ken shorley; director

KEN SHORLEY is a generous and patient teacher who treats every student as an individual. He believes that developing strong listening skills is equally as important as developing good technique. And he has never met a time signature he doesn’t like.

Ken has studied with some of the world’s finest percussionists, most notably the South Indian master drummer, Trichy Sankaran. He has received training from Glen Velez (pan-global frame drumming), Faruk Tekbilek (Turkish darabuka), Sal Ferreras (African and Latin American drumming), Barry Drummond (Javanese gamelan) and John Brownell (European orchestral percussion).

Since 1994, Ken has been based in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. He has served on the part-time faculty of Acadia University since 1998, where he developed Atlantic Canada’s first (and only) university credit course in world drumming.

In addition to offering workshops and lessons in hand drumming, Ken encourages his students to explore improvisation and composition, and to focus on the study of rhythm itself – pulsation, metre, grouping, subdivision, the metronome, and cross-rhythm – in order to develop a more focused awareness of musical time.

As well, Ken is an active composer and performer. He recently completed an Atlantic Canadian tour as a special guest of the Connecticut-based Quey Percussion Duo. He is also a member of the world music fusion group, TALAMBRA. Ken's music has been presented by the Nova Scotia Youth Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, mezzo-soprano Paula Rockwell, the University of North Carolina Percussion Ensemble, the Indo-fusion group Trichy’s Trio, the Quey Percussion Duo, and the Blue Engine String Quartet. Performance highlights include the Atlantic Jazz Festival, the Lunenburg Folk Festival, Halifax Drumfest, and the World in Wolfville concert series. Selections from his two CDs, Waterwheel (1999) and Nonagon (2002), are heard regularly on CBC Radio.

For more information, visit Ken’s website: www.strangepear.com