Winnipeg based Victoria Sparks is an active solo, orchestral and chamber percussionist. She runs the percussion area at the Desautels Faculty of Music. She is principal Timpani/Percussion with the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and performs regularly with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. Victoria works closely with clarinettist Cathy Wood in their collaborative project Viđarneistí. This duo has commissioned works for their unique instrumentation and they perform regularly in Manitoba and as well as touring throughout Canada and internationally. Victoria is the founder and director of the MBA Prairie Percussion Workshop (running annually since 2012), an education and performance based event for percussion students in middle and high school. She also maintains an active schedule as an adjudicator and clinician through various Canadian organizations and festivals. Victoria serves as the President of the Executive Board of Groundswell Inc., a concert series focused on presenting new music in Manitoba and she also serves as Vice President on the Executive Board for the Music Professionals of Manitoba (Local 190). Victoria is honoured to be a part of the Yamaha Artist family and proudly endorses their world class instruments and artistic initiatives. 

Percussionist Kristie Ibrahim has a Master’s in Chamber Music from McGill University and has performed around the world with chamber groups and orchestras in Canada, the US, France, Mexico, and New Zealand. Co-founder of the Montreal percussion ensemble SIXTRUM, the duo AKROSTICK (with Fabrice Marandola), and the trio TRIOLET (with Gina Ryan and Victoria Sparks), her work centres on creating new music for percussion and trying out fresh performance ideas. Kristie is Assistant Professor of percussion and co-director of the McGill Percussion Ensemble at the Schulich School of Music and teaches percussion at École FACE High School in Montreal. She coordinates mass percussion ensembles for the Canadian Percussion Network’s “The Space Between” events and is president of the Quebec Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society. Kristie is excited to be back coaching at the Prairie Percussion Workshop this year!

In 2014, Ben Reimer completed a Doctorate in Music at McGill University in Montreal. Blurring the boundaries between popular music and contemporary classical performance, his main focus of research and performance has been to demonstrate how the drumset, traditionally an improvised instrument, has recently emerged as a solo instrument with prescribed notation. This is explored in his dissertation, “Defining the Role of Drumset in Contemporary Music Performance.”

Between 2012 and 2014, Ben premiered four concertos by Nicole Lizée: Triple Concerto for Power Trio and Orchestra, “Fantasia on Themes by Rush” with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, Edwin Outwater conducting, “The Man with the Golden Arms”: Concerto for Drumset and Orchestra with SMCQ, Walter Boudreau conducting, “Son of the Man with the Golden Arms”: Concerto for Drumset and Extended Percussion Quartet with Architek Percussion Quartet in Montreal and “Katana of Choice”: for Drumset soloist and Percussion Quartet with TorQ Percussion in Toronto.

Ben is a member of Architek Percussion, a Montreal-based quartet dedicated to the development and performance of avant-garde, experimental, minimalist, and electroacoustic music.

Erika Einarson is a percussionist, drumset player and music therapist residing in Winnipeg, MB. She has performance and recording experience in pop and funk percussion, with bands such as 'Apollo Suns', and 'The Funky Miracles'. She has played in various musical productions as a pit-band orchestra player, and loves the challenge of switching between percussion items (or playing several at once!). Erika loves using percussion and drums to add new textures, expand grooves and increase the impact of the songs she plays. 

Eric Platz is a drummer and percussionist whose performing career encompasses a diverse array of styles including jazz, Americana, Afro-Cuban, Arabic, North African, and contemporary improvisation. He has toured extensively throughout North Americaperforming at venues including the Blue Note and Lincoln Center in New York City, the House of Blues in New Orleans, and at festivals including the Winnipeg Jazz and Folk Festivals, the Sasktel Jazz Festival in Saskatoon and the Sephardic Music Festival in Brooklyn. Current projects include the Complete Rebirth of the Cool ensemble, whose most recent recording was nominated for a 2014 Western Canadian Music Award, and the New York Andalus Ensemble which performs traditional repertoire of southern Spain and northern Africa. Eric is also a regular guest with the Saskatoon and Winnipeg Jazz Orchestras and recently performed with the Winnipeg Symphony as part of the Pops series. He is currently completing work on a recording featuring his original compositions for percussion, clarinet and cello. Eric is an Assistant Professor at Brandon University School of Music where he teaches jazz ensembles, applied drumset, world music, and jazz styles. He is an endorsing artist for Vic Firth Drumsticks.

Caroline Bucher is a classically trained percussionist based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and holds the position of Principal Timpanist with the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra.

Caroline graduated with her Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance in 2017, studying under Jeremy Epp (Principal Timpanist of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra) at the University of Manitoba.

Caroline then continued her musical studies at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There she studied under Ed Stephan (Principal Timpanist of the San Francisco Symphony), completing her

Master of Music in Percussion Performance in 2019. Throughout her studies, Caroline performed with many festival orchestras, including the YOA Orchestra of the Americas, the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, the National Orchestral Institute + Festival, and the Pacific Music Festival, touring across North America, Europe, and Japan.

In Winnipeg, Caroline performs with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, and often collaborates with other local musicians on various chamber music projects. She is also an active clinician and teaches at the Manitoba Conservatory of Music and Arts and the Desautels Faculty of Music Preparatory Studies

program.