The percussion department offers tuition in orchestral percussion and drum kit. Students have a individual class, which focuses on the leaning aspects specific to the instrument, and an ensemble class, which focuses on developing group playing skills. The ensembles for percussion and drum kit students are the wind bands, the stage band and percussion ensembles.
Drum kit tuition focuses on preparing students to be able to perform in a wide range of musical styles that reflect the performing trends in today’s musical world. Much of the tuition utilises backtracks so the students can play as if they were playing in a band. The advantages of this are numerous, but a very important aspect is learning to play in a realistic setting. Material is drawn from a variety of syllabi for the greatest variety of material. These syllabi include Trinity Guildhall, Trinity Rock and Pop, and Rockschool.
Orchestral percussion students have the full gamut of percussion instruments to learn. Mallet percussion, timpani and snare drum are the main focus for orchestral percussion students. A full set of percussion instruments is available for tuition and practicing, and a wealth of repertoire, built up over the last three decades ensures that all aspects of percussion playing can be covered. In addition there are hire instruments available for students to practice at home. The percussion ensembles deal with group playing and developing listening skills, but also provide students with the opportunity to learn techniques for the many other percussion instruments they may play in wind bands or other ensemble settings.
1st Term Percussion Concert 2024
The Junior Percussion ensemble kicked this concert off with a trio of pieces, and later in the programme, the Senior Percussion ensemble play a mallet ensemble rag. The majority of the rest of the programme featured soloists with the Ergonomix Percussion Ensemble providing accompaniment. Three members of the Ergonomix Ensemble also performed an exciting piece, an inspirational performance for all the Beau Soleil students!
4th Term Percussion Concert 2023
As is the tradition with this concert, much of the performance featured a massed ensemble made up of the Senior Percussion Ensemble, some students who play in the Wind Ensembles at Beau Soleil, and the Ergonomix Percussion Ensemble. The Junior Percussion Ensemble also performed a few items, and the Senior Percussion Ensemble performed the challenging ‘Gainsborough’ by Tom Gauger. The final item, ‘Holiday Favourites’ had a selection of well know Christmassy items to get everyone into the holiday spirit.
Beau Soleil student makes his own drum kit!
My name is Tom Foster, and this is a short story of how I came to build my own entire drum kit.
The whole idea started with my school, Michael Oak Waldorf School, and the infamous “Grade 12 Project”. The grade 12 project’s purpose is to challenge each student in the class to create/do something that they would have never done before, or never had to chance to do. This could range from building your own car (and no, that has never been done before) to intense meditation practice, and it spans the length of 6 to 8 months. I decided to build my very own drum kit.
The process is incredibly complicated and has to be precise if you want to get an actual working result from it, especially if you have only a few basic power tools to get the job done. To make a drum is similar to making a wine-barrel in the sense that they both need multiple ‘staves’ (planks of wood that are angle-cut lengthways) to create a roughly round shape when glued together. One of the drums’ (the floor tom) staves were angle cut just a mere half a degree out which made the drum unusable from that point on.
The rounding of the inside and outside were very scary, as they needed to be cut to an incredibly specific diameter for the future drum heads to be able to rest properly on them. Talking of scary, routing the bearing edge was also a big stress point for me because if I had cut off as much as a millimetre too much, the sound of the drum would be ruined!
There were countless other processes to making these beauties what they look like now and many sleepless nights for their maker! Overall it took 10 months (because I started earlier than most people) and it was only assembled and ready one day before the due date.
This experience was one that I can and will never forget, and I’ll have the kit for the rest of my life to prove it!
3rd Term Percussion Concert 2019
This concert focused on the non-melodic percussion instruments. Two quartets performed, one playing a drum corps style piece for two snare drums, field drum and bass drum and the other played Characters Three, a suite of three movements, each in a specific style, Bolero, Swing and Latin. The other ensembles were trios, using a variety of instruments. The UCT percussionists made their usual contribution, finishing the programme with a piece called Odyssey. This piece was written for a multiple percussion soloist with percussion ensemble accompaniment. The soloist was Ethan Rutter, who produced an excellent performance on the huge variety of instruments in his set-up.
1st Term Percussion Concert 2019
This concert consisted of some ensemble items, duets and solo items accompanied by the UCT percussionists. The solo items were performed on tuned percussion, snare drum and timpani, giving a great overview of the various percussion skills students at Beau Soleil get to learn. The senior ensemble played the first movement of the “Suite for Keyboard Percussion” which moves through various time signatures and pulse groupings. This challenging piece was commissioned by the University of Oklahoma Percussion Ensemble, and the members of the senior ensemble have done well to tackle this complex piece. A highlight of this concert was the visit from past Beau Soleil percussion student Bryan Clarke. He performed in this concert, accompanying his niece Sarah with the UCT ensemble. Follow this link to read Bryan’s biography.
