About Penny

Penny Larson is a founding member of Boston-based instrumental progressive rock trio Hypaspace. With the group, Penny has recorded four studio albums and toured the United States and Canada. She has in the past recorded and toured with American troubadour Bryan McPherson. Over the years she has played with many artists in an around Greater Boston and was the first call house drummer for Indecent Music Studios in Medford, MA for several years. Since 2007, Penny has been a part of the music worship team at The Crossing, an emergent Episcopal congregation in downtown Boston, whose founding ethic is radical welcome, and who believe worship needs the motion of music, also known as the “Groovement.” In 2020, Penny reunited for some virtual collaboration with her very first band, Sex and Witchcraft. The group released two new songs in 2021. In the spring of 2023, Penny realized a life-long dream by joining newly-formed, all-women big band, the She Bop Swing Orchestra.

Possessing a style driven by melody, dynamics, and passion, fueled by a powerful technical control of the drum set, Penny believes that her drumming is a spiritual act. To echo the great Lionel Hampton, Penny believes that drumming is “the best way to get close to God.”

Penny is also a dedicated drum set instructor. The daughter of a drummer, she started learning at age three, and started passing that knowledge on when she was sixteen. For over thirty-five years, Penny has worked one-on-one with drum set students, and for the last twenty years, she has been a staff instructor at DiCenso’s Drum Shop in Weymouth, MA. Penny has continued to study drumming, including attending Berklee College of Music from 1994-1998, studying under Ed Kaspik, Nancy Zeltsman, and Skip Hadden. In 2015, she attended the inaugural Rhythm Retreat, where she studied with Billy Cobham and Dave Weckl. Penny believes that every drummer is different and has developed a highly customizable curriculum to help every student reach their fullest potential.

Penny was a member of the Drum Corps International A-60 Division World Champion St. Francis Xavier Sancians in 1985 and 1986, was a finalist in Boston’s Best Drummer in 1990, received the Youth Concerts at Symphony Hall Composition award from Berklee College of Music in 1998, and was the Hit Like a Girl Contest 40+ Champion in 2019. Penny recently performed at the 2019 Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in Indianapolis, IN, as part of the Hit Like a Girl Contest Showcase.

Penny proudly endorses Vater drumsticks, TRX Cymbals, and Attack Drumheads.