He went really far in drumming and advancing percussion and being an author, and eventually teaching at Boise State,” Greg said.
A renowned session musician for the likes of jazz and R&B legends Bobby Gentry, Buddy DeFranco and Diana Ross, Peter produced and played drums on several albums, and wrote numerous books on music instruction and theory. He was also an innovator in the area of polyrhythms: seemingly unrelated rhythms that layer to surprising and compelling effect.
In 2020, Greg moved to Boise from Chicago. Peter followed his son in 2022 and joined the faculty of the music department at Boise State. Greg remembers his father’s impressions of the university—that the department was “very good,” and that the students were “skilled and hungry to learn.” Peter appreciated the “open-armed invitation” to teach. Then, in 2023, Peter died suddenly from cancer.
The news was a blow to Boise State’s music program, which dedicated its Fall Bronco Percussion Group concert to Peter. It included performances and video tributes from accomplished and famous students. Boise State musicians performed “Five Alarm Time Cycle,” the second-ever performance of a piece Peter composed in 1970, featuring a drumset soloist, seven percussionists, and a dancer.
So moving was the concert that Greg pledged an annual gift to the program, allowing it to give three percussion students $3,000 awards to purchase instruments and accessories. Two of the awards are merit-based; the third is awarded based on essays written by applicants.
“Offering this made a lot of sense to me,” he said. “I wanted it to be something that was a direct gift. Giving money for musical instruments would be a good fit. For me, the first measure of success is doing it consistently.”
One of the first award recipients is Cameron Repp, who bought a matching snare drum and accessories for his drum kit. Repp said Peter introduced him to new percussion styles, and coached music that the Bronco Percussion Group performed at the Northwest Percussion Festival in April of 2023. Repp used his new equipment bought with the Magadini award to teach at the All Star Drumline Camp in Poulsbo, Washington, which he attended as a student every summer during middle and high school.
“To be able to go back and be on staff [at the camp] was very special to me, and to have a top-of-the-line instrument thanks to this award to demonstrate the methods made it all the better,” he said.