Today we began an exciting collaboration with visiting artist Heather McQueen, a local ceramicist and drummer who stopped in to teach us the basics of constructing a traditional Middle-Eastern doumbek drum on the wheel. Over the next month or so, we will be creating drums on the potters' wheel in our throwing class, collaborating with Mr. Flygt's percussion class to learn drumming, and we will finish the collaboration by hosting visiting drummer and artist from Ghana - Nani Agbeli. Join us for the Clay & Arts Festival on May 17th to hear students play their drums along with Nani!
It's been a dream of mine for about a decade to make drums on the wheel, so this year it was exciting to finally have everything come together. I was walking around Andy's music shop on Belmont one day this past fall, and came upon some ceramic drums in the front space, by none other than Heather McQueen. Andy's led me to Heather. Shortly after I contacted her, I turned on the radio one day and heard her speaking about drumming in Morrocco on Worldview with Jerome McDonnell. That all happened around the same time I found out my colleague, Mr. Flygt, had also traveled to Ghana several times. Our inspiration from Ghanaian music and art led us to make plans for a wheel-percussion collaboration, beginning with Heather's introduction to making drums from clay, and ending with Nani putting together a performance with our students in May.
Here are some pictures from Heather McQueen's inspiring presentation to our ceramics and percussion classes:
Playing her handmade drum
Throwing a small drum (upside down) on the wheel
Making a larger drum with two parts, like a goblet
Shaping a comfortable curve on the corner of the drum head
Mr. Flygt and Heather playing a rhythm
Students trying out the drum
