Longtime supporters Michael and Karen Kitt have established the Steven Hemphill Endowed Professorship of Percussion Studies in the Kitt School of Music at Northern Arizona University, honoring the legacy of Professor Emeritus Steven Hemphill and strengthening the future of percussion education at NAU.
Hemphill taught percussion at NAU for more than three decades, serving as director of percussion studies from 1991 to 2022 and building a program recognized for its breadth, rigor, and global perspective. In 2024, he received the Percussive Arts Society’s Lifetime Achievement in Education Award, recognizing his national influence as an educator and performer. Though retired, Hemphill remains actively engaged with NAU students and the program he helped shape.
The endowed professorship is held by Abby Fisher, director of percussion studies, whom Michael Kitt described as “a most worthy successor.”
“Karen and I have been very impressed with how Abby takes a diverse group of students at varying skill levels and molds them into a collaborative team, in addition to developing their performance skills as they move through the four-year program,” Michael Kitt says.
For Fisher, the endowment works in tandem with an extraordinary gift-in-kind from Steven and his wife, Lydia Hemphill: a multi-year donation of more than 80 professional percussion instruments, with additional gifts planned beyond 2027.
“It’s a game changer,” Fisher says. “[The instruments] have an immediate impact on our students’ access to practice and performance opportunities.”
The Hemphills donated a collection of professional-quality instruments, including:
- Orchestral instruments, such as Bergerault orchestra bells, Zildjian crotales, a Deagan rosewood xylophone, vibraphone, concert bass drum, and vintage Ludwig and Pearl snare drums
- Large-scale and specialty instruments, including a five-octave rosewood marimba, steel drums with lead and double pans, gongs, waterphone, and electronic percussion equipment, expanding students’ access to contemporary and experimental repertoire
- African percussion instruments, including djembes, dunun drums, hourglass “talking drums,” gankogui bells, mbira, and sistra, supporting the study of West African rhythmic traditions
- Afro-Brazilian instruments, such as surdos, pandeiros, berimbaus, agogô bells, cuícas, and reco-recos, which are foundational to samba, maracatu, and related musical forms
- Cuban and Latin percussion, including congas, bongos, timbales, cajóns, claves, maracas, and güiros, essential to Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz traditions
- Instruments from additional global traditions, including Japanese temple bowls and blocks, Irish bodhráns, Middle Eastern frame drums and goblet drums, Southeast Asian gongs, rain sticks, and hand percussion representing multiple cultural lineages
Hemphill says the scope of the gift reflects how he taught throughout his career: by ensuring students had immediate, hands-on access to instruments that expand their repertoire and creativity.
The endowed professorship builds on the Kitts’ long-standing support of the Kitt School of Music, reinforcing their belief that investing in faculty excellence creates lasting impact. This professorship is one of five established through their generosity.
“My wife Lydia and I are so appreciative of Karen and Michael Kitt’s generosity, vision, mentorship, and contagious enthusiasm,” Steven Hemphill says. “Their caring for and support of students in their daily artistic lives brings an excitement and momentum to NAU’s culture.”
Together, the professorship and the Hemphills’ instrument donations ensure that future percussion students at NAU are supported not only by inspired teaching, but by the tools, traditions, and access needed to fully realize their craft.
