Originally from Luxembourg Damien Thill started playing drums and percussion at the age of 6 taking drum lessons with Boris Dinev at the Music School in Echternach. His first passion was for classical music but he soon discovered his love for jazz. Besides studying classical percussion, theory and harmony he took lessons in jazz theory and composition as well as jazz vibraphone. To extend his knowledge on drumming and jazz, he also took part in a variety of workshops notably the Jazz au Vert in Belgium and the Rhythm Workshops in Marktoberdorf, Germany. In his teens Damien became part of a variety of bands, orchestras, combos and jazz big bands, which lead him to study music after his high school.

His musical studies first took him to Brussels to study jazz drums and vibraphone at the Royal Conservatory. He then moved to London and continued his musical studies at Kingston University London where he became involved with variety of bands, orchestras and world music ensembles. This led to him taking part in a variety of performances in the Royal Festival Hall and the Royal Albert Hall, as well as getting involved in assisting in running Gamelan workshops. His studies at Kingston focused mainly on performance of percussion and drums but also included a minor in composition. During his studies at Kingston Damien traveled a lot between London and Luxembourg, balancing his course with leading workshops in drums and body percussion for various national and international projects. 

He graduated with a first class honors degree and continued his studies at Drumtech part of Tech Music Schools in Acton. While at Drumtech he passed the Trinity Guildhall LTCL exam with distinction. After this year of only focusing on playing drums in pop music, he went on to explore musics from other cultures by studying Ethnomusicology at a Masters in Goldsmiths University London. He graduated with a Merit and started working as a drummer and percussionist for various projects and bands in a very eclectic number of styles reaching from folk/pop over jazz to electro-world fusion. At the same time Damien started working as a night club percussionist in various clubs around London ultimately becoming the resident percussionist at Maggie’s Club in Chelsea. During this time he discovered his interest for DJing and took private lessons and attended different workshops to learn the art of DJing.

Today Damien is working mainly as a club percussionist and DJ. Besides that he continues leading workshops related to music and multi-disciplinary art projects.

Tuition:

If you or your child wants to learn to play the drums Damien is the ideal teacher with experience teaching students at any level from age 3 to 82 years old.

For more info and details please contact Damien directly.

 

Workshops:

Damien has run a variety of  workshops from complete beginner-level drum-circles and body-percussion workshops to very high level drum/percussion workshops.

He has also been part of a series of international cross-arts workshops involving dance, drama and martial arts.