RAVIN 'RAZ' JAYASURIYA
Founder/director of One Voice Music & main tutor on all modular courses and one-off workshops. An all round percussionist specialising in the traditional drumming in Afrocuban & Afrobrazilian music.
Ravin joined the Manchester based percussion group Inner Sense in ‘91 after completing a Popular Music and Recording Course in Salford, Manchester. Over the last seventeen years he has specialised in Brazilian and Cuban percussion and has focussed on the more traditional styles from these two countries. He has made several research / study trips to Cuba and Brazil and has worked with many UK & international artists including Amelia Pedroso, Arturo Martinez, Santiago Garzon Rill & Leonardo Pancha Clara (members of Clave y Guaguanco), Marta Gallaraga, Reynaldo Lopez, LaTimbala, Murah Soares & Dudu Tucci.
As a teacher, he has led a number of percussion workshops throughout the UK and in several other parts of the world. For OVM, he runs a modular course for beginners and two courses for intermediate levels, one in Afrobrazilian percussion and one in Afrocuban. He also teaches special one-off workshops focussing on a particular instrument or music style and teaches on holiday percussion workshops in Tuscany & Sicily.
Regular invitations from Community Samba Groups keep him extremely busy. He is often asked to run workshops that combine technical development with his own creative percussion arrangments. A current focus is the Edun Ara – bloco de carnaval project that he’s working on in collaboration with Brazilian dancer, Marcia Magliari.
Ravin has recently won a UK National Training Award. At a Gala Ceremony in London, he was presented with the highest level of award in the UK. Click here for details.
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MARCIA MAGLIARI
Dance instructor on the ‘Edun Ara – bloco de carnaval’ project and other OVM workshops.
Marcia Magliari is from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She teaches Samba, Afro-Brazilian, Frevo, Forro, Lambada, Gafieira (samba ballroom), Salsa, Merengue & a Stretch class.
She is an experienced dancer, teacher & choreographer who since 1986 has been working for Brazilian Contemporary Arts helping in the expansion of the notion of Brazilian Dance (especially Lamabada) & Music in the UK.
Marcia has been trained in classical ballet, jazz, contemporary, dance movement therapy and studied yoga and tai-chi. She has a Diploma in dance movement therapy and is a pioneer of Brazilian dance in the UK.
She combines all this knowledge and expertise to give her classes a special blend, linking body awareness, technique and the joy of dancing.
DAVE PATTMAN
Guest tutor on the ‘Afrocuban Percussion Studies’ course offering tuition on Bata, Rumba, Timbales & Bongo, teaches songs and assists with each group’s end of course performance.
Dave Pattman is highly respected for his musicianship and knowledge of folkloric and popular Cuban music. He has played, recorded and composed with Paul McCartney, Django Bates, Alex Wilson, Omara Portuondo, Cachaito Lopez, Cubanismo and Anga Diaz.
He is a highly sought after session musician who is involved in many groups including Dilanga, The London Lucumi choir, Snowboy and Alex Wilson.
VICKY JASSEY
Vocal instructor on the ‘Edun Ara – bloco de carnaval’ project and other OVM workshops.
Vicky Jassey is a singer and percussionist with a deep passion for Afro- Cuban Folkloric music. She is Director of Bombo Productions which promotes Afro-Cuban folkloric music through Performance and Education.
She has performed as a lead singer for the Bristol Cathedral, Rumba Orisha and with a 500 strong choir for the Thames Festival 08’. She currently works with Dilanga & Edun Ara.
BOSCO DE OLIVEIRA
Guest tutor on the ‘Afrobrazilian Percussion Studies’ course offering specialist tuition on Samba, from traditional styles to Pagode covering various other related forms, their origins, history and development.
Bosco is considered by many to be Europe’s leading Brazilian percussionist. Born in 1952 in Belo Horizonte, a city in Brazil north west of Rio. He was surrounded by music from an early age, hearing drums being played right outside his house.
He came to England in the early eighties and established the London School of Samba in 1984. He has been a huge influence in the promotion of Brazlian music in the UK ever since and has performed in many international and UK based groups.
SUE MILLER
Guest tutor on the Salsa Percussion workshop
Inspired by the flute playing of Richard Egües from the legendary Orquesta Aragon, Sue Miller set up “Charanga del Norte” (Charanga from the North) in November 1998 and went to study Charanga in Cuba with Richard Egües in 2000 and 2001 and has been back to Cuba on research in 2006 and 2007, playing with top Charanga bands Estrellas Cubanas, La Sublime, Orquesta Barbarito Diez and Charanga de Oro alongside Buena Vista flute player Polo Tamayo.
Charanga de Norte are a spirited, energetic UK-based Charanga band. The group is led by the flute and violins with the line-up completed with vocals, electric bass, piano, cello, timbales, congas and güiro.
HOWARD JACOBS
Guest tutor on the ‘Afrocuban Percussion Studies’ course offering specialist tuition on Cuban carnival music.
Since training at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Northern College of Music, Howard went on to study in Cuba with such groups as Conjunto de Clave y Guaguanco, Oba Werimele, Los Componedores de Batea, Afro-Cuba de Matanzas, Ire Otonawa, Iros Obba and Yoruba Andabo.
He is co-director of Orquesta Timbala, (the formidable 30 piece mozambique big band) for which he arranges and composes whilst also playing percussion/clarinet/saxophone for experimental bands such as Homelife, Toolshed and RSL and drum kit in the live hiphop band Blendaholics.
Howard has also played for the BBC Philharmonic and contemporary ensembles such as Chinook Clarinet Quartet and Cornelius Cardew Ensemble. He is currently touring with Forkbeard Fantasy Theatre company with The Lotus Pedals, playing an array of instruments from bass saxophone to waterphone.
HOLLY PREST
Guest tutor on the ‘Afrobrazilian Percussion Studies’ course offering specialist tuition on Maracatu and other Northeast Brazilian rhythms.
Holly is a percussionist from Manchester with over 11 years experience in world percussion. Her passion is for Brazilian music, especially the powerful and rootsy rhythms of the Northeast (namely Maracatu Nação).
She founded percussion and dance group Juba do Leão in 2005, and the group has since supported MONOBLOCO on their 2007 tour. She also tutors ‘Meninos, Oldham’, a youth percussion and dance group, teaches drum kit to teenagers with behavioural problems, and performs with ‘Carcophony’; a street theatre and drumming performance group.
She has played and studied intensively in Brazil with various groups and percussionists, and has played in the Recife Carnival with ‘Maracatu Nação Almirante do Forte’ in 2005 and 2007. She regularly holds workshops throughout the UK sharing her vast knowledge of traditional and modern Brazilian musical styles.
LEON PATEL
Guest tutor on the Afrobrazilian Percussion Studies’ course offer specialist tuition on Samba Reggae from Bahia and Axé Novo from São Paulo.
Leon has been playing Brazilian and west African percussion for over 14 years, studying intensively in Brazil, The Gambia and Europe.
In 2001, after playing as a soloist in percussion ensembles and touring groups throughout Europe he established
Meninos Oldham, which offers free tution in a range of art forms and is dedicated to bringing alternative arts and culture to young people in the northwest of England.
In 2008, Leon set up Global Grooves an organisation dedicated to the development of international music and dance and delivering new, unique and professional training courses for the UK’s percussion and dance community.
Leon is also artistic director of Bangdrum Workshops which offers a range of training in percussion, dance and song.