'Sing, sing, sing!’ Not what you might expect to hear from a percussion lesson, but in Trinity Laban's percussion department we foster a more holistic approach, focusing on the entire musician and not simply the dots on the page.
I'm a cross-arts collaborator and my passion for collaboration extends to teaching, and believing it's my responsibility to help our percussionists understand how best they can learn music, develop their sound and, ultimately, explore what type of artist they want to be.
It is often said that some of the most impactful lessons are not necessarily from your own instrument. So, over the years I have taken inspiration from disciplines such as dance and voice and experimented with the relationship between body and breath, and with how percussionists – who are normally detached from their instruments with a stick, unlike the inner-bodied experience of dancing and singing – can strive to be ‘at one’ with their instrument. In my lessons, students learn to vocalise the pitches we play, but also understand the association between the voice and conscious or unconscious tension across the body. They learn how to access large muscle groups to help create full and resonant sounds, all of which help shape the music they're performing into enthralling musical phrases.
Programme of study
Percussion at Trinity Laban doesn't conform to the usual departmental framework of orchestral timpani and percussion, which is something we're proud of. In a unique approach, students have the choice of joint principal-study: percussion and timpani or percussion and drum-kit. For example, if you were to choose percussion and drum-kit, you would still have lessons in timpani, and in a whole range of percussion such as marimba, jazz vibraphone and world percussion, but your assessments would focus on your principal-study choice, being the areas you're most comfortable with. This allows students less experienced on timpani or drum-kit to build their experience without pressure, in order to gain the skills to develop resilient and versatile careers.
Student experience
As is the case with many performing arts environments, no two weeks look the same for our percussionists. There are one-to-one lessons and departmental classes, but also ensemble rehearsals and side-by-side opportunities. However, not every percussion department has guest artists visiting every other week! Artists from a diverse range of experiences visit to teach, share advice and perform for our students. These classes provide opportunities for students to network and build relationships in addition to developing skills.
Recent masterclasses have featured artists such as Chris ‘Woody’ Wood, from rock band Bastille, on electronic kit or pads; multi-percussionist and Hans Zimmer collaborator Lucy Landymore, teaching composition for vibraphone; Omari ‘Motion’ Carter, from STOMP, sharing body-percussion tips; Emma Arden, the UK's only drumline professional, on her portfolio career; Guy Schalom on the darabuka; and Teena Lyle, sharing her experiences as a session musician and with international touring. Many of our students and graduates have gone on to work with guest artists they met during training, marking the beginnings of portfolio careers.
Every other week, students also take part in world percussion classes exploring a huge range of instruments from across the globe, such as congas and caxixi to ghatam and batá.
Renovated percussion suite
As percussionists, we spend more time than any other musicians in college due to the range of very large instruments we require, and the amount of time we need to spend behind them. This made the renovation to our department last year hugely important. We worked in consultation with architects, lighting designers, creative interior designers and acousticians to create environments that would be suitable for all types of playing.
The collaboration between our percussionists and the acousticians was most interesting, as we had to find ways in which rooms would resonate beautifully for subtle marimba passages and yet still absorb the boom of symphonic timpani. With panels suspended from walls and ceilings, we found the perfect balance for productive and healthy practice.
Cross-discipline
We believe in providing a space for our students to become innovators, to experiment with their artistry and to explore ideas with an industry-focused approach. Undergraduate students take a module called ‘The Artist as Entrepreneur’, building the expertise to enable a successful and collaborative career. This includes developing skills in marketing, financial planning and growing a personal brand.
One of my favourite examples of this cross-disciplinary approach is CoLab, an electrifying two weeks of the year where all formal teaching stops and students participate in a range of projects designed to foster artistic risk-taking, creative collaboration and experimentation. Proposals are gathered from students, who are encouraged to use the time to develop their own creative projects or to make something truly collaborative across music, dance and musical theatre with their peers and the support of professional mentors. From installations and activist voice performances to immersive theatre and international creative retreats, CoLab is truly very special.
Throughout the year, further collaboration spans the different faculties at Trinity Laban. Our percussionists have opportunities to play in pit bands for musical theatre shows and cabarets, and collaborate with the composition department composers for new music ensemble performances and a requirement for chamber music assessments. They also work with the faculty of dance, on creative projects devising new performance pieces for music and dance. Recently, one of our MMus students, Marika Tsuchiya, created a performance piece with dancers exploring cultural identity based on poems from Japan and the Tang dynasty.
Repertoire
Aside from the more traditional canon of works you'd expect from a conservatoire, Trinity Laban enjoys success with its forward-thinking programming ‘Venus Blazing’. This launched in 2018 and showed commitment to programming works by female-identifying composers, up to 50% over the academic year. Students are always encouraged and supported to access works by lesser-known historical as well as contemporary composers, and this provides great opportunities for percussionists. Many of the works programmed are new, exploring instruments and sound worlds our students simply haven't had the chance to explore yet. It's this collaboration, development and exploration that has seen so many of our students find their own niche, some in very specific areas and/or styles of the percussive world.
Lindsey Eastham, a Marimba One Premier Artist, completed her Postgraduate Artist Diploma in 2022, and won the Director's Award for Excellence in her year. She competed at the annual Gold Medal Showcase 2022 at Kings Place, London, representing the Wind, Brass and Percussion Department, performing pieces by Andy Akiho and Steven Snowden along with her own compositions and live creative digital response visuals. She says, ‘I picked these works because I was interested in pairing percussion – especially contemporary percussion music which is often so unfamiliar to many – with sounds we can all recognise from our everyday lives.’
Right culture
Lindsey's approach is typical of Trinity Laban alumni who seek opportunities to work in creative and multi-disciplinary ways. It's also a new chapter for our team of teachers at Trinity Laban as we find ourselves about to recruit several new artists across the range of percussion/timpani disciplines. Finding the right teachers to fit our department ethos is just as important as building the right culture and environment for students to thrive. It is absolutely essential to us to ensure an inclusive and diverse community, representative of the modern world and our industry.
Watching an animal documentary recently, I was struck by the phrase ‘survival is adaptation’. I find many similarities between the natural world around us and the music industry today. It is the versatility and adaptability of our percussionists that will ultimately help them find their artistic direction, as a result of the culture created and skills realised from within our department at Trinity Laban.
