We are proud to announce Yari Mander as the newest member of The Bay Area Sonic Ensemble! He brings with him a wealth of drumming, facilitation, teaching, and of course body percussion skills.
Yari nearly joined up with us for our Brazilian debut as part of IBMF3, but was unable to get the time away from his work teaching music in the schools. Each of us has enjoyed performing, teaching, learning, and playing with Yari in a wide variety of contexts from Gamelan X to One World Music to Arthur Hull’s Village Music to Keith Terry’s instructional Body Music DVDs.
Yari is a gifted music educator with a patient, supportive, professional teaching style honed over more than 15 years working with children and adults. He is certified in Orff Schulwerk, an approach to music education emphasizing community music making, and as trained with master teachers in Ghana, West Africa and amazing musicians in Brazil, Cuba and Bali. Yari’s musical travels led him to discover that rhythm is universal way to connect people, transcending culture and language.
Yari’s mission is to facilitate joyful, active and transformational musical experiences for diverse individuals and communities. He enjoys guiding groups to greater levels of connection, confidence, unity and teamwork through making music together. We are grateful to have him aboard!
