About the Artist/Ensemble
Drumming Through Cultures and Time: $900
A unique journey through the history and geography of percussion. The audience will travel the Silk Road from Italy to China and the Sugar Trade Route from Africa to the Americas. Ancient instruments such as the balafon, doumbek, djembe, kilimba and frame drums are combined with music technology including digital looping. Students will experience how digital looping enables one performer to create an entire virtual ensemble.
Live Compositions to Classic Movies: $900
Tom is currently performing Lotte Reiniger’s earliest animation, “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”. He performs on over a dozen instruments and ends with a talk back about the creative process and his experiences traveling and collaborating with musicians in the Middle East as a cultural envoy for the U.S. Department of State. Also offered is Fritz Lang’s sci-fi thriller “Metropolis” with a modern Techno soundtrack. New this season is the original Dracula classic, F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” with a live sound design guaranteed to frighten!
Sounds You Can SEE: (Performance and loan fee) $900
Also new this season is the new project Sounds You Can SEE, an unusual multimedia video / music project featuring Tom’s original video creations combined with his original music. This unique offering has the flexible capability of being a live performance and then living in a space as an exhibit. Tom is also offering live and recorded sound instillations to coordinate with existing art exhibits. New offerings are sound instillations that can stand as a separate performance as well as coincide with a gallery showing.
Word-Beat Concert: $1,600
Word-Beat School Program: $1,300
Word-Beat combines the artistry of singer/actor Charles Williams and global-jazz percussionist Tom Teasley in programs featuring the inspirational texts of such authors as Langston Hughes and African folk songs combined with African American Spirituals.
Concert/Performance Description
Appropriate stage lighting, electrical outlet(s). Artist can supply sound. For film screening appropriate equipment required.
Educational Programs
Assembly programming, masterclasses and 3 or 5-day residencies combine world percussion and music technology culminating in a concert with Tom and students.
Tom Teasley School Program: $650
Drumming Through Cultures and Time: A unique journey through the history and geography of percussion. The audience will travel the Silk Road from Italy to China and the Sugar Trade Route from Africa to the Americas. Ancient instruments such as the balafon, doumbek, djembe, kilimba and frame drums are combined with music technology including digital looping. Students will experience how digital looping enables one performer to create an entire virtual ensemble.
Drumming in a Digital World: Using drums from around the world, a single performer can create many textures and timbres of sound. With the digital looping technology available today, that same single performer can become a virtual ensemble. Join Tom Teasley, master percussionist, as he builds a layered sound composition in real time. Get a glimpse behind the scenes of how musicians utilize the latest technology to enhance their music and compositions and create the musical sounds of today.
Tom Teasley Percussion Workshop/Masterclass: $500
An American Approach to World Percussion Clinic – In this clinic Tom successfully fuses various rhythmic concepts from around the world. This workshop will feature drumming techniques from different cultures including the Middle East, Far East and India. Divided into four sections: palm drums, finger drums, jingle drums, and shakers. Specific techniques are covered and combined for Djembe, Cajon, Doumbek, shakers, Frame Drums and a variety of tambourines. Tom will also explore how they are all related to the American drum set utilizing four part coordination. Many exercises popularized by Tom’s former teacher, Joe Morello are applied to these “world percussion” instruments as well as rudimental applications, thus demystifying the instruments to western audiences. (Examples of PDF worksheets available on request) Much of this material is covered in Tom’s book/DVD set of the same name published by Alfred Music.
Tom Teasley 3-Day Residency: $2,000
Tom Teasley 5-Day Residency: $3,500
In this residency Tom shares his knowledge with students about drumming with the goal of community building while developing listening skills and the importance of working with others. Tom teaches everyday during the residency to develop basic hand drumming techniques. The students implement this via call and response and the South Indian vocal rhythm solfege, “solkattu”. Students learn interlocking parts that have their origins in African, Middle Eastern, Indian and Brazilian/Cuban traditions. Tom also shares his knowledge and gives the students experience with his array of electronic percussion. The residency concludes with a concert in which Tom invites students to join him demonstrating their new knowledge. With advance notice Tom can arrange the purchase of drums at a discount through his endorsement contacts.