Our Teaching Faculty
Drum
and Splash at Four Quarters
See the Schedule for this years Attending Faculty
Ken Crampton: Host, Community Drum Circle, Master Impresario of The Smile
Factor
Eesa Greyson:
Power Drumming and Dance, Lead for "Djembe Folalu"
ensemble.
Bamoussa Camara: Master of the
West African Jun Jun
Daveed Korup:
The Tao of the Drum
Zaipo Oula:
African Dance and Ceremony
Alex Wedmedyk:
Drum Building+Care
Robin Renee:
The Harmony of Voice
Jason Walker:
Afro Cuban Grooves
Kevin and Cindy Ryan:
Middle Eastern Dance+Dumbek
Sogbety Diomande: Trad. Ivory Coast
Drum+Dance
Whitney Matlock and Mike Miller:Art
of Fire Spinning
N’Zinga Bangora: Women's
West African Dance
One of the most cherished aspects of our culture at Drum and Splash is the relationship
we have developed over the past decade with our permanent teaching faculty. In
some cases for as long as ten years, we have all worked together to develop a
uniquely diverse and assessable festival, that is as much about a functioning
alternative community as it is about the Drum.
These
Masters of Drum and Dance are more than good teachers, they are Friends, Family
and Tribe. Thay are not always able to be with us every year, but they are always
part of our Four Quarters Family.
This unique on-going
relationship allows our faculty to share with and guide the development of our
attendees, not just as teachers, but as particapative Members of our Community
and Tribe.
It is this commitment that has helped
make Drum and Splash such a very special and lasting experience. |
 Ken
Crampton Community
Drum Circle Everybody Drum is an outreach program
empowering people through the rhythms of visual and audible arts by visiting schools,
working within the community, corporate conferences, Head Start and at-risk programs.
Ken has been drumming and facilitating drum circles for over 12 years, and has
studied with master facilitators and drummers, Arthur Hull, Babatunde Olatunji,
and Mamady Keita.
Ken is the proprietor of Eyeclopes Studios, which
showcases “Locally Grown Art” and empowers those who have taken the
time and inspiration to produce art. A former student at the Corcoran School of
Art, Ken has served as President of the Fredericksburg Center for the Creative
Arts (1994-97) and created the now famous Fredericksburg New Years Eve Pear. Ken
brings his pet dragon for a little exercise at Drum and Splash |
Eesa Grayson
Eesa
Grayson is an all time favorite at Four Quarters, our best bad boy of the dJembe.
Combining physically powerful drumming, high energy dance and a teaching style
that is at once open, joyous and inviting.
Eesa is a principle with the
Djembe Folalu ensemble. |
Daveed
Korup
The Tao of the Drum
Daveed Korup sparks our imaginations through his unique style of drumming, which
reflects a synthesis of many of the world's exotic percussion traditions into
an invocative, penetrating voice for this millennium. A native of Illinois, Korup
is the co-creator of DrumFest!, a hands-on, multi- cultural drumming experience
for people of all ages. Through school assembly programs, artist-in-residency
projects, concerts and workshops, Daveed introduces participants to the electrifying
world of percussion and rhythm. Since it's inception, DrumFest! has reached tens
of thousands of people, young and old, from all across the United States.
Daveed has worked with musician and mentor, Billy Woods, performing
the "Music of the Urban Gypsy" all across the country and is co-founder
of Lights-On Productions, which promotes percussion performance and instructional
projects. In 1994, they created the provocative percussion ensemble, Seeds of
Time and have released three energizing recording projects, Eyes Behind the Veil,
Seeds of Time -- an Invitation to Drum, and Rhythm Rides for Dumbek. In 2002,
Korup self- published Tao Te Drum, which is a comprehensive hand drumming method
that integrates Eastern and Western drumming traditions. For the past five years,
Korup has been the lead percussionist for the Eurasian folk ensemble, Turku, which
traveled to Samarkand, Uzbekistan in the fall of 2001 to participate in the Third
Annual Sharq Taronalari Music Festival, sponsored by UNESCO and the Uzbek government.
In addition to the technique of Dumbek, David will bring
his well known Rhythm Playstation and present his intensive "Tao Te Drum:
A Way of the Drum". |
Zaipo Oula
African
Dance and Ceremony
An electrifying performer who combines
the formal ballet training of the Ecole de Danse et d'Echange Culturelle with
his traditional roots of the Ivory Coast.
Zaipo
Oula is an international artist and the founder of Rochester, NY. Dance and Cultural
Exchange, an African Rhythm and Dance school, and Director of the Baltimore
International Rhythm and Drumming Society (BIRDS). Originally from the Ivory
coast in West Africa, his professional goal is to reach out to communities and
various artists, helping them come together to share joyful moments with music
and dance. Mr. Zaipo uses his musical creativity to heal sadness while expressing
his cultural uniqueness. His mission in life is to help others try to escape or
at least ease some of the problems our communities are facing.
Music and dance are ways that the people of the Ivory Coast express themselves.
Through drumming and dancing, different tribes from his culture are able to communicate.
Rhythm is what the drummer creates to express emotion in his audience. This emotion
takes form through dance or movement. Everywhere Zaipo goes, he brings his knowledge
of dance and the experience of an authentic African drummer and dancer.
