Percussion
Professors
Peter de Vries– timpani, snare-drum, orchestral percussion
Vincent Houdijk– head of percussion, section representative,
mallets, set-up, ensemble, chamber music, improvisation
Guest Professors
The AMPA Percussion Department regularly hosts masterclasses and projects with specialists, such as:
Theodor Milkov, Fumito Nunoya, Andrey Doynikov, Jeffery Davis – mallets
Nuno Aroso – Contemporary (Percussion) Music
Etienne Hoeben – snaredrum, orchestral percussion, conducting and composing
Steven Brezet – african, latin and world percussion
Hans Raaijmakers – minor (classical) percussion for jazz department and AME
About this main subject
In the past twenty years the profession of classical percussion changed dramatically. Where previously the classical percussionist was trained to contribute his or her part in the symphony orchestra, nowadays they find their employ in a far broader line of work. Percussionists perform in (musical) theatre, chamber music or percussion ensembles, they initiate collaborations with other artists like choreographers, visual artists or DJ’s, or they specialize in playing styles like Japanese, Latin & African percussion or Minimal Music & Gamelan. Many percussionists start their own groups and find their place in performing arts in this way.
The main focus at AMPA is to educate students into gaining broad and open minded performance skills in all these different fields. Eventually focussing more on increasing the chances of creating a professional practice, and thus creating more personality in each individual student.
Curriculum The first two years at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts (AMPA) we will be focusing on establishing a strong technical and musical fundament, based on solo and chamber music repertoire. These two years are also meant as a period of orientation and research in the world of performing arts, in order to explore and discover the main interest of each student. From the third year on we will work on the development of personal taste and style, based on the student’s main interest, which eventually can result in a study at our Master of Music. In this program the student will get the opportunity to further facilitate his/her study into a career.
Audition
- To take part in the audition you first have to apply via www.studielink.nl
- The preselection will take place online
- After the preselection only selected candidates will proceed to the live audition (for candidates living in the Netherlands or Belgium) or to the online interview (for candidates living in other countries)
- You can upload your material for the online preselection on your personal admission page with a maximum of 15 minutes
- Duration of the live audition is 15/20 minutes.
- In the preselection and the live audition we would like to see and hear your technical and performance skills on the following instruments:
- Mallets (marimba/vibraphone/xylophone); overall technique, subtleness, melodic phrasing, dampening and pedaling 1 etude + 1 concert work. (at least 1 piece with 4 mallets)
- Snare drum; multiple rolls, rudiments, several stroke types and minimal 1 etude
- Timpani; multiple rolls, rudiments, several stroke types and minimal 1 etude
- OPTIONAL: Multipercussion; rhythmic phrasing, timing, versatility, structure (Hand)drums; rhythmic phrasing, timing, versatility, improvisation
- Please contact Vincent Houdijk vaj.houdijk@fontys.nl in case you want to check or discuss your repertoire.