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TRAVIS DUNLAP by Mike Wilt
How such a talented musician was born into a non-musical family has long been the topic of much good-natured discussion. At a very early age, Bartlesville born and bred Travis Dunlap begged his parents for music lessons. For a while, Mike & Paula Dunlap dismissed the pleas of their seven-year-old middle child. But they eventually relented and agreed to beginning piano. Little did they know what musical seed they planted that day and how it would bloom. For many years, the young Dunlap was content with piano. But then he attended a high school football game and was in awe with the xylophones and marimbas in the marching band. A penchant for percussion developed and in sixth grade he began drum lessons both privately and as part of the school band program. A short four years later, Dunlap won the local Young Artists Competition as a sophomore. He won it again as a senior. (Had consecutive wins been allowed, he likely would have succeeded his junior year too.) Proving his versatility, one win was as a pianist while the other win was as a marimbaist. Oh, and he can sing. Other than a handful of voice lessons that are too few to even mention, Dunlap has had no formal vocal training, but anyone who has heard him would think just the opposite. When it came to decide where to attend college, he auditioned all over the country. “But OU really had the best program.” Dunlap selected the University of Oklahoma and went on to earn both a Bachelor of Music and a Master’s Degree in Percussion Performance. He graduated Summa Cum Laude and was selected the Outstanding Senior for OU’s College of Fine Arts. NOVEMBER 2015 | b Monthly
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