Founder/director of One Voice Music and lead masterclass facilitator for Global Grooves, Raz is an all-round percussionist specialising in the traditional drumming of Afrocuban and Afro-Brazilian music.
Ravin joined the Manchester based percussion group, Inner Sense, in 1991 after completing a Popular Music and Recording course in Salford. Over the last 17years, he has specialised in Brazilian and Cuban percussion and has focussed on the more traditional styles from these two countries. He has made several research-study trips to Cuba and Brazil and has worked with many UK and international artists including Amelia Pedroso, Arturo Martinez, Santiago Garzon Rill and Leonardo Pancha Clara (members of Clave y Guaguanco), Marta Gallaraga, Reynaldo Lopez, LaTimbala, Murah Soares, and Dudu Tucci.
As a teacher, he has led a number of percussion workshops throughout the UK and in several other parts of the world. For OVM, he runs a modular course for beginners and two courses for intermediate levels, one in Afro-Brazilian percussion and one in Afro-Cuban. He also teaches special one-off workshops focussing on a particular instrument or music style and teaches on holiday percussion workshops in Tuscany and Sicily.
Regular invitations from community samba groups keep him extremely busy. He is often asked to run workshops that combine technical development with his own creative percussion arrangements. A current focus is the Edun Ara – bloco de carnaval project that he’s working on in collaboration with Brazilian dancer, Marcia Magliari.
Ravin has recently won a UK National Training Award. At a Gala Ceremony in London, he was presented with the highest level of award in the UK.