“Alice has born musicality and plays a very sensitive performance so that I am convinced that her performance will reach strongly to a heart of the audience."
– Keiko Abe
"Some people only think of percussion as playing drums loud and fast, that’s only part of it. Alice (Yun Ju Pan) shows a different side of percussion. Her performances show how multi-faceted and expressive it can be, which helps the art form grow even more.”
- Gwendolyn Dease.
Yun Ju (Alice) Pan is currently the Adjunct Instructor of Percussion at the University of North Alabama. She is an acclaimed soloist, educator, and chamber musician all around the world.
Pan holds a Doctoral of Music Arts degree from Michigan State University, a Master of Percussion Performance degree from Ithaca College, and a Bachelor of Performance Music Art degree from SooChow University (Taiwan.) Her teachers include Keiko Abe, Gordon Stout, Gwendolyn Dease, Jon Weber, Randy Gelispie, Pei-Ching Wu, Kuang-Yuan Kuo, and Susan Wu.
As an active performer and educator, Pan has performed across the world in competitions and concerts in Australia, Taiwan, Japan, China, and the United States. She won the first place of Australia International Marimba Competition, first place of three categories (marimba, vibraphone, and chamber ensemble) at the Taiwan International Percussion Championship, third place at the PASIC vibraphone soloist completion. She is also the first competitor who has own the first place and audiences’ favorite award at the White Lake solo competition in the history.
Pan is actively performing in varies music festivals, including performing at PASIC multiple times, Missouri Day of Percussion, Alabama Day of Percussion, UNA Percussion Symposium (Florence, AL), McCormick Marimba Festival, Taiwan International Winds and Percussion Festival...etc. She also often works with percussion ensembles and chamber groups, and performs alongside acclaimed musicians such as Gordon Stout, Gwen Dease, Without Borders, Ju Percussion, Dr. Tracy Wiggins, arx duo, The New Morse Code Duo, Naoko Takada, Tomoko Taki, and Dr. Ming-Hui Kuo. Alice has also held masterclasses and clinics at various universities across the world, focusing on topics ranging from percussion ensemble and solo marimba to elementary music.
In the composition realm, Pan has worked to expand the scope of possibility for percussion and marimba music, commissioning works from Andrea Clearfield, Josh Oxford, Gordon Stout, Daniel Berg and more. Pan has also worked to compose and arrange her own music that combine different art forms and styles from across the world, including writing for P PLAY Percussion Group, composing multiple works with traditional Beijing Opera, and arranging a transcription of Bela Bartok’s String Quartet No.5 for marimba quartet.
Pan has formed the Without Borders Percussion Quartet with Dr. Alex Smith, Dr. Katheryn Irwin, and Dr. Will Alderman, which also released their debut album “String Quartet No. 5 by Bela Bartok” adopted to marimba quartet in May 2023, released on the Chorphilia Inc. Label. Her discography also includes her solo debut album “Love and Lost: songs from and for the heart” released on the Blue Griffin Level in 2018.
"The debut CD by Yun Ju Pan - “Of Love and Loss: songs from and for the heart”, for me, is one of the most important and valuable recordings in recent years. There are no ugly, harsh sounds contained herein. There are only beautiful songs with beautiful sounds performed by a wonderful young musician. Surely, many people will know who this young artist/ marimbist/ vibraphonist/and singer is in the future." - Gordon Stout, world renown marimbist and educator.
Pan is currently the Director of Administration and International Arts at the Taiwan Percussion Arts Alliance, and the Founder and Director of P Play Percussion Group in Taiwan.
Pan is proudly sponsored by YAMAHA USA, REMO Drumheads, and Innovative Percussion.