Tomorrow, we have another opportunity to partner with our friends from Bruce Guadalupe and Indian Community School at Arts@Large. Cecilio Negron Jr. will lead the students in an exploration of Afro-Latino cultures and the percussion instruments used in various regions. (tambourines, rainsticks, shaker, maracas, etc.)
Cecilio “Ceeloe” Negrón, Jr., born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, comes from a family of musicians and performers of Puerto Rican descent, whose lineage can be traced to Africa and Spain. Cecilio began playing professionally by the age of 16, giving him the ability to apply what he was learning in school and gain first-hand experience. At the age of 21, he began his solo career, developing himself as a solo artist and educator. Now, as an educator, Cecilio understands the importance of always remaining teachable and is a forever student, continuing his studies under world-renowned, master drummers, as well as attending educational drumming workshops locally, in Puerto Rico, and across the country. As a Community Drum Facilitator, Cecilio currently manages his own multi-cultural musical ensembles, drumming workshops, drum circles, and many other varieties of community drumming. Utilizing the drum as a key to unlocking people’s awareness of their inner rhythms and vibrations, Cecilio helps many further realize how those rhythms are connections to the world around them.
The students will work in groups as they learn the sounds and rhythms created by these instruments and how they are made. They will then be able to construct and decorate their own percussion instruments. The finished instruments will be kept at the center until we return for part 2 of this workshop at the end of April.