artists
Garrod, Ross
Ross started his musical career early with piano lessons from the age of
six, entering the world of jazz improvisation as soon as he was able. He
soon widened his area of expertise, beginning cello a year later and
percussion studies when he was eleven, having been obsessed with the idea of
drumming since he had managed to persuade his parents to give him a toy drum
kit for Christmas many years before. In 1998, he was the first recipient of
a Birmingham Music Service Exceptional Performance Award for prepared and
improvised performance and went on to study with Cliff Pick and Maggie
Cotton of the CBSO. He quickly rose through the ranks of CBSO Youth and the
National Youth Wind Orchestra to join the percussion section of the National
Youth Orchestra, working under the baton of Yan Pascal Tortelier and Tadaaki
Otaka. During that time, he pursued his interests in world music and -
inspired by teaching he received from Richard Benjafield, Bosco de Oliveria
and Eugine Skeef - led percussion workshops in local schools. Ross is
currently in his second year at the Royal Northern College of Music, where
he is taught drum kit and latin percussion by Dave Hassell, and percussion
by Ian Wright, Paul Patrick and Liz Gilliver. As vibraphonist and
percussionist for the RNCM Big Band, he played with Victor Mendoza and Stan
Sulzmann and has also been tutored by Dave Wickins and Ralph Salmins.
