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Tupac Mantilla

Internationally acclaimed Grammy® Nominee Percussionist/Drummer Túpac Mantilla is considered by the critics as a leading voice and versatile referent among the artists of his generation.

His work as a performer, educator, producer and clinician has been highly recognized worldwide and includes appearances in major festivals, institutions and venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Harvard University, Stanford University, The New England Conservatory, Kennedy Center, Berklee College of Music, London's Barbican, The Montreal, North Sea, Perugia, Montreux, Gent, Nice, Tanglewood, Newport Jazz Festivals among many others; as well as several percussion-oriented workshops, trainings and lectures for prestigious multi-national companies, universities and organizations worldwide.​

An accomplished percussionist with a Master of Music Honors Degree from the New England Conservatory (Boston, USA), and the 1st. Prize recipient of the 2002 Bogota's Philharmonic Orchestra's Classical Soloist Competition, Túpac has collaborated and performed with artists such as Bobby McFerrin, Zakir Hussain, Savion Glover, Esperanza Spalding, Lisa Fischer, Julian Lage, Reinhard Flatischler, Kenny Werner, Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Bob Moses, Tisziji Muñoz, Steve Smith, John Medeski, Michael Cain, Cecil McBee, Jamey Haddad, Anders Koppel, Ran Blake, Deepak Ram, Medeski Martin & Wood, Omar Faruk, Ulita Knaus, Opus 4, Sofia Rei, Selene Muñoz, Marta Gómez, Edmar Castañeda, Juanito Pascual, Tia Fuller, the Bogota's Philharmonic Orchestra and 1280 Almas, among many others.

Mr. Mantilla is the founder, CEO and Artistic Director of the Global Percussion Network PERCUACTION®, with which he leads several educational and social projects and initiatives around the world, through the PERCUACTION FOUNDATION and the GLOBAL RHYTHM INSTITUTE. He is the Artistic Director of Colombia's top experimental Percussion Group TEKEYÉ® and director of various percussion and rhythm oriented programs in Europe, South America and the United States, which benefit every year hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

​Nowadays he devotes most of his time to work as a performer on his 'Solo Percussion' project and music collaborations in Europe and the United States, as a speaker and rhythm coach for individuals, organizations and events, and as an educator through residencies, that among other concepts develop his most recent training R.I.T.M.O. (Rhythmic Immersion Training for Multidimensional Openness). A holistic learning methodology, launched in 2019, which aims to serve people through the understanding of life’s rhythm and the use of the body as a musical and evolutionary tool. In 2020, Túpac joined the core faculty team for the Carnegie Hall Summer Education Program in New York City. 

In 2023, Túpac had the honor to be invited by the legendary Tabla Master Ustad Zakir Hussain to join his world-renowned Masters of Percussion project, wich toured extensively in Canada and the United States.

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Tags

Primary Instrument

Percussion

Location

New York City

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Credentials/Background

TUPAC MANTILLA – Teaching Experience   Percussionist and Drummer TUPAC MANTILLA is highly recognized as a worldwide class instructor with almost 20 years of teaching experience in several countries around the world. With his creative systems and programs, Mr. Mantilla has become a Pioneer percussionist in Latin America being the founder and director of the first institutional program based on the Stomp Technique (Colombia - Javeriana University, 2004). A highly regarded performer and scholar, MANTILLA has created and guided numerous workshops through his Global Percussion Network PERCUACTION oriented to universities, academic programs, commercial companies, and governmental institutions throughout the Americas as well as Europe, based on Body Percussion, World Rhythms, Improvisation and the use of regular objects as musical instruments. He was a faculty member at Javeriana University and El Bosque University in Colombia from 2002 to 2005 and became a Teacher Assistant at the New England Conservatory (Boston USA) in 2006. In 2008 he was named by famous jazz pianist Danilo Perez, Director of the Children’s Program at the Panama Jazz Festival, where he regularly coaches and gives percussion related workshops. Most recently Mr. Mantilla was invited by the Literature Department at the prestigious Harvard University (Boston - USA) to give a lecture on his “Sound Metaphors in Music” workshop - 2009. In the same order, Stanford University (California – USA) contacted him in 2010 to join the Stanford Jazz Workshop Program as a Faculty Member. In 2010 Mr. MANTILLA is launching as the Artistic Director his percussion project PERCUACTION, a global percussion company that mainly focuses its interest in reaching out to underprivileged communities and children through percussion education and Music.

Clinic/Workshop Information

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