Pure Rhythm!
You're a percussionist in a band and you want to participate in an ensemble consisting of only percussion instruments; or you're a drummer who wants to discover other percussion instruments.
The McGill Conservatory Percussion Ensemble invites you to join a group composed of 8 percussionists to play a variety of music with or without scores and with or without a conductor!
How it works
Participants, aged 12-16 years, attend 1½-hour weekly rehearsals. Each session comprises technique strengthening or discovery (keyboard instruments, world music percussion instruments (hand drums)), as well as the learning of works for percussion ensemble. The extensive repertoire is very varied and provides each participant with the opportunity to develop the skills required for playing in a group setting: rhythm, listening, interaction, coordination, improvisation, sound quality and phrasing.
The ensemble performs in concert at the end of each term.
You do NOT learn to play drum set or solo pieces in this ensemble; the collaborative process of the group experience is its basis.
Level of participants
Priortiy for admission will be given to percussionists and drummers aged 12-16 years who already have been playing for a few years. Maximum 8 participants per ensemble.
All participants must perform an audition.
Schedule
Courses are given on Saturday mornings at the Schulich School of Music.
See Auditions for audition dates.
For more information on term dates and fees, please download the pdf document Dates & Fees.
Instructors
Prof. Fabrice Marandola
Born in 1972, Fabrice Marandola began his musical studies in Montluçon (France). He then continued his studies in Paris at the Conservatoire du XIII° arrondissement, the Conservatoire National de Région, and finally at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, where he obtained a Diplôme de Formation Supérieure (first prize in percussion) in 1997, in the class of Jacques Delécluse.
He is currently Percussion Area Chair at McGill University, Montreal (Canada) and has previously taught at the CNR de Grenoble and the CNR d'Angers; from 2002 to 2005, he also held the position of percussion pedagogy instructor in the Département de formation à l'enseignement of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.
Shawn Mativetsky
A native of Montreal, Shawn Mativetsky is a percussionist and educator, recognized as a contemporary tabla specialist. He performs regularly in a variety of settings, including Western classical and contemporary/new music, Indian classical music, and world music. He also composes and performs music for dance and theatre. He is active in the promotion of the tabla and North Indian classical music through lectures, workshops, and performances across Canada, the United States, and England. Based in Montreal, Shawn teaches tabla and percussion, both privately and at McGill University.
Shawn Mativetsky has studied the tabla of North India with Pandit Sharda Sahai and Bob Becker. In addition to his tabla studies, he studied Western classical percussion with Pierre Béluse, D'Arcy Philip Gray, Andrei Malashenko, and Robert Slapcoff, and the percussion of kathakali with Bruno Paquet. Mr. Mativetsky holds a Master's degree in music from McGill University and has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.
