John Mapes

John Mapes is a full-time percussion designer and educator involved in teaching over 20 high school and independent percussion programs in Southern California since 1997. His marching experience includes Velvet Knights and Pacific Crest Drum Corps organizations. He received his Bachelor of Arts in percussion from California State University, Long Beach, in the spring of 2000.

He has built and taught WGI PSO 2005 silver medalist and 2006/2007/2008 champion Pacifica H.S. since 2000, designing battery, front ensemble and visual. He started teaching Chino Hills H.S. (WGI World Class 6th place 2008) and Los Alamitos H.S. (WGI A Class Bronze medalist 2007) in the fall of 2005. He recently started working at Fountain Valley H.S. in the fall of 2006, where they won the 4A WBA championships & Percussion sweepstakes for 2007 and the WGI PSO bronze medal for 2008. He built and taught Cerritos H.S. from 2000-2006, taking multiple high percussion titles in 4A WBA Championships and being Open class finalists both trips out to WGI finals (2004 & 2006).

He was the Battery Arranger/Percussion Caption Head for the Esperanza Drum and Bugle Corps from San Diego, CA from 2002-2006, taking the corps to nationals for the first time, winning the Div II title and moving up to Div I in 2004. He was also the Battery Arranger and Program Coordinator for the Esperanza WGI Independent World class 2004 finalist percussion ensemble, its first and only year. His most recent corps relationship, starting in the summer of 2007, is the Blue Devil B Corps front ensemble and battery percussion arranger. He also was the battery arranger and overall show consultant for the Pulse Percussion PIW ensemble in the winter of 2008.

Along with fellow designer and instructor Ian Grom, John co-founded box-six.com, which is the exclusive seller of their original indoor shows.

John is a member of the Vic Firth Educational team, a WGI Percussion Advisory Board member and is a volunteer for the Southern California Percussion Alliance circuit. He is also a principle percussion arranger for JKS music and a proud endorser of Vic Firth, Yamaha, Remo and Zildjian products.

Shows with percussion by John: