Oregano Percussion is a Toronto-based group that performs music from around the world. With a vast array of percussion instruments, they combine different styles from Latin to Caribbean music, songwriting pop, percussion chamber music and world/jazz. Their spicy touch focuses on new and traditional tunes from various cultures. Alejandro Céspedes and Michelle Colton are artists and endorsers of Pearl Percussion & Adams Musical Instruments; Dream Cymbals & Gongs; and Humes & Berg. They both have an active freelance/teaching career in Toronto. Oregano Percussion performs throughout North America and recently presented clinics at schools in the U.S. and Cuba. They have been Artists-in-Residence at MusicFest Canada, and will be guest faculty at the Birch Creek Music Performance Center in 2018.
Dr. Michelle Colton is a versatile percussionist, composer, and singer songwriter who recently released her debut album, Unpredictable Nature. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in percussion from the University of Toronto. Dr. Colton performed in Beijing and Shenyang, China in 2006, in Tokyo, Japan in 2008 at the Keiko Abe Masterclass, and in Havana, Cuba in 2014 as a guest artist/clinician. She was a percussion instructor for the Iowa Ambassadors of Music tours in the UK and Europe. She has studied musical instruments and styles from Japan, India, Bali, Ghana, Trinidad, Cuba, China, and Brazil. She earned first place in the University of Toronto DMA Recital Competition and Concerto Competition. She often plays with the Kingston and Toronto Symphony Orchestras and has performed with NEXUS and Dame Evelyn Glennie. Dr. Colton is the president of the Ontario Percussive Arts Society; and currently teaches percussion lessons in the percussion preparatory department at the University of Toronto. Dr. Colton is an artist and endorser of Pearl/Adams Musical Instruments and Dream Cymbals & Gongs. www.michellecolton.com
