Taal:
Adams Musical Instruments - Together in Music

Saverio Tasca

Saverio Tasca, born in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, on August 23rd, 1963, began his music studies in 1974. He studied piano, guitar and drums, and in 1986 he began attending percussion classes with Guido Facchin from the Orchestra della Fenice, Venice. From 1989 to 1990 he specialized in Percussion at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, with Jan Pustjiens, Peter Prommel and Jeroen Goldstein, and in 1990 he finished his Masters Degree in Italy. He studied also with David Friedman, Dave Samuels and Robert Van Sice.

Since 1992 Tasca has been Instructor of Percussion at the Conservatorium of Verona. In 1998 he was assistant in a David Friedman summer course and since 2001 he is teaching, together with Dave Samuels, on the Vibraphone and Marimba master classes in the "Summer Jazz Workshop in Italy", organized by the New School University of New York, where he also conducts the percussion ensemble. As a teacher he has also led several courses and workshops in Italy and Europe on percussion and Jazz music. He also conducts classical ensembles and big bands.

As composer and teacher he has written studies, solo pieces and group pieces for percussion instruments, many of them for vibraphone, and a concerto for vibraphone and string orchestra, all published by Honey Rock Publishing, USA. In July 2004 he was awarded 3rd prize in the PAS (Percussion Arts Society – USA) Vibraphone Composition Contest, with his work “Marker Day”.

He played, in varied situations, with Harold Danko, Alexander Lonquich, Salvatore Accardo, Franco D’andrea, Mario Brunello, Paolo Fresu, Claudio Roditi, Tony Scott, Dave Samuels, David Friedman, Glenn Ferris, Peter Erskine and many of the most famous musicians in Europe. He plays in several groups and ensembles, in classical, jazz and contemporary music, in Europe and in South African tours.

In several contests and performances, in solo and chamber group situations, he played works by Steve Reich, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez, Bela Bartok, Luciano Berio, Gustav Mahler, Carlo Boccadoro, Roberto Beccaceci, Daniele Zanettovich, Minoru Miki, Keiko Abe, Dave Samuels, Gordon Stout, Andrea Mannucci, Hannes Taljaard, David Friedman, and many others.