Randy Crafton is active as performer, composer, and producer, with recordings on the Relaxation Co./Ellipsis Arts, Lyrichord Discs, Narada, Hearts of Space, Interworld Music, Tetrad, Acoustic America, Earwig Music, Newport Classics, and CMP labels. He has recorded/performed with such diverse artists as Omar Faruk Tekbelik, Glen Velez, John Whelan, Steve Gorn, Amit Chatterjee, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Dayna Kurtz, Howard Levy, and the Albany Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Broadway productions of Lion King and Riverdance. With over a dozen commercially released CD¹s to his credit as a producer, he has worked in a wide variety of styles and genres including world music, jazz, singer/songwriter and new age. Formerly an assistant professor at the Berklee College of Music, Boston, he is now at The Juilliard School in New York as faculty for the Evening Division/Extension Division, as well as Chair of the World Percussion Committee for the International Percussive Arts Society. Randy has also served on the faculty at The World Rhythm Center at Drummers' Collective and the New York Open Center, and is active as a facilitator presenting workshops and master classes throughout the country for Remo, Inc., and Crafton Percussion Works.
Randy's studies in non-Western music include frame drums from around the world in addition to drumming styles from North India, Zimbabwe, West Africa, Brazil, and Cuba. His background in Western classical music includes a B.M. from the Manhattan School of Music as a percussion student of Fred Hinger.