The culture of the Ivory Coast is rich in the traditions of storytelling, tribal
rituals and chants. Mr. Zaipo feels that his place in the United States of America
and the world is through his participation in preserving and promoting the authenticity
of the African culture. He is and will continue to be a bridge to these resources
and the communities that welcome him.
Zaipo will be
teaching West African dance in depth, as well as the elements of performance stagecraft,
costume and maskmaking from the African perspective. A special treat is his series
of seminars for children, as well as Evening Performance with his troupe. |
Alex Wedmedyk
Drum Building, Care
and Drum Circle
EttiquetteAlexWednedyk is a
craftsman, drummer and facilitator,and has been building drums and playing them
since 1990. Over the years he has had many teachers and shares "the
jewels of knowledge" he has picked up along the way. All of his workshops
emphasize that the Eternal Spring of Creativity is our Spirit, and that we connect
to this source by enhancing our relationship with the Great Spirit. Our inner
strength and outer power is directly related to how well we move through our lives
"in rhythm". Through Earth Rhythm, he has created, with his wife Joy,
various workshops and events on self discovery & personal empowerment.
Alex has facilitated many workshops,drum circles and rituals throughout the Midwest.
He has created the annual Adventures in Rhythm Drummers Retreat and the Rites
of Spring Community Gathering of Ohio. |
Robin Renee
Music
has been a constant throughout Renée's life; she was in her first "touring"
band at the age of ten (The Half Mann Band played in local elementary schools.).
A defining moment of clarity came as a teenager while she watched David Bowie
on Saturday Night Live; he sang dramatically- in a long, beautiful gown. It was
then that she knew that she could do anything and be anyone- on her own unique
terms.
Renée is at once influenced by the light-hearted new wave style
of the 1980's, the intensity of timeless singer/songwriters, and a long-time personal
focus on Eastern and eclectic mysticism. She wrote and performed with the world-beat
rock band Spy Gods while attending Rutgers University, where she was an honor
student and an award-winning poet. Later, she fronted the pop band, The Loved
Ones.
With renewed energy and a name for her brand of accessible tunes
with a spiritual twist- Mantra-Pop! -Renée set out to form a new live band in
the summer of 2003. She found just the right chemistry with Philadelphia-area
musicians Evan Danziger (bass), Kevin McDevitt (drums), and Cyndee Lee Rule (violin).
Full-on rock shows are now back on the menu, joining the schedule along with acoustic
shows and kirtan, a form of Hindu devotional chanting in Sanskrit, for which Renée
holds great passion.
When not performing or chanting ancient mantras
in an ever-expanding circle of venues, Robin Renée may be found pursuing freelance
writing, for which she has interviewed music greats like Ani DiFranco, Janis Ian,
Richie Havens, and B. B. King. She has contributed her work to periodicals including
Curve Magazine, PanGaia, The Washington Blade, Philadelphia Gay News, The Courier
News, and Cool and Strange Music. Her essays have appeared in Blessed Bi Spirit:
Bisexual People of Faith (Debra Kolodny, Ed., Continuum International, 2000) and
That Takes Ovaries!: Bold Females and Their Brazen Acts (Rivka Solomon, Ed., Random
House, 2002).
Here is a true alternative voice of artistry, love, and
honesty that must be heard. Keep an eye on this journey.
|
Jason Walker
Jason Walker is a 1996 graduate of the
Hartt School of Music under the direction of Ben Toth. Since graduating he has
used drumming in a variety of settings including: Therapeutic intervention programs,
workshops, concerts, as a dance accompanist, and private teacher. In addition,
Jason’s drumming can be found on the 2004 Wammie award winning album “Elements”
by Verlette Simon and Michael Willis, 2004 album “Hard Swimmin’ Fish”
(blues band), and is on upcoming albums by Wammie award winning singer/songwriter
Rachel Cross, and Saxophonist Dave Schumacher. Jason currently studies Afro-Cuban
drumming with master percussionist Sam Turner. |
Kevin
and Cindy Ryan
Kevin and Cindy Ryan have been
Middle Eastern dancers and drummers for the last decade and a half. Ten years
ago, at the first Drum & Splash, they turned up with these little dumbek whatjamacallits.
A couple of hours later, they were asked “How _do_ you get that many sounds
out of that tiny thing?!” They’ve been coming back ever since... Kevin
and Cindy drum, dance, and teach in an assortment of venues, including several
years in their group Celtistan. Cindy is also a principle dancer in the award
winning Silk Road Dance company. And in the meantime, they drum on any nearby
surface that doesn’t object too loudly, to the dismay of their cats.
|
Sogbety
Diomande
was born in the village of Toufinga,
a small farming community located in the Northwest region of the Ivory Coast near
the border of Guinea in Africa. He started his career as a drummer and dancer
at a very early age. He trained as a stilt dancer with his uncle, Vado Diomande,
the reigning national stilt dancing champion. Sogbety has been stilt dancing since
the age of ten and possesses the ability, through his stilt mask, to act as a
mediator between the world of the living and the spiritual world of the ancestors.
Sogbety’s
most recent projects are forming his own West African Drum and Dance Company,
touring with Jim Donovan's Drum the Ecstatic, and performing for schools and universities.
In February of 2005 he formed his own troupe and performed for Black History events
in Ohio. |
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