Toronto Tabla Ensemble to hold Educational Open House in Mississauga
Event Details:
Time: Saturday, September 30th, 12pm to 3pm (3 sessions starting at 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm
As part of its ongoing commitment to the arts and education in the Mississauga-Oakville region, the Toronto Tabla Ensemble (TTE) will be hosting an Open House on Saturday September 30, 2017 from 12pm to 3pm at Queen Elizabeth Senior Public School. The event will showcase the unique educational experience offered by TTE, grounded in generations of artistic lineage and feature performances by the TTE Youth Ensemble and students of the school from different levels. Attendees of all ages can also take part in a sample tabla lesson, get to know the TTE’s faculty, and find out how to help grow the organization’s educational initiatives in the Greater Toronto Area.
For over 30 years, Ritesh Das, the Founder and Artistic Director of the Toronto Tabla Ensemble, has been at the forefront of Indian and world music in Canada and beyond, and continues to teach tabla and percussion classes rooted in rich artistic heritage and extensive training under master musicians. His parents were pioneers in artistic education forming one of the first academies for Indian music and dance in Kolkata after India’s independence. His brother, the late Pandit Chitresh Das, was a renowned Kathak dancer and also founded a prominent institution for dance and the arts. Das draws on these strong influences in his endeavour to train the next generation of artists, offering classes which are at once engaging, rewarding, and fun. Over the past 30 years, several of the school’s students have used their training to become professional tabla players in the World Music scene across Canada and abroad.
The TTE school has grown into a strong community of like-minded students, parents and volunteers, connected in their aim to further the education of today’s youth. The TTE’s educational syllabus goes beyond the musical theory and technique of tabla. Each lesson is designed to incorporate the South Asian cultural and historical context of the music in addition to a broad set of skills including long-term memory, public speaking, and quantitative reasoning, which all play a role in the larger educational framework. As students advance through years of training, they are able to take part in a yearly examination process working towards a diploma offered after six years of study. Selected students also have the opportunity to train in the Toronto Tabla Youth Ensemble or take their learning beyond music to lead projects in arts administration and production.
Students of the school come from a number of different backgrounds and have a wide variety of reasons for pursuing their study. Parents of young tabla students have found their children to improve in a number of traits including attention span, confidence, and overall drive for learning. Students at the school also include variety of professionals including academics, engineers, and physicians, who derive benefit from the TTE’s programming including 3as an outlet to relieve stress.
Since 1991, Ritesh Das has led the Toronto Tabla Ensemble’s school in conjunction with a performing band with the goal to bring North Indian classical music to mainstream Canadian arts. The Ensemble has produced multiple concerts a year and five original albums, including Juno-nominated Firedance. The Ensemble’s original music has been used in numerous films and commercials and in 2003, Das and the Ensemble were commissioned to create the current theme music for CBC Radio’s daily show, Metro Morning.
Event Details:
Time: Saturday, September 30th, 12pm to 3pm (3 sessions starting at 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm
No comments