Villa Musica's NEW Percussion Ensemble will focus on developing one's rhythm through the fluid
use of drumming, vocalizing, and body movement. Members will build
their own instruments during the first week, as well as incorporate
other "found objects" into the music as the session continues. Although
the ensemble is primarily designed for beginners, there will be various
levels of complexity so that the intermediate or advanced student is
encouraged to participate as well. The ensemble will draw on East
Indian, and Euro/American percussive traditions to develop the
participants' own set of tools that she or he can draw from to
improvise and compose music themselves. The ensemble will prepare works
for a performance at the end of each session. Weekly meetings will be
divided between learning new material and rehearsing for future
performances. Beside learning specific compositions and techniques,
this ensemble provides a great opportunity to sharpen one's sense of
rhythm and manual dexterity, while gaining valuable music-making
experience in a group setting
NEW Session Dates
Fall Session (10 weeks) September 27th - December 11th, 2010 (No Class
Thanksgiving week) Winter Session (10 weeks) January 10th -
March 19th, 2011 Spring Session (10 weeks) April 4th - June
11th, 2011 When: Every Monday night from 7:00 to 8:30pm Age Group: Adults and Youth Number of participants: min. 8 max. 16 Course Fee: $110
Instructor: Justin DeHart From Sacramento, California, Justin
DeHart has contributed greatly to the teaching and performing of
various percussive instruments and ensembles. A firm proponent of
community involvement in music, he founded the Sacramento non-profit
"Joe's Style Shop"; an organization dedicated to teaching jazz, world
music, and popular music production to disadvantaged youths in the
central city. He has taught percussion to high school students for two
years at the California State Summer School of the Arts in Valencia,
CA, as well as teaching hand drum classes at Waldorf schools, and
bucket drumming in central LA continuation schools. He has also taught
tabla at the Pandit Jasraj Music Foundation in Tampa, Florida, as well
as being an assistant teacher at California Institute of the Arts and
UCSD. Mr. DeHart holds a bachelor's degree from CSU Sacramento, a
master's degree from California Institute of the Arts, and is currently
preparing for a doctorate degree at UC San Diego. He has studied tabla
under the tutelage of tabla maestro Swapan Chaudhuri for over eight
years at the Ali Akbar College in San Rafael, CA, and at the California
Institute of the Arts in Valencia. In addition to learning tabla, he
has been awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study the South Indian
Mridangam (barrel drum) in India for a period of nine months with T.H.
Subash Chandran. DeHart has enjoyed participating in performances
throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia with acclaimed artists
such as John Bergamo, Red Fish Blue Fish, Subash Chandran (ghatam),
Kartik Seshadri (sitar) Jaganathan Ramamurthi (violin), and
bharatanatyam dancer Sinduri Jaisinglha. In addition to being an active
performer in North and South Indian music, he is also busy performing
and recording contemporary western art and dance music appearing as a
percussionist as well as producer on various record labels such as
Innova, MCA, Skunk, Anicca, Cornerstone, R.A.S., Jumpstart, and
Beatville.
