Percussion

The multiplying of enriching experiences enables the students to express their artistic uniqueness by developing personal projects and by weaving an extensive artistic network that will be useful for their future professional career path. The quality of the teaching and the international acclaim enjoyed by the professors mean that countless students have managed to win international competitions and orchestra competitions, but also to secure teaching jobs.

• A team of four renowned professors who are specialists in their subjects:
  • Philippe Spiesser: keyboards, multi-percussion, chamber music (class coordinator) 
  • Christophe Delannoy: snare drum, orchestral excerpts
  • François Desforges: timpani, orchestral excerpts
  • Claude Gastaldin: drums, tablas

• Exceptional facilities: the HEM’s Percussion centre contains numerous classrooms and workrooms, and an auditorium equipped with a sound, video and light system, with the ability to make sound and video recordings in High Definition.

• A spirit of openness and creativity: a place for genuine encounters, discoveries and creative emulation, the percussion class is a laboratory that makes it possible to implement multiple cross-disciplinary projects with the HEM’s other instrument classes, but also with other establishments, such as the Jaques Dalcroze Institute, the Am Stram Gram theatre, the HEAD, the Manufacture and the EPFL de Lausanne...

• It also has a full instrument collection, with a wide selection of instruments and brands.

• A vast repertoire, ranging from medieval music to contemporary music, tackling solo works, orchestral percussion, chamber music, mixed works with electronics and video, and forms of music from outside Europe. Collaborating closely with the HEM’s Centre de musique électroacoustique, the percussion class focuses in large part on modern creative work, by inviting composers to come and develop projects in-situ.

• Masterclasses are organised throughout the year, with numerous figures from the world of music invited to come and give them.

• There are multiple collaborations with the cultural institutions in the Geneva region: the Orchestre de la Suisse romande (OSR), the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève (OCG), the Ensemble de musique contemporaine Contrechamps, the Archipel festival, and the Eklekto Geneva Percussion Center. These collaborations enable the students to acquire solid experience on the ground. The percussion class also offers international collaborations, in India, with an introduction to the world of the tablas at the University of Calcutta, in Brazil, with teaching in the favelas of Salvador de Bahia, and in Palestine, meeting students from the Edward Saïd Music Conservatoire. The students also benefit from the exchanges offered by Europe’s Erasmus programme.

• Ensemble practice sessions with the chamber music class, the HEM’s Orchestra, and the HEMisphère ensemble, made up of professors and students from the HEM.