RNCM Day of Percussion 04/02/2024

Peter started drumming from the age of 7 where he was taught by his father-in-law, Sjoerd Westra, a musician in the Dutch Marines, Tamboers & Pijpers. From 1987-1992 he studied Orchestral Percussion, Classical Snare Drum, Marimba, and the Teacher degree at the Sweelinck Conservatory Amsterdam. His highlights include teaching at the National Conservatoire in Lisbon, the Royal College of Music London, the Royal Northern College of Music, and the Sweelinck Conservatorium Amsterdam and in several colleges in Asia.

After many successful years in the Marching band scene as teacher, arranger and composer, Peter was appointed Jury-Adjudicator at various international percussion festivals and marching band competitions.

In 2015 he started a new Drum Corps in Holland called Traditional Collective Fife & Drum Corps., a high quality (semi) professional rudimental Drumline/ Fife and Drum Corps.

Peter is endorsed by British Drum Company, Büchler Trommelbau Switzerland, Innovative Percussion, MarchingShop.com & Loyal Drums USA.

Calum’s passion for percussion spans performance, collaboration and teaching.

From early on in his career Calum showed a real passion for performance, winning his first BBC Solo Broadcast at the young age of 18. A finalist in many prestigious competitions, Calum was mentored and nurtured by International Marimbists Jasmin Kolberg and Eric Sammut. Calum has performed solo, chamber and concerto debuts within the major concert houses across the UK, Europe and the UAE.  Calum is a Yamaha Artist & Acoustic Percussion Signature Artist.

As well as being a virtuosic performer, Calum’s passion lies in cross-arts collaborations. He has worked alongside some of the most recognised and talented creatives in the arts, co-creating, recording and performing in spectacular spaces across the globe.

Calum is an active and highly sought after clinician and workshop leader throughout the UK.  Teaching at several conservatoires across the UK, Calum regularly delivers master classes, percussion workshops and repertoire classes.

John Chimes was born in London and studied at the Royal College of Music. In 1975 he was appointed by Pierre Boulez to the post of timpanist in the BBC Symphony Orchestra – a position from which he retired in September 2014 after 39 years of distinguished service. In addition to his work in the standard and contemporary repertoire as principal timpanist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he has always had a keen interest in performance on period instruments.

Drawing on his large collection of timpani from every period in the history of the instrument he has performed and recorded for all of London’s major orchestras. In particular he enjoyed many years as timpanist of L’Orchestre Révolutionaire et Romantique and The English Baroque Soloists under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, with whom he took part in many recordings including the complete symphonies of Beethoven and Schumann. He has also enjoyed long-term collaborations with orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta and performed on many film scores.

Istanbul-born Emil Kuyumcuyan is a percussionist, composer and electronic musician with Croatian, Greek, Armenian, and African roots. His original identity as a musician is shaped by influences of contemporary-classical, jazz and Anatolian music, which blend into a unique performing language.

The eclectic musician performs as a percussionist, primarily in the contemporary-classical music scene, and composes instrumental and electronic music.  Emil tours as a soloist; he creates concert programs consisting of percussion music with new commissions, existing repertoire and his own compositions.

In 2023 he released his first electronic album, It’s Not About Me, by WIC Recordings, which incorporates elements of IDM and Drum and Bass while still showcasing his classical music background.

Emil Kuyumcuyan shares his artistic expertise worldwide and is regularly invited as a judge in international competitions; he is also a passionate teacher. He is a tutor at the RNCM and at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.

Gary Kettel was first influenced by his father who played drums. The young Gary quickly developed a prodigious talent being appointed co-principal percussionist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the age of 20. Since then he has become one of Britain’s most sought after percussionists. He has worked with every major London Orchestra as Principal Percussionist, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, performing under many eminent conductors including Pierre Boulez, Rudolf Kempe, Leonard Bernstein, Leopold Stokowski, Lorin Maazel and others.

For many years he was the percussionist with the Nash Ensemble and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ ‘Fires of London’.

Gary is stylistically versatile, equally at home in all musical genres from Latin American and Ethnic percussion through straight Classical to Pop and Contemporary.

His long association with film and television music also began at a young age. Gary has worked with some of the greatest musicians, artists and film composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, Paul McCartney, John Williams, Michael Kamen, Danny Elfman, David Arnold, Elmer Bernstein, Hans Zimmer, James Horner and Alan Silvestri to name but a few.

He has appeared on numerous recordings across all genres but he has been most prolific in those fields where pop and classical meet: film music, symphonic rock, and crossover music from various countries. In the 1990s and 2000s Gary broadened his expertise to include Latin American and Japanese percussion; he played taiko drums on the 2006 release ‘Here’s to the Heroes’.

He has given masterclasses at the RNCM, and examines for the Royal Academy of Music, The Royal College of Music and the Guildhall School of Music. He is currently Professor of Percussion at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music.

Dave Hassell first founded the group in 1984. Based in Manchester, APITOS performed regularly at the iconic venue Band on the Wall in the mid-1980’s and 1990’s alongside prestigious Festival bookings and radio play. Forty years later this incredible collective continues to inspire audiences with their Latin American and jazz infused music.

We’re delighted to feature the original formation of APITOS in this event, but the group also perform in a smaller version under APITOS Pequeno and the full big band version, APITOS The Big Un!