4th Term Percussion Concert 2018
This concert consisted of some ensemble items, duets and solo items accompanied by the UCT percussionists. The solo items were performed on tuned percussion, snare drum and timpani, giving a great overview of the various percussion skills students at Beau Soleil get to learn. The senior ensemble played the first movement of the “Suite for Keyboard Percussion” which moves through various time signatures and pulse groupings. This challenging piece was commissioned by the University of Oklahoma Percussion Ensemble, and the members of the senior ensemble have done well to tackle this complex piece. A highlight of this concert was the visit from past Beau Soleil percussion student Bryan Clarke. He performed in this concert, accompanying his niece Sarah with the UCT ensemble. Follow this link to read Bryan’s biography.
RGHS Percussion Assembly
On Monday 16 April, the duties of entertaining Rustenburg Girl's High School during assembly was handed over to the percussion department. The close relationship between RGHS and Beau Soleil meant that this was a great opportunity for some of our percussionists to perform percussion ensemble music for a whole school of 900 pupils! The Beau Soleil Senior Percussion Ensemble performed a ragtime quintet and Beau Soleil students Carla Daniels, Tanatswa Pepukai and Rebecca Eccles also featured in the Rustenburg Percussion Ensemble.
1st Term Percussion Concert 2018
This concert started off with snare drum solos from two of our youngest percussion students. They were accompanied by the UCT percussion ensemble, a slightly nerve-wracking but hugely beneficial experience for them! The programme included a fine performance by the Intermediate ensemble of a drum line inspired piece, "Drum Check" and a ragtime piece performed by the Senior ensemble. This piece, "Rainbow Ripples", is an arrangement by the famous xylophone specialist Bob Becker, member of the Nexus Percussion Ensemble. The UCT percussionists also treated the students to a polished performance of "Gainsborough" by Thomas Gauger, another well-known percussionist/composer.
4th Term Percussion Concert 2017
This concert featured a variety of groupings, with solos with accompaniment, duets, trios and quartets. We featured music for unpitched percussion, music for mallet ensemble and some mixed items using a full range of instruments. The UCT ensemble kept up the tradition of supporting our concerts, playing an item with Beau Soleil ensemble student, Isaac van der Merwe. They also performed Trio per Uno by Nebojsa Zivkovic, a well-known percussionist and composer for percussion instruments.
Drum Kit Exposé 2017
On 19 September we had our 7th edition of the Drum Kit Exposé. This year we paid tribute to Jeff Porcaro, legendary drummer on Toto fame and one of the post prolific studio drummers of the 1970s and 1980s. Naturally, a good portion of the programme consisted of songs by Toto, but there was a wealth of other material to choose from to highlight other aspects of Jeff’s career. As is usual for the Drum Kit Exposé, four drummers were in the line-up and for the 1st time, live musicians were used for the entire programme. Special thanks goes out to all the musicians who gave up their time, Adrian Fowler, Sheldon Yoko, Jarryd West, David West, Claire de Kock, Alex Mayers, Jeandre Schultz, Shannon Devy and Beau Soleil students Dalya Zimbler and Aiseah Ramos. Once again Yamaha sponsored a drum kit as the main give away for the evening, as well as some T-shirts. They also sponsored the sound equipment and some instruments. Paul Bothner Music and Zildjian provided some additional prizes and SoundOut sponsored and amazing lighting display in their usual professional and efficient manner. A massive thank you to all involved for making the 2017 event a success, and to all those that came to the show!
3rd Term Percussion Concert 2017
The concert in the 3rd term traditionally focuses on drums and rhythmic percussion as opposed to mallet percussion. Despite the lack of melodic percussion, some of the pieces were thematic, and melodic interest was effectively created with the range of pitches from the drums. There were two snare drum quartets and one duet where the students had to rely on each other for timing and ensemble playing, a significant challenge when there isn’t a melody to follow. The Intermediate Ensemble performed a piece in an irregular time signature, Study in 5/8 by Mitchell Peters, adding another challenge to the ensemble aspect of performing, and did very well to stay together. The Senior Ensemble performed a piece in four movements, Percussion Music by Michael Colgrass, with changing time signatures and strong thematic material throughout. All the students handled the challenging repertoire admirably well and performed with confidence!
The Drum Kit Exposé
This annual event is a performance based workshop that features elements related to the drum kit. It takes place in the third term each year, straight after the end of term percussion concert.
In 2011, past pupil Mike Horne was invited to do a shared workshop with Heinrich Goosen. At the time, it was only planned as a one-off event, but the response was positive and planning started for a second event the next year.
The 2012 and 2013 editions were focused on reading music, a skill that is becoming increasingly important in professional drummers working in the music industry worldwide. Paul Bothner Music provided assistance in the form of additional equipment and prize give-aways.
The involvement of Yamaha Music SA and SoundOut, along with the continued support from Paul Bothner Music, in the productions from 2014 onward has enable us to put on a professional production with top quality sound and impressive lighting displays. There is always a theme for each production and the workshop is more performance based, with at least 4 drummers performing in each show. in more recent events we have been using more live musicians, rather than just pre-produced back tracks. Yamaha's involvement has stretched beyond back-line support. They have provided a full drum kit as the main give-away for 2014, 2015, 2016 & 2017. Paul Bothner Music and Zildjian have provided sponsorship in the form of cymbals, sticks and other items at each of these events. Please look under "Percussion News" for individual write-ups of each event.
