Born into a family of professional dancers and musicians, James Musto began playing the drums for social events around the Jersey Shore at age 15. He studied jazz drums with Barry Altschul, Freddie Waits and Fred Buda of the Boston Pops; and was encouraged by them to study other percussion instruments. Hence, culminating when he earned a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School.
Since 1998 he has been an Associate Percussionist and Drum Set Specialist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Musto has 
also performed, toured, and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the American Symphony Orchestra, the American Ballet Theater, the New York City Opera and the New York Pops. And has worked under the batons of such conductors as: Lorin Maazel, Mistislav Rostropovich, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Mazur, Alan Gibert, Sakari Oramo, Sir Colin Davis, George Manahan, Hans Graf, Gustav Meier and Vincent LaSelva.
He has performed with some of the world’s foremost artists in jazz, classical, broadway and pop; playing drum set on the critically acclaimed recording “Sketches of Spain”, with trumpeter Lou Soloff. And was an orchestra member in the Broadway productions of “Falsettos”, “Saturday Night Fever” and “Tale of Two Cities”.
As a scholar his articles concerning significant percussion writing in music history have been published in “Percussive Notes”. And since 1999 he has been a member of the acclaimed Concert Artist program at Kean University where he also directs its percussion ensemble, performs in its jazz and chamber music concerts, and teaches a course in music and world culture.
When did you begin studying music?
Formal study began when I was about 13 with a few drum set teachers around the Jersey Shore where I grew up.
Did you always study percussion?
I also took clarinet lessons from my uncle and violin lessons in my later teens. Though I was not too good.
What made you choose percussion?
When I watched and listened to a drum set player I could see and hear what components of the instrument made specific sounds. The confluence of the different sound colors just made sense to me. Percussion is a physical, tactile and visual musical experience. That appealed to me. My neighbor had a set of Rogers drums and would let me play them. It was a beautiful red sparkle set! I would pore through catalogs of the big American drum manufacturers and look at the different instruments and imagine what they would sound like. I actually still love to see what is available on the percussion market to this day!
Who were your primary teachers?
George Goneconto, Buster Bailey and Roland Kohloff were my formal institutional teachers. I also studied briefly with Fred Buda, Frankie Malabe, Robbie Ameen and Glenn Velez. I have learned, and continue to learn, something about percussion and music every time I watch and listen to someone perform, whether it’s Middle Eastern, Cuban, Indian Music, or the Berlin Philharmonic. The world today is basically a free university if you have the ambition.
When did you decide to pursue a career in music?
My last year of high school, but I believe it was always going to happen anyway.
Did you have a specific goal: teach, perform, etc.?
To perform was the objective: primarily with other musicians, never as a soloist. I like being in a group.
Do you focus on a specific area of percussion, if so, did you always?
Certainly not now as a professional, I do far too many types of playing to earn my living. Although, whenever I’m practicing a certain discipline I swear it’s the thing I want to do forever! I do keep a drum set ready in my studio so I can play a little every day if I have the time. I enjoy creating rhythms.
Who impacted your musical growth the most?
There were professional musicians and dancers on both sides of my family. My cousin, Joseph Valentino, was a drummer on the Jersey Shore and would let me sit in with his wedding band when I was 15 or so. When I was 10, his family, all musicians, took me to see Buddy Rich; enough said. The most important things I learned as a drum set performer were from him and my parents, who were ballroom dancers, and my Mother’s brothers who were professional commercial musicians. I would go to rehearsals with my parents when I was about 10 and watch the drummer. I knew all the “groove essentials” before I ever started playing the drums because those were the rhythms my parents danced to. I studied with two great drum set artists after high school: Freddie Waits, who could just float over the set and was deeply interested in connecting the African roots of the drums to contemporary drum set; and Barry Altschul, who had a collection of percussion instruments in his loft on Prince St. in NYC and believed drum set players should learn about other percussion instruments.
Playing in bands with my uncles George and Tom Tanous gave me the most on the job musical training. I moved to Massachusetts to live and work with them when I was 18. They found drum set jobs for me immediately, often in places I could not tell my mother about. They were not shy about telling me what I needed to do to become a more musical drummer and they insisted I find a college with a good music program in the area.
Not far from where they lived was Rhode Island College in Providence, RI. There I met the great George Goneconto who taught me to read, really read, and play the standard battery of concert percussion instruments. Reading music, by the way, is the key to my still having a career in music. He directed a new music chamber group and was the timpanist of the Rhode Island Philharmonic. He began to call me (usually at 7 A.M.) for engagements with both of those groups. I was playing drums in commercial bands around Rhode Island and Massachusetts as well as Orchestral and Contemporary Chamber music. It was a vibrant musical environment and one that led me to apply to grad schools at several major conservatories. I attended the Juilliard School, where I encountered musicians from all over the world. It was there I learned how psychologically demanding the world of orchestral competition could be. After Juilliard, my brother and I had a rock band that played around New England, and I was back to playing drum set again!
Two years later, I went to Mexico and played Principal Percussion in the Mexico City Philharmonic for a year; playing more major orchestral repertoire there than I had before. From there, I went directly to Zurich, Switzerland to play the Broadway show Man of La Mancha for a few months.
