Adjunct Faculty
Areas of Expertise: Applied Percussion, World Drumming
Urie Kline first began to study drums and percussion at age 15, and continued playing in bands and orchestras throughout high school and college. He was center snare with the University of Pittsburgh Marching Band in 2012, and has served as drumline staff with various high schools and the University of Pittsburgh. During his time as an undergrad at Pitt, Urie discovered world music, and began taking private tabla lessons, as well as joining the local taiko and gamelan ensembles. Urie moved to Honolulu in 2013 to study with taiko performer and composer Kenny Endo, leading to a specialization in Tokyo-style taiko as professionalized by Oedo Sukeroku Daiko. Urie has continued to further his interests in world music and percussion through workshops and masterclasses with the likes of Kaoru Watanabe, Kris Bergstrom, Matt Moran, Jeremy Smith, and Eitetsu Hayashi, and various members of the Silk Road Ensemble.
As both a performer and an educator, Urie has consistently strived to further the cause of multi-cultural music appreciation in central Pennsylvania. As a performer, he has played with Balkan-style dance band Halic (Bloomsburg), Bucknell’s Balinese gamelan ensemble (Lewisburg), Philadelphia-area pannist David Gettes, Colombian folk ensemble Café y Petroleo (Lock Haven), and Ady’s Latin Band and La Fiesta (State College). Urie has also started his own projects: Los Gatos Gordos, Williamsport’s first Latin Jazz/Dance Band, and Highlands and Islands, a (thus far) solo venture focusing on the traditional music of Ireland and Great Britain.
On the teaching front, Urie has presented masterclasses, workshops, and lectures at Lycoming College, Bucknell University, the Williamsport, Loyalsock, and Lewisburg Area School Districts, the Uptown Music Collective, River Valley Nature School, Greenwood Friends School, the Bloomsburg Children’s Museum, Penn State Altoona, and Robert M. Sides. In 2015, Urie founded Lyco Taiko, a taiko school and performing ensemble currently in residence at Lycoming College. He has been studying and teaching the West African jembe since 2017, becoming the second instructor at Bucknell’s Griot Center after Hope Kopf in 2022. In 2018, he created the World Drumming Lab, an applied multi-cultural drumming course at Lycoming College.
In addition to his teaching schedule, Urie is an active and in-demand regional percussionist, currently playing with The Cadillac Cats (blues), Eric Ian Farmer (songwriter), Electric Orchard and Folk Justice Band (classic rock), and La Fiesta (salsa, cumbia, Latin jazz). He currently resides with his wife and cat in Williamsport, PA.