One of four specializations within the MFA World Music Performance program, World Percussion trains students who already possess a strong foundation as percussionists to become exceptional, innovative performers and teachers by developing a broad range of skills drawn from across the spectrum of world percussion.
Drawing upon both the traditional contexts of world music and emerging contemporary applications, this specialization is designed to give students the skills necessary to lead by example in the genre-bending field of modern world percussion and hand drumming.
Students have access to faculty, facilities, and courses in the World Music Performance program’s African, North Indian, and Indonesian specializations, as well as group and private instruction in Latin, Brazilian, Persian, and Arabic percussion, and in the study of frame drums and other hand-drumming traditions from around the world.
In addition to developing their practices in the contexts of traditional world music, students focus on contemporary experiments in performance. CalArts offers the opportunity to work with a large array of electronic percussion controllers and to study composition and improvisation, drawing from the creative eclecticism of the larger CalArts community and the rich cultural diversity of Los Angeles as a global crossroads.
All MFA World Music Performance candidates are required to pass a mid-residence recital and a graduation jury and recital in order to obtain the degree.