Bio
Sebastian Buhts is a percussionist and conductor based in St. Louis, MO. He is Assistant Professor of Music at Lindenwood University, where he coordinates the instrumental music program and directs Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, Marching Band, Pep Band, and Percussion Ensemble. He also teaches conducting and private percussion lessons. In addition to his duties at Lindenwood, Dr. Buhts serves on the percussion faculty at Washington University in St. Louis as a lecturer on North Indian tabla drumming.
Sebastian maintains an active and diverse performance schedule. Recent highlights include conducting “Meet Me In St. Louis” for the St. Louis Blues 2024 Opening Video, performing percussion with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, conducting the St. Charles County Symphony Orchestra, and performing solo marimba for the Orchestra of Northern New York summer chamber music series. An avid proponent of new music, Sebastian has performed world premieres at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention, Cortona New Music Sessions in Cortona, Italy, and with chamber music ensembles throughout the U.S. and Germany.
As a specialist in North Indian tabla drumming, Sebastian has lectured at the Percussive Arts Society Michigan Day of Percussion, and regularly appears as a guest-artist at universities across North America. Sebastian was the featured tabla soloist at the 2022 St. Louis Literary Award ceremony, honoring Booker Prize winner and New York Times best-selling author Arundhati Roy. Sebastian’s doctoral dissertation analyzes the form and structure of a traditional tabla solo in the North Indian musical lineage known as the Benares Gharana. He studied tabla intensively with Shawn Mativetsky and for six months in Varanasi, India with Pandit Kishor Kumar Mishra.
Sebastian received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Michigan State University, where he studied with Gwendolyn Dease and Jon Weber. His Master of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees are from Belmont University, where he studied with Christopher Norton. Additionally, Sebastian studied orchestral percussion and timpani at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden, Germany, and at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Sebastian is a proud artist endorser for Marimba One and Black Swamp Percussion.