After that, I returned home and played drum set with the band The Jazz Lobsters around the Jersey shore. I also studied and was coached on orchestral repertoire with Chris Lamb. I learned things about playing percussion from Chris that were the product of his experience and focus on the art. His ideas became the “new“ paradigm of orchestral percussion conceptualization. Cymbals, triangle, snare drum, tambourine, everything is attended to with the greatest detail for sound production and quality. A few years later I was thrilled to perform next to him with the New York Philharmonic. I’ve also learned a great deal performing with David Fein of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. David has encyclopedic knowledge of orchestral percussion repertoire and has taught me about the history, traditions, and legacy of orchestral percussion. He has a unique and creative approach to playing percussion, particularly timpani, which has taught me to eschew convention and think more objectively.
What teaching positions have you held?
I have been teaching at Kean University for the last 20 years. Prior to that, I taught at Fairfield University in Connecticut for two years.
What percussionists have inspired you the most and why?
Vic Firth for his musicianship; he was George Goneconto’s teacher, and I had the opportunity to hear and see him play some great repertoire with the Boston Symphony. Vinny Colaiuto, Bill Stewart and Buster Bailey for their musicianship. Chris Lamb for his musicianship and dedication. And David Fein for his musicianship and insight.
Is there a specific genre you enjoy performing the most?
Whatever I’m currently performing. I try to give total attention to what I’m performing and engaged in at any given time. I have found that to be the route to a successful and enjoyable career.
What composers do you identify with and why?
From the romantic era: Hector Berlioz and Robert Schumann. I love their attention to expression through dynamics, new harmonic ideas, and orchestration. They are geniuses of musical content and imagination. Bernstein, Gershwin, John Cage, all incorporated non-western traditions into their compositions, which I find fascinating. And Frank Zappa who integrated the composers and styles he found interesting into his own vision; we are both of Italian and Lebanese descent!
Do you get nervous before you play – if so, how do you deal with it?
I always have some sense of excitement/nervousness when I have to perform in public. I prepare to an extreme degree depending on the difficulty of the music I’m presenting. That alone does not always put one at ease. I concentrate on my breathing, I focus on relaxed moments in my life, people I love, people that depend on me, and the fact that I was born to do what I do. I believe these can be good deterrents to the negative thoughts that can distract us during a performance.
Do you ever make a mistake while performing? If so, how do you go about resolving it?
Ha…! Of course I make mistakes! Bear in mind mistakes can be qualified. The same mistakes I made when I was young are different from what I consider a mistake now. As human beings we are better designed to make mistakes than not. The sooner you can adjust to that idea, the less anxiety you will have performing. An extreme level of preparation has been my best defense against the occasional slip up. You make a mistake, you know it, you move on to the next measure. Mistakes are not what kill a performance, it’s not having a good sound or touch on an instrument. It’s not having a sense of character or style for the music you are playing. As my Juilliard sight singing teacher said, “If you make a mistake during a performance and you keep going – two percent of the audience may realize you made a mistake, but if you stop, everyone will know.”
Has your practice regimen changed from when you were a student? And how do you keep your technique fresh on all primary percussion instruments?
It’s a very different experience when you walk into a school to practice and when you own the instruments that become the fabric of your daily life. I keep instruments set up in my house and studio all the time. For instance, I have a set of tabla, a xylophone, a snare drum, and cymbals within range of my eye right now. I can spend 15 minutes on any one of those, or go into my studio where I have a set of timpani and a drum set ready to be played. At this juncture in my life, I can look ahead in my schedule and see what it is I have to prepare for a certain date. So I am usually working on parts and pieces of music I am performing in the coming weeks. This would also include some technical exercises to approach the music I have to perform with some sense of security and control. That takes up the bulk of my practice time, as opposed to when I was a student working on solo material and technical studies that enable you to perform solos and repertoire.
How do you define a good musician and a good teacher? And has your definition of both changed from when you were a student to the present?
A good performing musician needs to have the gift of music in them. The ability to innately understand the poetry, philosophy, athleticism, and scientific material that makes music pleasing. A good teacher has the tireless energy to give what they know and understand about music to someone without looking at the clock. The ability to demonstrate and model for a student is also a good place to start.
Do you think that performing and teaching are intrinsically intertwined? If so, how and why?
Not really. I think you can be a great performing musician and not necessarily a teacher. However, I don’t believe that is exclusively true.
Has teaching made you a better musician, if so how and why?
Absolutely! Before I taught, I was acutely unaware of how little I thought about the basics of percussion technique. I was fortunate enough to have the ability in my hands to play what I needed to. It was also unfortunate, because I didn’t feel the need to practice as much…. BAD IDEA.
When I started teaching, I became aware of how much more I could do by analyzing smaller aspects of my own approach to performing. For example, I never learned all of the 26 NARD rudiments, yet I could play drums for a wedding when I was 15 years old. I was in graduate school before I started practicing rudiments regularly and appreciated their value. I learned that I wanted to teach with a greater sense of tradition than I started with myself.
Knowing what you know today, would you change anything about how you prepared for your career? If so, what and why?
I believe in destiny, and everything in my life is as it was meant to be, no regrets. I just did the things I was compelled to do for its own sake. The turn of events in my career were, for the most part, things I hadn’t anticipated a year before they happened.
What words of wisdom would you share with a student who aspires to make a career as a performer and/or an educator?
Know it is what you were born and destined to do. If you think there may be something else in the stars for you, than you are probably not heading in the right direction for a career in music. Practice until you are sick of it, get up the next day and do it again. Make that you’re daily routine of existence because it will not change until you retire. As a performer, be prepared to miss Sunday dinners, weddings, birthday parties, anniversaries, Bar Mitzvahs, and every other function that people have on weekends, because if you are lucky, you will be working during those times. And be really nice to people, ALL people; because you will run into them again and you will want them on your side when the chips are not in your favor.
