Circle Percussion

Circle Percussion is the successor of Circle Ensemble Circle Percussion was founded in 1973 by Michael De Roo (back then the name was ‘Circle Ensemble’). Since 2002 Erwin Oudshoorn is artistic director and general manager. Circle Ensemble was named after the first composition they played, ‘Circles’ from the Italian composer Luciano Berio. An important development of the ensemble was the first magical meeting with the Japanese Taikos. A visual and musical spectacle for eyes ánd ears. This resulted in the first concert ever given on Japanese drums by percussionists, other than Japanese percussionists (Holland Festival 1983). In 1989 the ‘Circle Ensemble’ changed their name in ‘Circle Percussion’.   Besides the intense collaboration with the Dutch Dance Theater, the ensemble played a big role in a lot of other productions in countries as Argentina, Israël, Japan and America. In Europe they played in Spain during the World Expo (1992) and in Germany they were a headliner on the first ‘Tag der Deutsche Einheid’ in 1994 (to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall).  Another highlight of Circle Percussion was made with the performances during “Extasia ’97” in Japan. Throughout the years Circle Percussion played on a large number of world stages. The performance in India during the opening ceremony of the Champions League T20 Cricket jn 2009 for 275 million TV viewers and 65.000 people live in the stadium for shure was one of the best.