Percussion Summit 2009
Banská Bystrica, Slovakia – April 2009 – The first Slovakian percussion competition, called Percussion Summit 2009, took place on 23 - 24 April. Maarten Smit and Peter Vulperhorst, both Majestic artists, were invited to judge this competition. In the beautiful concert hall of Conservatory J.L.Bella in Banská Bystrica several individuals as percussion groups played in front of a large audience.
Maarten and Peter were both impressed by the level of the performers. As Peter stated: “It was very impressive, especially when you realize that percussion instrument education is still being taught on low level, poor quality used instruments”. Students were invited to play and test our Majestic instruments and their enthusiasm was overwhelming. In the evening Peter and Maarten gave a concert and the audience was very impressed and rewarded them with a long applause and 2 encores.
On April 24, Maarten and Peter were present to lead workshops and clinics. Maarten taught a timpani workshop with several very interested students. Peter, with his experience as a multi percussionist, worked with students on mallets, congas and djembe.
Matus Petrik of Musicmania s.r.o., our Majestic dealer in Slovakia, was very delighted with the visit of Maarten and Peter and thinks this will be the start of new developments for concert percussion in his country.
We would like to thank the Private Musicschool ZUS R. Tatara for their kind support and cooperation. Their help has been terrific. Above that they managed to bring the students to the kind of level which made it possible for them to participate in this very special happening.