Rising Belmont seniors Andrew Bellisle and Vinay Shroff, both percussionists and students in the university’s School of Music, will represent the United States at the Red Bull Tum Tum Pa World Finals in Rio De Janeiro June 8-12 after winning local and regional competitions.
This unique Red Bull Tum Tum Pa competition, where students use everyday classroom materials to create organic rhythmic sounds, is the first of its kind. Over 386 teams competed on college campuses around the U.S. in March and April. Five were chosen to compete against an elite squad of drummers from 32 countries in Rio de Janeiro on June 11, when a jury will award the Best Beat Performance.
In the first round of the competition, Bellisle and Shroff, competing as team “Coffee and Cream,” performed a cover of Snoop Dogg’s “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” and an original composition at Nashville’s Café Coco (click here to view video of their first round performance). Judges graded the competitors based on rhythm, creativity and audience response. After their spot-on cover, complete with Shroff blowing into a half-full can to create the song’s “Snoooooop” noise, the duo earned the highest score and made it to regionals. The duo won the regional competition after they received the most online votes in the Southeastern Conference and were selected to be one of five national finalists by a group of judges.
With permission and support from many at Belmont, as well as the Nashville-area representative for Red Bull marketing, the two students filmed their official competition video in Belmont’s Hitch Science Building chemistry lab. Belmont’s Red Bull Student Representatives Kirk Slawek and Matt Shaw helped film the video, while Belmont student Kenny House recorded audio. Red Bull’s local marketing head, Lisa Gracey, is helping to promote the duo.
The official video is on Red Bull’s website, and click here to view photos from the filming session.
