jonsterckx.co.uk

Tabla Percussion World Music Workshops. Samswara Indian Music, Sitar & Tabla, Stroud, Devon & South West UK Jon Sterckx is a tabla player & innovative percussionist with 30 years experience of working with world percussion & World Music. He studied tabla in UK with Harjinder Singh Matharu and in India with Shivanand Bandhari at the Naadashree Arts Institute in Kumta, Karnataka, and with Kailash Nishad in Benares (Varanasi). Jon has performed twice at TED events, and his performance at TEDxWarwick was selected from over 10,000 TED events globally for inclusion in the TED Global Music Project. Jon plays a range of percussion instruments and has worked across a wide range of musical styles, from Indian classical music and other traditional world music to contemporary experimental & ‘fusion’ styles, theatre & dance collaborations, and his solo multi-percussion Live Sampling / Live Looping performances – Drumscapes. Jon is available for percussion performances, Tabla and percussion tuition in Stroud & Gloucestershire, world rhythm workshops across UK and as a session musician anywhere in the world, through remote recording sessions. Jon has delivered Tabla, World Music, Indian Music & World Rhythm workshops to schools, colleges, universities & festivals for over 20 years. Contact for more information & booking details. Jon is a Tutor and Mentor for South West Music School, an Associate of Wiltshire Music Connects and a partner of Swindon Music Service. He also runs weekly tabla classes in Swindon. Jon has performed with various artists and groups including Indo/Arabic instrumental duo Taaliqa, Fusion group Dhani, Balkan Folktronica duo Arhai and Drumscapes – his unique solo multi-percussion live sampling performances which he has performed at WOMAD, London International Arts Festival, Beautiful Days, Pulse festival, Drum Camp, Tribe of Doris, World Music Workshop Festival and at most of the UK’s main world music festivals & Melas. Jon’s Drumscapes work has also been featured twice by music software company Ableton in the Ableton blog. Jon was a selected performer at the National Celebration of British Asian Live Arts in 2008, and his sitar & tabla duo Samswara were voted ‘Best Group in South West & South Wales’ in the MTM South Asian & Ethnic Minorities Awards 2014. Jon has recorded for Grammy winning composer Christopher Tin on his album ‘The Drop That Contained The Sea’, Grammy nominated producer Arun Shenoy on the track ‘Bliss’, BBC Music Folk Award winners Phil Henry & Hannah Martin album ‘Singing The Bones’ and Americana folk artist ‘Mean’ Mary James amongst many others. Jon has been commissioned by the music creation software company Bandlab to produce content for their platform. Jon has produced sample packs in Bollywood Percussion, Tabla and his own ‘Jon Sterckx Signature’ pack. Tuition &Training: Jon’s tabla tuition began in Cardiff with Harjinder Singh Matharu from Birmingham. Harjinder gave Jon a good solid foundation in tabla playing between 1994 – 1998 as well as the encouragement & inspiration to commit himself seriously to the instrument. In 1994 / 1995, Jon returned to India where he learned from Shivanand Bhandari at the Naadashree Arts Institute in Kumta, Karnataka, India. In 1998 & 1999, Jon returned to India and studied with Kailash Nishad in Benares, (Varanasi) in North India, a city renowned for the study of North Indian (Hindustani) music. In 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 & 2005 Jon organised performances & workshops for Kailash in the UK, where he delivered workshops in universities & performed Tabla solos at Arts Centres & venues in the South West UK. During these month long visits to the UK, Kailash stayed with Jon in Devon and continued Jon’s tabla tuition. They also gave performances together, with Taaliqa playing the first set & Kailash performing tabla solo in the second. In 2005 they also performed together in a collaborative finale. Jon’s other musical studies include a BA ( Hons ) Music degree from Dartington College of Arts in 2000, where his main subject was in composing music for live performance.