Drew Tucker may wear more different hats than anyone else involved in the Palm Beach County arts scene.
The Boynton Beach resident, who turns 33 on Aug. 21, is director of education and outreach for both his own Tucker Academy for the Arts and the Delray Beach-based Arts Garage. He’s also a drummer and percussionist, on everything from mallet instruments like the vibraphone, marimba and tympani to hand drums like congas, djembes and bongos, for several bands, not to mention a clinician, arts activist, and board member of the Old School Square and Plumosa School of the Arts foundations in Delray Beach.
During weeklong sessions between June 10 and Aug. 2, Tucker adds counselor to his résumé through the Arts Garage’s Performing Arts Academy Summer Camp. On a Thursday afternoon in late July, 51 students — most ages 6 to 14 and from Delray Beach, Boca Raton or Boynton Beach — are on the 5,500 square-foot facility’s 20-by-20-foot stage at once, playing endlessly through a version of Radioactive, a song by the rising indie-rock band Imagine Dragons.
A few play instruments, including Tucker’s 8-year-old daughter Emily, who’s combining her dad’s disciplines by whacking a mounted bass drum with mallets. The vast majority of the kids are singing and swaying to mimic the interpretive dance moves of the instructors in the back of the room.
“Tomorrow’s the last day of their camp,” Tucker says, “so they’ll perform for their parents in the afternoon.”
Even as he says it, though, the director proves how finely tuned and trained his ears are.
“Hey!” he shouts as the ensemble starts the song’s run-through for the umpteenth time. “What’s up with that second bass note? It’s always flat. Run it again.”
Tucker’s ears have been tuned from locally to afar. Born in Plantation, he studied music, chorus and drama at Olympic Heights High School in Boca Raton, and then became a music major at nearby Florida Atlantic University. And that led to a year of study at one of the nation’s most prestigious music schools, the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
“I couldn’t stay longer because of money,” he says. “I didn’t have a scholarship. But I certainly learned a lot studying with instructors like David Friedman, Victor Mendoza and Gary Burton.”
Deciding to take a hiatus from music afterward, Tucker returned to Florida to study graphic design at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. He was then lured back into music by the famously open minds of European listeners, musicians and teachers.
“I had the opportunity to go to Germany, Belgium and Iceland,” he says. “Studying privately with several incredible classical marimba instructors drew me back in.”
With all roads eventually leading to the Arts Garage. In 2004, Tucker became the pit technician for the Magic of Orlando, a drum and bugle corps he’d previously performed in, and also started the Tucker Academy for the Arts out of his home. By 2006, he’d found office space for the expanding business in Parkland; since 2010, the self-described “minister of
education” has increasingly preached his academy’s gospel at Delray Beach’s acclaimed non-profit educational facility and concert and theater venue.
“I helped open this place, and I moved all my operations here,” Tucker says. “I was the one who told [Arts Garage executive director] Alyona Ushe that we had to feature jazz, with the stress on real jazz. I started our Urban Underground series because I wanted hip-hop, music that’s organic and created in the streets, represented. We’ve stayed away from rock, because the clubs have that covered, and I felt like we should charge admission but let people bring their own food and drinks.”
In its third year, the Arts Garage has become a premier 150-seat listening room, with no TV screens or other distractions like nightclubs. Patrons sit at large round tables, allowing them to introduce themselves to fellow arts lovers and share their thoughts (and often their BYOB items).
The venue’s August-December calendar includes the blues/fusion of 21 Blue (with trumpeter Longineau Parsons) on Aug. 17, hip-hop recording artist Dutch with one of Tucker’s bands, Plaid Blazer, on Sept. 7, international jazz guitarist Jonathan Kreisberg on Oct. 12, the theatrical song cycle The Longing and the Short of It from Nov. 1-24, Tucker’s self-titled world music ensemble on Nov. 30, and jazz Hammond organ icon Dr. Lonnie Smith on Dec. 20.
“I’ve backed a lot of headlining artists here,” Tucker says, “but have only headlined a couple times before this season. I’d prefer to keep a little exclusivity, and I’m plenty busy anyway between education and playing projects.”
His own estimated percentage of educational-to-performance work currently sits at 70/30, but Tucker’s recording and stage credits include the aforementioned turban-topped organist Smith, pianist/vocalist Diana Krall, drummer Duffy Jackson, and singers Engelbert Humperdinck and Ricky Martin.
Though he spends as much time at the Arts Garage as at home, it’s a familial atmosphere at the venue for Tucker. Daughter Emily will soon add cello lessons to her percussive skills; Tucker’s wife Jennifer walks by in the process of overseeing the academy’s bookkeeping and administration. She’s pregnant with the couple’s second daughter, Logan, who’s due in October —and likely to start lessons there within the next few years.
“Most days I’m at the gym at 5:30 a.m.,” Tucker says, “and then help Emily get fed and prepared for school before a full day of work, with a business meeting over lunch, and hopefully time to help Emily practice and get in some practice time myself. Summers are even crazier. I’m here for the duration at 7:30 a.m.”
The Arts Garage faculty also features vocal and piano coach Katharine Yarbrough, theater director and voice coach Mark Kirschenbaum, piano coach Gianni Bianchini, hip-hop coach Burcin Gursel, guitar and bass coach Jesse Kelland, and acting coach Sharon Holt. Tucker says that the academy’s instructors are a cut above other area performing arts learning facilities.
“We don’t pull the rocker off the street to teach,” he says. “All of our instructors have impressive credits, histories and degrees, even thoughthey’re relatively young. The conservatory feel, the family atmosphere, and quality of people we put in front of kids all go way beyond anywhere else you could send them. Katharine’s one of the best singers and vocal teachers I’ve ever known; Mark worked off-Broadway for years before he started exclusively teaching, and Gianni has his master’s from New York University. That’s our level of quality. I’ve tried to recreate the Boston culture at Berklee in Delray Beach.”
As the summer camp troupe finally gets through a successful version of Radioactive, Tucker shows that he also learned some levity amid all his serious musical studies.
“One more time!” he exclaims.
As the entire throngs lets out a collective groan, he breaks into a Cheshire Cat grin.
“Never mind,” he adds. “Just kidding. Good job.”