Eliseo Rael

Eliseo Rael is an Emmy‑winning percussionist known for his dynamic career as a chamber musician, soloist, and educator. A member of the Pana Percussion Quartet, his performance of Spiral earned two Emmys at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Awards in 2023.

As percussionist of the new‑music ensemble IonSound Project, Eliseo has appeared in series such as The Phoenix Concerts in New York, Music in a Great Space, and Bach, Beethoven & Brunch in Pittsburgh. He has worked closely with leading composers including Joan Tower, Jennifer Higdon, David Stock, and Michael Gandolfi, contributing to premieres and performances that champion contemporary repertoire.

Eliseo’s orchestral work includes performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony, West Virginia Symphony, Lancaster Festival Orchestra, and the UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra in Switzerland, appearing under conductors James Levine, Kurt Masur, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Manfred Honeck. He serves as principal percussionist with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, principal timpanist with the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, and has appeared as a soloist with the Wheeling Symphony.

He is the area coordinator of percussion and director of the percussion ensemble at Duquesne University. Eliseo also teaches at the Pana Percussion Institute and has served as a clinician at the French Woods Festival. His students have won the Modern Snare Drum competition and gone on to major orchestras and top conservatories across the country.

• A.D., Duquesne University
• M.M., New England Conservatory
• B.M., University of North Texas

• Solo Marimba
• Contemporary Percussion/New Music
• Orchestral Percussion
• Percussion Arrangements and Transcriptions