Penny Larson · Electronic Press Kit

Short biography Approx. 60 words

Penny Larson is a professional drummer, educator, and recording artist based in Doubtless Bay, New Zealand. A founding member of instrumental progressive-rock trio Hypaspace, she has performed for more than fifty years and taught for more than forty. Larson is the 2019 Hit Like a Girl 40+ Champion and an artist endorser for Vater, TRX Cymbals, and Attack Drumheads.

Standard biography Approx. 145 words

Penny Larson is a professional drummer, educator, and recording artist whose work crosses progressive rock, jazz fusion, singer-songwriter music, drum corps, and big band. She is a founding member of instrumental progressive-rock trio Hypaspace, with whom she recorded four studio albums and toured the United States and Canada. Larson has also recorded and toured with singer-songwriter Bryan McPherson.

In 2019, Larson won the Hit Like a Girl 40+ Championship and appeared at PASIC as part of the competition showcase. Her professional affiliations include artist endorsements with Vater Percussion, TRX Cymbals, and Attack Drumheads.

Now based in Doubtless Bay in New Zealand's Far North, Larson continues to perform, teach, record, and develop community music initiatives. She teaches drum set both in person and worldwide via Zoom and is nearing completion of a degree at Berklee College of Music, on track to graduate cum laude.

Full biography Approx. 275 words

First observed at the drum kit at age three, Penny Larson began teaching at sixteen. More than fifty years of performance and more than forty years of instruction have produced a detailed understanding of what actually works—and what the field guides got wrong.

Larson is a founding member of the instrumental progressive-rock trio Hypaspace. Across four studio albums and tours of the United States and Canada, the group developed a vocabulary shaped by progressive rock, jazz fusion, and the exploratory electric music of the 1970s. Larson has also recorded and toured with singer-songwriter Bryan McPherson, and spent years as a staff instructor at DiCenso's Drum Shop outside Boston.

Her musical roots include drum corps with the Sancians during the 1980s, jazz fusion, progressive rock, big band, and decades of work with students and fellow musicians. Influences include Billy Cobham, the Dixie Dregs, and Miles Davis's electric period—territory the mainstream field guides have consistently misfiled.

In 2019, Larson won the Hit Like a Girl 40+ Championship and performed at PASIC as part of the competition showcase. She is an artist endorser for Vater Percussion, TRX Cymbals, and Attack Drumheads.

Larson is currently based in Doubtless Bay, Far North, New Zealand, with confirmed sightings across New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and points beyond. Her current work includes performance, private teaching, recording, and the development of community workshops in practical music and video production.

She is nearing completion of a degree at Berklee College of Music, on track to graduate cum laude. Her interdisciplinary studies have included drum set performance, music and neuroscience, orchestral percussion, traditional composition, scoring, orchestration, harmony, and arranging.