Performing at PASIC as an IPEC winner in 2024.
Instructing the Carolina Band Drumline in 2023. 
Directing J.L. Mann H.S. to a CWEA PSN Championship in 2023.
Performing with Music City at DCI World Championships in 2022.
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Jensen L. Thomassie (b. 2001) is an educator, percussionist, and internationally performed composer based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where he serves as the Percussion Director at Abner Creek Middle School and Florence Chapel Middle School and serves on the percussion staff at James F. Byrnes High School.
As a composer, Thomassie’s catalog includes over 30 works for percussion ensemble, wind ensemble, orchestra, voice, string quartet, electronics, and more. His music is regularly performed across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, and has been performed at the Lincoln Center in New York City. He is regularly commissioned by solo artists and ensembles including What Is Noise new music ensemble. As a performer, Thomassie has performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention three times: first with the Furman University Percussion Ensemble in the new music research session in 2019, with Furman again in 2022 performing as one of the winners of the International Percussion Ensemble Competition, and finally in 2024 as a member of the University of South Carolina Percussion Ensemble as a winner of the International Percussion Ensemble Competition again. Thomassie regularly performs as a section percussionist with the Poinsett Wind Symphony and serves as a substitute percussionist with the Aiken Symphony. An active member of the pageantry arts, Thomassie owns Linear Music Designs, which provides percussion arrangements and sound design for a multitude of band programs in the Southeast, including the University of South Carolina Mighty Sound of the Southeast, Furman University Paladin Regiment, and over a dozen high school programs in South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Thomassie has marched with Music City Drum Corps, the Louisiana Stars Drum and Bugle Corps, and the New Orleans Saints Drumline, where he also served as an arranger. Thomassie previously served as the Director of Percussion at J.L. Mann High School, where he won a state championship in CWEA Percussion Scholastic Novice with the J.L. Mann Indoor Percussion Ensemble, the Director of Percussion at Liberty High School, where he won a SCBDA 1A Silver Medal, and the Carolina Band Drumline Graduate Assistant at the University of South Carolina, where he taught drumline, arranged half-time show music, and coached undergraduate percussion ensembles. Thomassie holds a Master’s degree in Percussion Performance from the University of South Carolina and a Bachelor’s degree in Percussion Performance and Music Composition from Furman University. His primary percussion teachers include Scott Herring, Omar Carmenates, and Justin Watt. His primary composition teachers include Jay Bocook, Mark Kilstofte, and Peter B. Kay. |
Recent News:
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Wander on Temporal EchoesApril 3rd, 2026
TEMPORAL ECHOES explores the interplay of space and time, tracing how memories, places, and people intersect and resonate across the years. The work reflects on the fleeting yet enduring nature of shared experience — how sound, like memory, lingers, transforms, and returns through time. Marking more than a decade of collaboration, What Is Noise turns inward to reflect on the echoes of their musical journey — the stages, friendships, and moments that have shaped who they’ve become together. The album serves as both a meditation on time’s passage and a celebration of the music and memories that connect us. |
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Die With a Smile
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Linear Music Designs LaunchLinear Music Designs aims to bridge the gap between percussion pedagogy and effective percussion arrangements and electronic sound design. The launch of this company is not brand new, but a new brand.
Linear Music Designs offers battery arrangements, front ensemble arrangements, electronic sound design, design consultation, and percussion clinics. Linear Music Designs currently serves 9 clients for the 2026 marching band season, including:
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