John Mapes is a full-time percussion designer and educator based out of Southern California. He received his Bachelor of Arts in percussion from California State University Long Beach in the spring of 2000. Since 2005, he has earned an unprecedented 32 WGI medals, which includes 6 world class championships.
He has been the Percussion Director at Chino Hills HS since 2005 and was Director of Percussion at Pacifica HS from 2000-2011. He joined the design team at Pulse Percussion in 2008 and is currently the battery arranger, visual designer and program coordinator. In 2013, John joined the design team for the Blue Stars Drum & Bugle Corps as the battery arranger. Previously, he worked with the Blue Devil B Corps as the percussion arranger from 2007-2012 and was the Battery Arranger/ Percussion Caption Head for the Esperanza Drum and Bugle Corps in San Diego, CA from 2002-2006.
John is a Vic Firth Signature artist, a Yamaha artist, a Remo artist, a Zildjian artist and a WGI Percussion Steering Committee/Advisory Board member. He is also a co-founder of Box-Six.com, a website compiling original indoor percussion and marching band shows with fellow composer Ian Grom.
