World Percussion Program to be launched in Hyde Park, MA – Inspire Arts & Music will bring a new world percussion program (Latin American and African influenced drumming) to school children grades K through 8.
Partnering with the Hyde Park Community Center in Hyde Park, MA, Inspire Arts & Music has launched a new program called HpYPE (Hype Park Youth Percussion Ensemble). The class will be directed by Ben Paulding, an American percussionist who extensively lived in Kumasi, Ghana, drumming on national television for the Ghanaian President and the country’s top traditional chiefs and queen-mothers. In West Africa, Ben had over 200 performances with internationally acclaimed drum and dance ensembles including the Centre for National Culture, the Ashanti King’s Fontomfrom Ensemble, and the Nsuase Kete Group.
HpYPE was designed to explore different cultures, music and instruments from around the world and is combined with the students’ coursework in social studies, math, science, and language arts. For example, students will become familiar with mathematical concepts through the interpretation and modeling of complex rhythms and polyrhythms and will learn how musical tones can be expressed as whole numbers and fractions. Through this program, children are encouraged to listen, interpret, and communicate as they transfer aural and written drumming instructions into their own playing. IAM’s goal with the World Percussion Program is to bring the joy of drumming to children of the Hyde Park Community Center, regardless of economic background, in order to help them better understand the world around them.
