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Diaspora Drumming

Diaspora Drumming Ensemble - Ringo Brill, Tiffany Nicely, and Gabriel Gutierrez - takes the audience on a trip through time and across oceans, tracing the path of instruments and rhythms from Western Africa to North and South America and the Caribbean.

Members of this group have studied in Cuba, Brazil, Mexico, and West Africa. They have also studied with teachers from Guinea and Senegal. They perform on authentic instruments from three continents, including the djembe, doun-douns, balafon, repinique, timbal, agogos, and tumabadoras.

During their program, they demonstrate how, in African and African-derived percussion traditions, different instruments "speak" to one another; they literally use different complimenting rhythms to create conversations that are used by Africans to pass on important messages.

During "Echoes of Africa," students learn how each set of rhythmic conversations is used in a particular way; to welcome guests, to accompany planting or harvesting, or to create a festival following a period of hard work. Throughout each performance, the audience joins with Brill, Nicely, and Gutierrez in traditional singing and dancing as well as creating their own rhythmic conversations.

Art Forms:
Music

Programs

Echoes of Africa add to wish list

African and Latin American cultures are indelibly linked through drumming, song, and dance. Our performance follows musical paths from Western Africa to Cuba, Brazil, Puerto Rico and Mexico. These paths include the development of different instruments, cultural uses of specific music and dances, and the way language and music changes over time and distance. The performance features a large variety of rhythms played on authentic percussion instruments. Audience members participate in creating rhythms, singing, and dancing.

Grade Level:
K-12
Performance cost (single):
$455.00
Workshop cost (back to back):
$330.00
Performance cost (back to back):
$753.00

Percussion Workshop add to wish list

Hands-on exploration of rhythmic layering in the Afro-Brazilian style, using authentic instruments such as surdo, repinique, caixa, and marcacao.

Grade Level:
3-12
Workshop cost (back to back):
$330.00

Wood That Sings add to wish list

Starting with Balafons of Guinea in Western Africa, members of Diaspora Drumming perform music for xylophones and marimbas of the African Diaspora. The performance includes music from Guinea, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, and the United States. Students will sing, dance, and experience first-hand the way African and European music came together to create these traditions.

Grade Level:
K-12
Performance cost (single):
$455.00
Workshop cost (back to back):
$330.00
Performance cost (back to back):
$753.00