11/30/2005

GUSTAVO MELI IN TAIWAN

Gustavo Meli, Director of the Mendoza International Drum Fest in Argentina and the first Latin-American Drummer to play all the major festivals, was invited by the world famous Ju Percussion Group in Taiwan to conduct drum clinics. The clinics were held from July 15-25 at the Taipei International Percussion Summer Camp (TIPSC), organized annually by the Ju Percussion Group Foundation.

Since its founding in 1999, TIPSC has been attracting large numbers of youngsters eager to learn and understand percussion. According to a spokesperson for Ju Percussion, this year's camp is the largest to date, with 250 students aged between 12 and 20 taking part in the nine-day tutorial.

Gustavo showed his talents in drum education, with passion and patience and all the students were eager to learn from him. In the clinics, he showed different techniques, concepts and grooves to students of different levels. He observed that the major difference between students in Argentina and Taiwan is that students in Argentina focus on just one percussion instrument while those in Taiwan study several different percussion instruments at the same time and sometimes learn Piano also.

Gustavo was amazed by the well organized international summer campand was highly appreciative of the strong percussion education found in Taiwan. He believes profoundly that in the near future, there will be more international artists in the percussion field.